40 ALIMENTATION. 







exchanged prisoners shows that the average was much 

 less. 1 



" 5^A, Diet. The ration consists of Jib. bacon, l{lb. meal. 

 The meal is unbolted, and when baked, the bread is coarse 

 and irritating, producing diseases of the organs of the diges- 

 tive system (diarrhoea and dysentery). The absence of ve- 

 getable diet has produced scurvy to an alarming extent, 

 especially among the old prisoners." 



The following extracts show the effects of this insufficient 

 diet upon the constitution of the blood, upon the appetite, 

 and, what is most mournfully interesting, upon the intellec- 

 tual faculties : 



" 5tk. From the sameness of the food and from the action 

 of the poisonous gases in the densely crowded and filthy stock- 

 ade and hospital, the /blood was altered in its constitution^ 

 even before the manifestation of Actual disease. 



" In both the well and the sick, the red corpuscles were 

 diminished ; and in all diseases uncomplicated with inflam- 

 mation, the fibrinous element was deficient. In cases of ulcer- 

 ation of the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal, the 

 fibrinous element of the blood appeared to be increased, whilst 

 in simple diarrhoea, uncomplicated with ulceration, and de- 

 pendent upon the character of the food, and the existence 

 of scurvy, it was either diminished or remained stationary. 

 Heart-clots were very common, if not universally present, in 

 the cases of ulceration of the intestinal mucous membrane, 

 whilst in the uncomplicated cases of diarrhoea and scurvy, 

 the blood was fluid and did not coagulate readily ; and the 

 heart-clots and fibrinous concretions were almost universally 

 absent. 



" From the watery condition of the blood, there resulted 

 various serous effusions, into the pericardium, into the ventri- 

 cles of the brain, and into the abdominal cavity. 



" In almost all the cases which I examined after death, 



