INANITION. 41 



even in the most emaciated, there was more or less serous 

 effusion into the abdominal cavity." * * * (Vol. iii., p. 

 150.) 



" th. The impoverished condition of the blood, which 

 led to effusions within the ventricles of the brain, and 

 around the brain and spinal cord, and into the pericardial 

 and abdominal cavities, was gradually induced by the 

 action of several causes, but chiefly by the character of the 

 food. 



"The Federal prisoners, as a general rule, had been 

 reared upon wheat bread and Irish potatoes ; and the Indian 

 corn, so extensively used at the South, was almost unknown 

 to them as an article of diet, previous to their capture. Owing 

 to the impossibility of obtaining the necessary sieves in the 

 Confederacy, for the separation of the husk from the corn 

 meal, the rations of the Confederate soldiers as well as of the 

 Federal prisoners consisted of unbolted corn-flour, and meal, 

 and grist; this circumstance rendered the corn bread still 

 more disagreeable and distasteful to the Federal prisoners. 

 Whilst Indian meal, even when prepared with the husk, is 

 one of the most wholesome and nutritious forms of food, as 

 has been clearly shown by the health and rapid increase of 

 the Southern population, and especially of the negroes, pre- 

 vious to the present war, and by the strength, endurance, 

 and activity of the Confederate soldiers, who were through- 

 out the war confined, to a great extent, to unbolted corn- 

 meal ; it is nevertheless true, that those who have not been 

 reared upon corn meal, or who have not accustomed them- 

 selves to its use gradually, become excessively tired of this 

 kind of diet when suddenly confined to it without a due 

 proportion of wheat bread. Large numbers of the Federal 

 prisoners appeared to be utterly disgusted with Indian corn, 

 and immense piles of corn bread could be seen in the stock- 

 ade and hospital enclosures. Those who were so disgusted 

 with this form of food that they had no appetite to partake 

 of it, except in quantities insufficient to supply the waste of 



