498 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1221 



essary nutrients to maintain a soldier for 

 twenty-four houi-s. The American Army 

 has tried out half a dozen or more emer- 

 gency rations but none of them have proved 

 wholly successful. In conference with 

 medical officers of the Navy and a repre- 

 sentative of the Bureau of Home Economics 

 of the Department of Agriculture, the 

 Food Division of the Surgeon General's 

 Office has reached the conclusion that no 

 satisfactory emergency ration has yet been 

 proposed and has taken the ground that the 

 most satisfactory form of concentrated ra- 

 tion is hard bread supplemented by potted 

 beef or ham, dried beef or sardines, and, 

 when there is opportunity for the use of a 

 portable cooker, three ounces of sliced bacon 

 should be added. 



Returning to the silbject of the garrison 

 ration, which forms the basis of feeding in 

 all of our training camps, it should be ex- 

 plained that this ration as fixed by law does 

 not prescribe what the men shall eat. It is 

 merely used as the basis of the money al- 

 lowance for the ration. A long list of sub- 

 stitutive articles is carried by the Quarter- 

 master Corps, and the soldiers are allowed 

 to eat anything they choose from this list, 

 but they must not spend more than the 

 amount of money represented by the cost of 

 the garrison ration, with certain definite 

 percentages of substitutions, at the time 

 and place where they are stationed. For 

 example, the value of the ration for this 

 month at Washington Barracks is about 41 

 cents. This amount of money multiplied 

 by the number of men in the organization 

 is the amount which the mess sergeant may 

 spend for food each day for his company. 

 As a matter of fact, meat, bread and pota- 

 toes form the backbone of the ration now as 

 always. The allowance of meat, IJ pounds 

 including bone, for each man per day is 

 purposely placed high, so as to cover all 

 emergency requirements. The actual con- 



sumption of meat, as our food surveys have 

 recently determined, is much lower than 

 this. The average, I should say at this 

 time, is not in excess of f pound of meat 

 for each soldier. 



The list of substitutes makes provision 

 for a considerable elasticity and variety in 

 the diet. More than this, however, if the 

 men do not like what the quartermaster has 

 in store, they are at liberty to take money 

 from the quartermaster in lieu of rations 

 and buy materials outside. This is at the 

 discretion of the commanding general. 

 Where local market facilities are good, 

 there is no objection to this method, pro- 

 vided the food supplied is carefully in- 

 spected. With an inexperienced mess ser- 

 geant, there is likely to be a waste of funds 

 from this cause, but it sometimes happens 

 that the local market is cheaper than the 

 Quartermaster Department. 



Let me now explain the actual workings 

 of the mess system in vogue in our army. 

 The soldiers are fed by companies or equiv- 

 alents of companies, such as batteries of ar- 

 tillery, troops of cavalrj% ambulance com- 

 panies, field hospital companies, etc. Ac- 

 cording to the new tables of organization, 

 an infantry company consists of 250 men. 

 In the Civil War, remember, a company 

 was only 100 men. Companies now, there- 

 fore, are practically the equivalent of bat- 

 talions in those days, and a battalion of 

 1,000 men now is nearly the equivalent of 

 the old regiment. 



Bach company in camps such as those 

 now in existence in this country has an in- 

 dividual mess-hall with its appropriate 

 kitchen equipment. When the canton- 

 ments were started, the company consisted 

 of only 152 men, and some of the mess-halls 

 were constructed on this 'basis, but they 

 have since been enlarged in most camps, so 

 that now it is possible to seat the entire 

 company of 250 men at one time. The mess 



