May 24, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



499 



conditions are under the supervision of a 

 commissioned officer of the company desig- 

 nated by the captain and known as the mess 

 officer. The purchasing agent of the com- 

 pany is a sergeant, known as the mess ser- 

 geant. It is his business to keep the mess 

 accounts with the Quartermaster and to 

 draw the rations for his organization. 

 Staple articles, except meat and bread, 

 which are issued every day, are drawn in 

 "10 '"-day periods. This has been found by 

 experience to be the most convenient period 

 of time for a companj-. Each company has 

 an adjoining store room which is supposed 

 to be large enough to contain supplies for a 

 10-day period. At the beginning of this 

 period the mess sergeant learns from the 

 first sergeant of the company the number 

 of men on the ration list. He multiplies 

 this number by the value of the ration in 

 monej' for the current month and multi- 

 plies this by ten to find the amount of his 

 credit with the quartermaster for the en- 

 suing period. 



In conference with the company cook, 

 the mess sergeant makes out menus for 

 some days in advance and calculates the 

 amount of each article required for the 

 preparation of these menus. Such menus 

 are supposed to be approved by the mess 

 officer or the company commander and by 

 some medical officer. You will be inter- 

 ested, I think, in knowing how these menus 

 run. I quote from one for Company A, 

 301st Field Signal Battalion, November 5, 

 1917, at Camp Devens : 



Breakfast 

 Oatmeal, milk and sugar. 

 Pork sausages, 

 Fried potatoes. 

 Bread and butter, 

 Coffee. 



Dinner 

 Roast pork or roast beef. 



Baked potatoes. 

 Bread and butter, 

 Cornstarch pudding, 

 Coffee, milk and sugar. 



Supper 

 Beef stew, 

 Corn bread, 

 Karo, 

 Prunes, 

 Tea. 



SrXD.VY, NO\'EMBER 4, 1917 



Breakfast 

 Corn-meal mush, sugar and milk, 

 Hash, 

 Potatoes, 



Bread and butter, 

 Karo, 

 Coffee. 



DINNER 



Roast pork. 



Baked potatoes. 



Celery, 



Turnips, 



Peas, 



CranbeiTy sauce. 



Mince pie, 



Ice cream. 



Cocoa. 



Supper 



Cold pork sandwiches, 



American cheese, 



Crackers, 



Cocoa. 

 On the whole it must be said that the 

 mess s.vstem in vogue in the American 

 Army works well. Its weak points at this 

 time are obviously the inexperience of the 

 mess officer and the mess sergeant, the fact 

 that good cooks are not available, and the 

 absence of an adequate system of inspec- 

 tion. It was the realization of these weak 

 points in our system together with the im- 

 portance of conservation of our food re- 



