In attempting to form a proper estimate of the alleged ration furnished by
the rebels to their prisoners at Andersonville, we will endeavor to arrive
at just conclusions by comparing the known quantities with the dietaries
of long-established hospitals, prisons, and the ration of armies of
different periods of history.
The effects of food upon the civil prisoners, both of the long and short
term, have been carefully studied by Christison, Liebig, Barral, and
Edwards; and it is conclusively shown by their statistics of the prisons
of Europe how much food will keep the prisoners in athletic condition when
exposed to healthy influences. The quantity of food required depends upon
the wants of the system and the quality of food consumed. Some articles
are far more nutritious than others, and are far less bulky; for instance,
the rice eaters of China, the potato and milk consumers of Ireland, eat
enormously, compared with the beef-eating people.
But rarely will a less quantity than seventeen ounces suffice for the
animal economy, and not then, even, unless it is the concentrated essences
and principles of carefully selected grains, and healthy meat from cattle
killed in their native pastures, like the scientific ration correctly
proposed by Professor Horsford. This ration is intended to enable armies
to change their base with intervals of more than a month, and to assist
raiding parties to perform long journeys without relying for subsistence
on the doubtful and difficult forage along the route, or on the distant
depots at the point of departure.
A handful of the ripe, golden grains, roasted and mixed with a little
sugar, with a few ounces of beef dried from the meat of healthy cattle
killed instantly, will sustain the power of life wonderfully. This is
shown by the mountaineers of the Cordilleras, of the Andes, and the Rocky
Mountains.
It was substantially the same ration that enabled the Romans to traverse
countries far remote from their main depots of supplies, and the Greeks to
advance across, with safety, the immense arid deserts of Asia. Any of our
splendidly equipped and fed armies of modern times would perish in a few
days along the route where Xenophon and his immortal ten thousand passed
with safety, and without much loss.