There is another very important item to be considered in the dietary of
this prison, and that is the quality and quantity of the water furnished
for potable purposes. "Water," says Milne Edwards, "is an aliment, as well
as sugar and fibrine; for it is indispensable for the nutrition of the
body, and, by whatever means it arrives in the economy, its _role_ is
always the same."
The water consumed in the prison was obtained from the brook, and from the
few wells or springs within the stockade. The volume of water in the brook
was quite sufficient to furnish all the drinking water desired, if it had
been introduced into the stockade by means of sluices. As it was, the
course of the stream was left to nature, and no effort made to prevent its
defilement by the camps situated farther up, or by the bake-house located
close by. All the camps on the declivities about Andersonville were
drained into this stream. Some few wells were sunk in the prison which
yielded scanty supplies, and there were also a few springs undefiled; but
the quality of water everywhere was surface water, tinged and tainted with
the impurities of the soil and the infections of the collected filth. The
thirst, which was excessive among the prisoners, could only be slaked by
drinking the impure waters. Yet a very little care on the part of the
rebel authorities would have increased the comfort of the prisoners in
this respect, and prevented the loss of life to a very considerable
degree.
"The preservation of potable water," writes Felix Jacquot, "is certainly
one of the capital points of hygiene."
"I am sometimes disposed to think," states Dr. Letheby, the health officer
of London, "that impure water is before impure air as one of the most
powerful causes of disease." In cold climates slight impurities in the
drinking water are not of vital importance; but in the tropics, and the
adjacent regions, the least decayed vegetable or animal matter renders it
injurious and unpalatable, and often is the determining cause of disease,
especially enteric, to a fearful degree.