Martyria; or, Andersonville PrisonHamlin, Augustus C. (Augustus Choate)
History
Martyria; or, Andersonville Prison
Hamlin, Augustus C. (Augustus Choate)
Andersonville Prison; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Prisoners and prisons
The distinguished physiologist, Milne Edwards, maintains that the food
must contain three hundred and fifteen grains of nitrogen and three
thousand three hundred and fifty grains of carbon, otherwise the animal
economy loses force, and gradually deteriorates. The data of Frerichs give
the same views, and they accord with the observations of the ten years'
study of the regimens of the prisons of Scotland. Dumas, in his
calculations of the ration of the French army, gives as its equivalent
three hundred and thirty-five grains of nitrogen and four thousand nine
hundred and fifty grains of carbon.
In the prisons and hospitals of England, Scotland, France, and Germany,
the dietaries furnish from seventeen to twenty-eight ounces of nitrogenous
and carbonaceous food.
For a time, the solid ration of the prisons of Scotland was reduced to
seventeen ounces, but the prisoners lost weight. In the public
institutions of England we find the total quantity of solid food to be as
follows: The British soldier receives in home service 45 ounces; the
seaman of the Royal navy 44 ounces; convicts 54 ounces; male pauper 29
ounces; male lunatic 31 ounces. The full diet of the hospitals of London
furnish from 25 to 31 ounces of solid food, besides from one to five pints
of beer daily. The Russian soldier has about 50 ounces; the Turkish more
than 40 ounces; the French nearly 50 ounces; the Hessian 33 ounces; the
Yorkshire laborer 50 ounces; United States navy 50 ounces; and the soldier
of the United States army about 50 ounces, of solid food.
XII.
The food allowed to the prisoners at Andersonville, according to the
statements of the prisoners and other witnesses, was from two to four
ounces of bacon, and from four to twelve ounces of corn bread daily;
sometimes a half pint to a pint of bean, pea, or sweet potato soup, of
doubtful value. Vegetables were unknown. Thus giving a total weight of
solid food, per diem, of six to sixteen ounces of solid food. The amount
was not constant: some days the prisoners were entirely without food, as
was the case at Belle Isle and Salisbury. Neither was the deficiency
afterwards made good. The amount given was oftener less than ten ounces
than more.
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