SPARE DIET.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1980, 12 May 1875, Page 2

SPARE DIET.

The merits of what is popularly styled a generous, or in other words, a highly nitrogenised diet, are widely known; yet the hard work of the world,, so far as physical exertion is concerned, is certainly performed on a limited allowance of inferior food by manual'toilers, whose very labour enables them to elipit the utmost amount of benefit from every ounce consumed. All who have made a long sea voyage, such as that to Australia or China, must remember the increase of appetite which, succeeded to the customary nausea of sea-sickness, and which,. in the case of emigrants ill-supplied with provisions,' frequently amounts to raging hunger. This excessive inclination for food abates after a, time,' although a person in perfect health still craves for more nutriment at sea than oh shore j yet the rations of seamen are stone of the

most bountiful, while- there "is less of bodily ailment among the stinted- occupants of the forecastle, than watmg , the officers, who naturally receive an ■ 'unlimited supply of food. ■ The French. soldier's rations hare of late been slightly increased, but for many years they remained fixed at a standard; which was adopted as one fit to maintain the men aft, the average rate of health and strength to be found among the French peasantry. Half a pound, or in rough numbers, eight and a half ounces of beef, with vegetables, furnish the soldier with two meals of soup and bouilli which represent his breakfast and dinner; and which, with a 1 pound and a 'half, -or: say* about 2t ounces of bread, constitute his whole sustenance. This dietary compares favourably with that of. the .English."private, with his 12 ounces of meat; but since : the time of Louvois, the French army has been, theoretically at least, managed on principles of strict economy.: Tff young men of the poorest class and from . the poorest districts, such as Poitou, tho Landes,. or Dauphiny, this nourishment represents comparative abundance; The youth who from infancy has been totter used to chestnuts than to bread, or whose ordinary dinner has consisted of rye-meal porridge, as in the Sologne, or of cabbage soup, as in Morbihan, is contented with his treatment beneath the colours; while the sturdy French-Fleming, or largelimbed Norman, finds it hard to recon*

cilc himself to the pittance granted by the State. Yet, as a rule, the health of the troops maintains itself at a fair average when contrasted witbythat of the civil population in the 'time of "peace, while that of the Prussian privates (whose bread ration is smaller than that of the French, but with whom the deficiency is .supplied by a large weight of potatoes) is considerably "above, that of the rest of the people «f the country .—All the Year Bound. 1