ll space I can give to it,
it will be better that I should reprint the results given in my previous
edition. These are principally extracted from a remarkable paper by Dr.
Christison, inserted in the Bluebook Report of the Commission of Inquiry
on Crimean matters, in which the then faulty dietary of our soldiers was
discussed. It appears 1st, that a man of sedentary life can exist in
health on seventeen ounces per day of real nutriment; that a man engaged
in active life requires fully twenty-eight ounces per day; and, during
severe labour, he requires thirty ounces, or even more. 2ndly, that this
nutriment must consist of three-quarters, by weight, of one class of
nutritive principles, (C), and one quarter of another class of nutritive
principles, (N); 3rdly, that all the articles of common food admit of
being placed, as below, in a Table, by which we see at a glance how much
nutriment of class C, and how much of class N, is found in 100 parts,
gross weight of any of them. Thus, by a simple computation, the effective
value of a dietary may be ascertained. Class C, are the carboniferous
principles, that maintain respiration; Class N, are the nitrogenous
principles, that repair waste of tissue. N will partly replace C, but at
a great waste: C will not replace N.

A large number of diets such as those of various armies and navies, of
prisons and infirmaries, and of the ordinary diets of different classes
of people, have been examined by aid of this Table, with surprisingly
uniform results. But these diets chiefly refer to temperate climates; it
would therefore be a matter of great interest if travellers in distant
lands would accurately observe and note down the weight of their own
rations and those of the natives. It is a great desideratum to know the
lightest portable food suitable to different countries. Any such reports,
if carefully made and extending over a period of not less than two
months, would be very acceptable to me. To make them of any use, it is
necessary that every article consumed should be noted down; and that the
weight and state of health, at the beginning and at the end of the
period, should be compared.

__________________________________________________
Table showing the quantity of Nutriment contained
in different articles of Diet.
__________________________________________________________________
Articles of Diet .. C. N.
Total real
.........................................