1027FOOD-SUPPLY FOR THE NANSEN EXPEDITION.

corollary that segregation in any case of leprosy in India iseither impracticable or undesirable. They entertain a pre-cisely opposite opinion and would be sorry if the Governmentof India were encouraged by the report of the Commissionersto refrain from taking the necessary steps in the direction ofsuch segregation of lepers as may be found possible. Their

opinions upon segregation are in accord with tho3e expressedin the following extract from a memorandum by Dr. VandykeCarter

MODES OF SEGREGATION.

I. "By erecting plain asylums at certain. centres, eich of whichwould be a refuge common to several districts and a place of detentionunder due management and supervision."

II. "By founding leper colonies or village communities mainly ofthe affected, who, whilst allowed more liberty of movement, should yetbe prevented from mingling with the peasintry around ; hence stillthe need of strict supervision. Many spots would thus serve-such asdeserted forts, decayed villages and places no v waste, yet not far fromother sources of supply, or not without near resources easily re-

suscitated."IH. " By requiring the strict isolation of leprous subjects retained in

their homes at express wish of friends. Suitable separate lodgmentwould be indispensable; unsuitible shelter i3 even now sometimessupplied. Joining of such home-isolation with m)re public measuresshould not be overlooked, for to it experience in Norway seems to pointas a means essential to complete success within a moderate period oftime; and in India it would h ive to be still more largely resorted to.

IV. "For carrvi-g out the above, in addition to funds, legislativeauthority is needed to take up the vagrant sick, to remove the sorelydiseased who is insufficiently guarded at home, and at times to enforcecontinued isolation of the inf act ad until medical sanction of liberty begranted."

"

The Committee give a general approval to the minorrecommendations of the Commissioners, numbered above as(a) (b) (c) (d), for the regulation of lepers and leprosy inIndia, which they consider might with advantage be carriedout, though they do not concur in the opinion that munici-palities would be necessarily or universally the best means ofeffecting that object.The Memorandum is signed by-

Nominated by the Executive GEORGE N. CURZON (UnderCommittee of the National Secretary for India),

Leprosy Fund. e a

Chairman.Leprosy Fllnd. EDWARD CLIFFORD.

Nominated by the Royal Col- *DYCE DUCKWORTH, J’r1. D.,

lege of Physicians. l G. LL. A. HERO D. N, 11Z. D. , F. R C. P.Nominated by the Royal Col- JONATHAN HUTCHINSON,

lege of Surgeons. 0 -

LL. D., F.R Slege of Surgeons. N. C. MACNAMARA, F. R. C. S.[The above were the members of the Special Committee.]

Chairman of the Executive FERDINAND ROT SCHILDCommittee. H .(F. LONDIN.*ANDREW CLARK, M.D.,

F. R. C. P.*JAMES PAGET.

Members of the Executive ’’‘J. FAYRER.

Memhers of the Executive ,’ bers Committee. the Execu tive

1 GUYER FAYRER.Committee.

’JONATHAN HUTCHINSON.E. CLIFFORD.ALGERNON BoRTHWICK andEDWARD LAWSON, Honorary

Treasurers.*These members hs.ve signed a further memorandum, which is given

ltIelow.

INDEPENDENT OR DISSENTIENT OPINIONS.

The following independent or dissentient opinions havebeen expressed by members of the Special Committee and ofthe Executive Committee :-

" 4 Leprosy is not diffused by hereditary transmission.’ I do not thinkthat this is proven."-J. FAYRER.

’" Contagious and also inoculable.’ This is also uncertain."—J. FAYRER." I understand the Commissioners to mean by the expression de novo

dn reference to the origin of leprosy that they believe that the diseasemay begin independently of personal contagion and in connexion with,climatic and dietetic causes. In that belief I entirely share. I alsoagree in the main with the rest of the statements in the Commissioners’report, to which exception has been taken in our committee. I feelconvinced that if leprosy be contagious at all it depends but to analmost ionnite-!imal extent upon contagion for its spread."—JONATHANHUTCHINSON, LL.D., F.R.S.

,

’ I am in agreement generally with the recommendations of the .Commission respecting voluntary isolation and the issue of MunicipalBy-laws regulating the habits of lepers. I know no trustworthy evidencetv prove that a leper ia any community is a source of greater dangerthan is a consumptive patient, and I kno that a person suffering fromsyphilis is a real and very positive source of danger any where. It

would therefore be absurd on the faeg of it to adoot stringent laws forthe leper and to let the syphilitic person go free." The intelligent laym in now imagines that, because bacilli are an

essential feature of leprosy, therefore the disease must be readily con.tagious. This is simply quite contrary to fact. The same thing holdsgood exactly for consumption and for some other disorders in whichmicrobes playa part."I think a well empowered and vigorausly supported Governmon%

medical executive officer should be appointed in every large town andin certain districts to supervise the leprous populations and reportregularly upon them. It should be his business to see that the localregulations are fully carried out, and on his requisition only should anyaction b3 taken when necessary.

" Suitable asylums siould be provided and those now existing shouldbe sufficiently enlarged to meet the needs that will arise under suit-able by-liws." The project of leper-farms is, I think, a good one. More than this

is. I believe, not within any practical scheme for amending the con-dition of lepers and for diminishing the spread of the malady."-DYCEDUCKWORTH, M.D., LL.D."I am strongly in favour of the mainainance (by Government or

otherwise) of voluntary homes for lepers, but do not believe thatsegregation would effect anything in diminishing the prevalence of thedisease. Compulsory segregation would, I think, involve injustice andentail much social misery. I believe that our Commissioners’ reportwell expresses not alone thp. opinions of those who have signed it, but,in a general way. those of the educated classes of the present daythroughout India."-JoNATHAN HUTCUINSOI, LL.D., F.R.S."I think the report a m )st valuable and excellent one, agreeing gene-

rally with the remarks of the Committee. I concur in the objectionsmade by Sir Dyce Duckworth and Mr. Hutchinson. I have also notedtwo remarks which I do not consider can be accepted as proven."But on the whole I regard the report as most excellent, and, if the

recommendations are actad on, one which will prove of the greatestbenefit to the population of India. When leprosy disappears, it will doso as a result of improved hygienic and social conditions."In the meantime all that is possible-as suggested in the report-to

be done should be done to ameliorate the condition of the sufferers, andI am glad to find that coercive measures of segregation or wild fear ofcontagion are not contemplated."-J. FAYRER.

FURTHER MEMORANDUM.

" We, the undersigned members of the Executive Committee of theNa.tional Leprosy Fund, desire to express our approval of the Com-missioners’ report, which we regard as a very careful record of wellobserved important facts. We concur with their suggestions of ’thepractical measures t? be taken for the coatrol or the restriction of thedisease in India.’ We dissent from the opinion expressed in the bodyof the repart of the Special Committee on the subject of the contagionofleprosy and from the recommendations founded on that opinion. Webelieve that the evidence of the spread of leprosy by contagion is notsufficient to justify the compulsory segregation of lepers, though theinstitution of homes in which they may voluntarily reside may be veryearnestly advised. And we are of opinion that, although an unusualsusceptibility of leprosy may be transmitted bv inheritance, and thechildren of lepers may be more than others liable to the disease if livingin the conditions in which it generally occurs, this des not supplyreason sufficient for prohibiting the marriage of the leprous.

" ANDREW CLARK, M.D., F.R.C.P.W. GUYER HUNTER.JAMES PAGET.J. FAYRERJONATHAN HUTCHINSON."

The report will, as we announced last week, be publishedsimultaneously in England and in India on Monday next,May lst. We propose to deal more fully next week with thebacteriological aspect of the subject as presented by theCommissioners.

FOOD-SUPPLY FOR THE NANSENEXPEDITION.

JUST before the Easter recess the Bovril Company inviteda large number of distinguished persons to visit their worksin order to inspect the various preparations of concentratedfoods they prepare. These are useful to at least three classesof the community-those who have but little time at their

disposal for the dressing and preparation of their food, and whoare glad of any means by which they can economise their timeand apply it to the performance of other duties; those who,living in remote districts far from shops and markets,-such astravellers and explorers in unknown or uninhabited countries,and soldiers on a line of march at a distance from the base oftheir supplies-desire to carry with them the means of susten-ance for some days or weeks in a compact and portable form;and lastly, those who from any circumstance, but especiallyfrom disease, are debarred from taking the food they require inthe usual form and compelled to have the necessary quantityin as concentrated a condition as possible and freed from all

1028 FOOD-SUPPLY FOR THE NANSEN EX’EDITION.

extraneous and indigestible material. It has been the objectof the company to fulfil the requirements of these threeclasses and to supply a variety of solid foods which, by themere addition of a little hot water, can be converted into awholesome and palatable soup in the space of a few minutes,which, in addition, contains a large quantity of highly nutri-tious material in a small bulk, and, above all, which containsthe essential elements of our ordinary food in the proportionswhich experience has shown to be most serviceable for thesupport of the body under circumstances of exposure to coldand fatigue.The chief mode of preserving animal food, whether fish or

flesh, from time immemorial has been the application of salt,and even now such salted food-often, from the carelessness ofthe ships’ stewards, more or less tainted-is served out to oursailors or is consumed by even the better classes in the formof salted herrings and pilchards, whilst a relic of the past isretained in the salt fish that appears on the table on AshWednesday. Curing, as it is termed, by smoking or by theapplication of carbolic acid, is still practised in the case ofhams, salmon and herrings. Immersion in oil is rarelyemployed, and then only in the case of fish. Of late yearsthe increase of population in the western countries and theimpossibility of obtaining the necessary supplies for theirsustenance, by rendering it imperative to obtain such suppliesfrom distant sources, have led to the adoption on a large scaleof three methods of preserving food. The first of these methodsis the exclusion of air and of germs by the tinning or canningprocess; the second, preservation by exposure to cold at ornear the melting point of ice; and, lastly, the method bydesiccation. The method adopted by the Bovril Company isessentially that of desiccationr which, if performed at arelatively low temperature, retains in the dried material allthe carbon and nitrogen ; whilst it reduces the weight to theextent of, in some instances, 70 per cent. or even more.The average healthy, moderately active man ’requires, to

cover his losses of nitrogen and of carbon occasioned bythe katabolism of albumen and fat in the body, about18 grammes of nitrogen and 270 grammes of carbon-thatis to say, about 110 grammes of dry albumen and 207grammes of carbon in fats and carbohydrates. Yet muchmore than this must be ingested, since only that portionwhich is digested and absorbed is of service in supplyingthe place of that which is disintegrated in the body, and nofood undergoes complete absorption, not even such typicalfoods as meat, eggs and milk, the albumen leaving an un-digested and unabsorbed residue amounting to from 1 to 3 percent., whilst in white bread 9 per cent., in legumes 17 per cent.and in black bread and potatoes 30 per cent. of the proteidsare eliminated from the body without having undergoneabsorption. The carbohydrates, on the other hand, are nearlycompletely digested in the intestines of man, in the case ofthe cereals and legumes only about 3 per cent. being un-digested, in potatoes about 8 per cent., and in black bread about10 per cent. The fats are usually absorbed to the extent of95 per cent. The quantity and the quality of the foodrequired by a healthy man vary, of course, with the weight,age, occupation, and particularly with the amount of workdone. We subjoin the diets of different bodies of men,compiled from the most recent official sources, as given byMunk and Uffelmann, andit maybe remarked that the enormoussupplies of food requisite for the support of the great armiesof the continental nations have led to the most careful in-vestigation into the most effective food which can be givento the soldier at the cheapest rate, running it so close that amarked difference is made in the rations supplied in peaceand in active service, and in the former case whether work isrequired to be done or not.

The form in which the food is supplied is of no small im-portance. It must be pleasant to the respective senses oftaste and smell, though occasionally, as in certain fruits andin "high "garner these may be antagonistic. In ordinarycookery the spicing of the food effected by means of salt,pepper, vegetable acids and condiments generally is practisedto render it palatable, and, as Munk and Uffelmann remark, isgreatly neglected in the food of poor-houses, unions andalmshouses, where, however, the same food is to be taken-continuously for many days. The flavour must not be too*pronounced or it soon becomes nauseous. It will be seenfrom the tables that in the emergency food or pemmican andin the three forms of special food the Bovril Company haveprovided variations in the composition of food which shouldprevent nausea.

Again, the consistence of the food is a point to whichattention must be directed. It is of little use to introduceinto the stomach highly concentrated food unless its form issuch that it can be digested. Animal food, indeed, requiresbut little preparation, as is shown by the perfect preservationof health of the Gauchos, who eat raw meat ; but as a rulemeat undergoes some process of cooking, either by seethingor boiling or by roasting, the seething, as Liebig pointedout, being performed when soups containing the extracts ofthe meat, organic salts, soluble proteids and extractives aredesired, whilst in boiling and in roasting the juices are forthe most part retained. Keller has shown that after longboiling meat parts with most of the salts-that is to say,three-fifths of the phosphoric acid, seven-eighths of its.

potash, one-fifth of the earthy salts and the whole of thesodium chloride. Through the courtesy of Mr. Johnston wehave had the opportunity of tasting the different preparations’manufactured by the Bovril Company, and he has supplied uswith the following tables. The several preparations differconsiderably in their composition, dietetic value, consistence,aspect and flavour. Some of these foods-as the concentratedbovril-require no comment on our part, except that on trialwe found that a teaspoonful made a cup of excellent soup, re-quiring no addition of any kind, and two lads who rowed up theThames with a small jar of it declared that a similar quantitytaken in lieu of lunch enabled them to do their workwithout fatigue. The blocks of Bovril emergency food, an(!)those intended to be used by Captain Nansen in his approach-ing Arctic expedition, are brown, friable masses, varyingfrom a quarter of an inch to half an inch in thickness, andare of an agreeable flavour, leaving a pleasant after-taste onthe palate. The composition of four kinds of these blocks is.

given in the following table. It will be seen that in all thereis an admixture of animal and vegetable constituents, the pro-portions of which have been the subject of much considera-tion. In all, dried beef is the staple supplying the main

1029FOOD-SUPPLY FOR THE NANSEN EXPEDITION.

proteid contingent ; the addition of fat and oatmeal con-tributes the carbon and hydrogen required in the form ofcarbohydrates and hydrocarbons ; whilst different substancesare added to give variety of flavour as well as to add to its

dietetic value. The relative value of these preparations, ascompared with ordinary articles of diet-as, for example, theeNo. 3 arctic expedition food with that of eggs-may be seen’by comparing the numbers in the last colnmn.

STANDARDS FOR DAILY DIETARIES AND ACTUAL DIETARIES OF PEOPLE OFDIFFERENT CLASSES.

WEIGHTS OF NUTRIENTS AND CALORIES OF ENERGY IN NUTRIENTS IN FOOD PER DAY.

Estimated Analysis.-Arctic Expedition Foods.