(A.)-Organization of the Army of The United States, 1818. 24 111224 4 2 16 6 Major-Generals Adj. and Insp.-General- ral 32 Adjutants Quartermasters Paymasters Surgeons Surgeons' Mates Frst Lieutenants Second Lieutenants Artificers The Officers, Mechanics, Artificers, and Laborers, of the Ordnance, with this (*) prefixed, are unlimited by Law, and the numbers now in Service are assumed as the organization. The Chief Engineer, and Senior Officer of the Corps, is allowed I Assistant. The 4 Sergeants, 4 Corporals, 4 Musicians, and 80 Men, composing the Company of Bombardiers, Sappers and Miners, attached to the Engineers, are by Law added to the Peace Establishment of 10,000 Rank and File. (B.)-Organization of the Army which composed the Military Peace Establishment of The United States, under the Laws of March, 1802, and April, 1808. *3,323-Aggregate Establishment, under the Act of March, 1802. + 84-Staff of the Army before the War of 1812. 9,996-Aggregate of Peace Establishment before the War of 1812. SIR, (1.)--The Surgeon General to the Secretary of War. Surgeon General's Office, 16th November, 1818. In compliance with your Instructions, I have the honor to submit the following REPORT. In deciding upon the component parts of the ration to be furnished the Army, it must be obvious, that, so far as the health of the Troops is concerned, those will of course be the best, which afford the greatest quantity of good nutritious matter, from a given quantity of food; but as the Soldier is in general, his own cook, it is also necessary that they be of such a nature, as to enable him effectually to extract this nutriment, in the easiest and most simple manner. The first will depend upon the habits of the Soldier, previous to enlistment, and the last upon the mode of cooking, which the experience of the Army has found most convenient and advantageous. It is a well known fact, that every animal, in order to enjoy health, strength aud vigor, must be supplied with food, adapted to its habits, whether natural or acquired. The former cannot in most cases be essentially changed, without serious consequences; the lion for example cannot subsist on hay, or the ox on game; while in others, the digestive organs may, by degrees, become so accustomed to unnatural food, as to render it not only consistent with, but necessary to health; thus the horse may be taught to live on meat. Hence it follows that a ration perfectly adapted to the wants of a Cossack, might be totally useless, and perhaps injurious to an American; for Man may, in this respect, be considered a genus, the several species of which, are determined by the Age, Country or Tribe, to which he belongs; the Greenlander and the Hindoo, the ancient Spartan, and the modern Epicure, would find nearly as much difficulty in subsisting upon the same food as the wolf and the sheep. Such being the effect of custom, it must be evident, that whenever a Man has confirmed his natural propensities by long habit, any change, especially a sudden one, will be attended with most injurious, if not fatal effects; and this is precisely the condition of the American Soldier; for, if the natural diet of Man is altogether vegetable, and if the People of this Country differ but little in their mode of living from that pointed out by nature, and are also accustomed to a great variety, and consequently to too frequent changes in the several articles of their diet, it must be obvious that a ration composed of bread and meat only, and chiefly of the latter, cannot be consistent either with "comfort, convenience or health.” That Man was not originally carnivorous is proved by History, both sacred and profane; and this is confirmed by the fact, that, nearly all those animals, whose usefulness depends upon their health, strength and vigour, or upon the nutritious quality of their solids, such as the horse, elephant, camel, mule, sheep and most of those used for food, subsist upon vegetables; while the carnivorous species, as the tiger, wolf, dog, and even the lion, though they possess a greater degree of agility, from their natural conformation, have nothing of that real strength and vigor, which renders the former animals important assistants to us during life, nor of that healthy embonpoint, which makes some of them equally useful after death. The same is true with respect to Man, in his present unnatural state; the natives of this Country, who subsist principally on game, those Tribes of Bedouines, whose deserts scarcely afford food for their cattle, and the Greenlander, whom necessity has taught to live upon dried fish and blubber, are all from their general habits hardy, but they are, ceteris paribus, inferior to the Hindoo, whose fear of feeding upon his Grandsire, confines him to pulse and light vegetables; much less have they the stamina of those whom our second nature, habit, has accustomed to a judicious mixture of both these kinds of food. Custom, it is true, rendered a certain portion of animal food necessary to produce the highest state of health and vigor, but it is believed the quantity required for this purpose, has been exceedingly overrated. This has arisen from observing, that certain classes of Men, noted for their health and strength, indulge largely in such kind of diet, but the conclusion by no means follows from the premises; for these same Men will also indulge in large potations of ardent spirits, and various other excesses, without apparent injury; this therefore only proves what they can bear, and not what is best for them. The correctness of this position will further appear, from the diet found necessary for the delicate and the valetudinarian : there the great difficulty is to procure food sufficiently light, that is, of sufficient bulk to satisfy hunger, without too much nutriment to oppress digestion; for Physiologists, when discoursing upon the digestive organs and the quality of food best suited to them, have shown that the former requires from the latter, what they have termed the stimulus of distension, as well as a due degree of excitement from nutritious matter, to produce healthy action; that a certain bulk is as necessary, as a certain quantity of nutriment; and that, so far as one of these is increased at the expense of the other, so far the diet varies from the healthy standard. Thus it not only appears that a vegetable diet is natural to Man, but we are taught its modus operandi; and that, although it actually contains much less nourishment than animal matter, yet from its being in a state of subdivision, it is so diluted, as it were, as to be fully acted upon by the stomach; whereas in a more concentrated form, it becomes an unnatural stimulus, and destroys the powers of the digestive organs. Now we may conclude, a priori, that the diet of the People of this Country, will be that which is best suited to them; for, such is the facility of obtaining the means of subsistence, that even the Laborers in our Cities, probably the poorest class of Men among us, are enabled to procure most of the articles supplied in the markets; and such is the profusion with which we are blessed, that these consist of almost every thing the palate can desire, or the stomach digest: being therefore under no restraint from poverty or scarcity, it is to be presumed, they would follow in a great measure, the indications of nature: and that this is a fact, will appear from a cursory reflection upon the mode of living, in the different parts of the Country; for when we take into account the quantity of farinacea, employed in bread, pudding, &c., the great variety and abundance of fruits and of the lighter vegetables, in addition to the more nutritious ones, such as peas, beans, rice, potatoes, and many roots, it is probable that four-fifths of our diet is vegetable, and, perhaps, two-thirds in every case. Even at dinner, when meat is most used, it is generally in this proportion, and it constitutes but a small part of our morning and evening meals. There are no doubt exceptions, but these proportions will be found in general correct. The cheapness of living, however, not only enables the mass of our Population to procure food of the best kind, but also to obtain a great variety of the essential articles, and many even of the luxuries of lite; there are few, who to fish and poultry, and almost all the vegetables in use, do not add tea, coffee, sugar, spices and other condiments; and with this variety of food, they are accustomed to no small variety in the mode of preparing it. The very general use of tea, or some other warm infusion, at the morning and evening meals, is a point of no small importance; and nothing but experience can fully convince one how severely the want of it is felt, and of course how necessary that, or a substitute, is for the health of the Soldier. But secondly, the experience of the Army proves, that not only the habits of the Soldier, previous to enlistment, but also the mode of cooking, found most effectual and convenient, requires a material change in the component parts of the ration. For since the business of cooking belongs in civil life almost entirely to females; when a man is confined to bread and meat, he is not only suddenly deprived of his accustomed means, but is entirely ignorant of the best mode of employing those afforded him; and one of the last things a young Officer or Soldier learns, is how to manage his domestic concerns; though he soon becomes acquainted with the necessity of this knowledge, both for his health and his comfort. When a Recruit receives his ration, if the meat be fresh, he broils it to a cinder, on the coals, on the end of his ramrod; if salt pork, he eats it raw, and if salt beef, he boils it, and, with his bread, will make a pretty good meal for some time; but in the morning and evening he feels the want of his usual infusion of tea, and at noon of his cus |