may be prolonged, to the important services of their country. If the raw and oozy heaven offend, Correct the soil, and dry the sources up Of wat'ry exhalation. -At home with cheerful fires dispel The humid air; and let your table smoke Generous your wine, the boast of rip'ning years, ARMSTRONG on Health. 8. OF DIET AND COOKERY. 1. UNDER this head, I shall treat on the regimen, or course of living, in respect to food and drink, which is generally proper for the common soldiers. Some cursory observations will also be made on the interesting subject of cookery, with a view to assist the private men in preparing their provisions with economy and comfort. The importance of proper diet to the preservation of health is. universally acknowledged. The food of a soldier may be coarse, but it should be wholesome, nutritious, and abundant, such as the labourers of the country are accustomed to use: such, and even better, the present pay of a British soldier, if properly laid out, can well afford. 2. The men ought always to be divided into messes, and proper stoppages made from their pay to provide food. It should be the daily business of an officer to see that the meals be regular, sufficient, comfortably cooked, and that the men behave at them with due decorum. Great care ought to be taken (however difficult a task it may be) to prevent the introduction of corrupted flesh, mouldy or half-baked bread, spoiled, corn, mixed flour, and other nutritious substances of a bad quality. By the careless or mercenary conduct of purveyors, a foundation has often been laid for the most destructive diseases. Every army physician knows this to be a fact. 3. One hearty meal of animal food is suf. ficient for a man in twenty-four hours; and it would be a good regulations, were the principal meal taken some hours later than is at present the custom in camp. Digestion is best performed while the body remains at rest; military exercises should, therefore, be avoided as much as possible immediately after full eating and those men whose duty calls on them to watch during the night, would be better supported by a full than an empty stomach; besides, it would be accustoming a man at all times to what he must necessarily submit to when on a march; it is then impossible to have a comfortable meal till the fatigue of the day be over, nor even till some hours after the tents are pitched, and the encampment formed. 4. A contract should be made with a butcher to supply the men with fresh meat, principally beef and mutton, at a regulated price. When on a march, the intended place of encampment should be indicated to him, as nearly as possible: he ought to be there with his cattle at the same time with the army, or even before; and when the tents are pitched, he should begin to kill, and cut up; so that as soon as the camp is formed and the fires lighted, every mess should be provided with its due allotment of animal food. 5. A well-regulated mess is essential in the economical management of a soldier; it not only will secure him against disease, but enable him to perform his duty with activity. The dinner mess is always to be very strictly regulated. Reasons may be given why a breakfast mess is also of the greatest service, and should be under the same strictness of regulation as that of the dinner. The liberal allowances by Government granted to the soldier are completely sufficient for all his wants, and are equal to afford him the fullest nourishment; but the application of them requires discretion and nicety. We urge only the necessity of a breakfast and dinner mess in order to preserve health; if the office sees its propriety with the same force, his judgment will direct the application. Dr. Rollo is a strong advocate for breakfast messing, and speaks from his own observation of its good effects. 6. Nothing is so agreeable, and at the same time so wholesome to a soldier, after a fatiguing, and perhaps a wet march, as some warm soup * : to boil the meat is, there The use of broth or soup is particularly advantageous after great fatigue; because, on these occasions," the digestive organs are weakened and less liable to bear solid food than at other times. fore, the mode of cooking which ought to be most generally used in the army, Every effort should be made to procure vegetables to boil with the meat. It is not necessary to be very delicate in what are selected for this purpose. Besides the various kinds of let tuce, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, onions, leeks, and potatoes, which are universally approved of; when these cannot be procured, the wild or water cress, brook-lime, scurvy-grass, sorrel, &c. which are to be found in every field, make wholesome as well as agreeable additions to soup. When in a fixed camp, soldiers should be encouraged to cultivate various kinds of culinary vegetables, and espe cially potatoes, which are highly nourishing. It would add much to the salubrity as well as to the nutritious qualities of these soups, were every mess to have a certain quantity of barley; or, which, perhaps, affords more substan→ tial nourishment, decorticated unbroken oats, fresh oatmeal, cut groats, dried peas, and rice, to add to their broth. 7. Fresh animal food should always be provided for the mess, if possible. When cir cumstances, however, render it necessary to subsist on salted provisions, their injurious |