The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18

SOCOt OullcI o.bl Moisture (not over).................... 3.o2
 Chocolate liquor is the trade name of the oily paste obtained when the roasted seeds of the cocoa tree are ground A half of the natural contents of these seeds is the vegetable fat known as "co- coa butter and 1t is sad but true (the general and Dr. Wiley have had their heads together over all of these mat ters) that the chocolate manufacturer lays aside much of this most nutritious constituent of his food product because when sold separately as cosmetic it demands much higher price than when left in the chocolate. So as a precaution against the loss of this excellent form of nourishment the commissary general de- mands in his specification the exact pro- portion of cocoa butter which must be present.
 Water Squeezed Out
 You are probably wondering also what
 'nucleo-casein" is. Casein itself Is what
 we might call the lean of milk. It Is
 the part left after the water and fats have been taken out. Cheese made from skim milk is almost pure c9 yein. Re- duced to powder this valus jle muscle forming constituent of mill: becomes 'necleo-casein.' And "desiccated eggs. D of course, means nothing more nor less than dried eggs.
 Thus you have about the most nutir- tious foods that nature affords-milk, eggs. chocolate, malt and sugar-deprived of water and other unnecessary portions. the whole mixed together and pressed into cakes so dry that less than one twenty-fifth part of them is moisture.
 Doesn't tempt you. you say? No, not now, but if you had been on a hard hike oI it all day and there was nothing bet. ter 1t would go reasonably well. especial ly when seasoned with the assurance thai it contained the glue that sticks body an6 soul together and the stuff that will drive the wolf sinking from the door. |. Aviators, aeronauts, campers, hunters and explorers-to whom news of 1t lately leaked out in some way-are already writing to Washington to learn where they can obtain these little cans The bird-man, finding himself landed in some isolated desert waste or forest fastness miles and miles away from the nearest habitation, would look well upon a pound or two of this stuff distributed among his pockets.
 During the civil war the union troons had their marching rations of pork or | bacon. hardtack, coffee and sugar. but q regular emergency ration for the AmerI- can soldier was unknown until 1894. when General Sharpe, then young eaptain of regulars, was one of the pioneer ex- perlmenters, working to fortify our troops against possible starvation during the stress of war. Finally, in 1896. there was adopted the first emergency ration. in which were embodied some of hjs ideas. It contained hard bread. pea meal bacon, coffee, saccharine and tobacco, But in the haste of preparation for the spanish war only paper was supplied to
 wrap It up in, and, being never quite ready for the haversacks of the men II never served Its purpose in that strug- gle. Then, in 1901-before General Sharpe was put in charge of the comnissariat Of the whole army-the emergency ration
 which the newly invented one is de- signed to replace was adopted.
 Old World RatiOns
 The new one is the most compact emer- genoy ration now supplied by any army Of the world, except the British, whose soldiers are provided with a little lin | box about the size of a good-sized can
 of sardines and containing only six and | half ounces of chocolate and proteds
 tsueh as the lean of meat, gluten ot
 wheat, casein of milk, white of eges)
 compressed into one solid cake grooyed
 go as to break into three bars, one for
 each meal. This keeps perfectly for five
 years, but has only three-fourths the
 food value of General Sharpe's new emer- | gency ration.
 Compared with these, the German | 'lron ration," provided for emergencies 1 looks tremendous, consisting, as it does l of five separate packages-a cylindrica can containing half pound of meat, s sciare tin inclosing five and a half ounces