Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-05
RYRD'S MEDICAL OFFICER
TELLS HOW MEN KEPT FIT
Balanced RatiOns Preserved Health OF
Antarctic Party We're Result of
Careful Dietary Preparations.

part we found was very bad treatment.
especially rubbing with snow, for the
tissue was apt to be torn or bruised BY
such methods and an extensive crusted
burn" would result instead of quick
and complete return to normal.
Care Of Frost Bites.
At 1t was only necessary to bring the
frost-bitten part back TO body tempera-
ture one held the hand gently over the
part until circulation was re-eStabliShed.
or II q hand were frozen 1t was held
next to the skin in the armpit or be-
tween the thighs. We had several bad
freeZings, such as when Dean Smith
lost his fur gloves while on top of one
of the steel radio towers and had TO
climb down bare-handed but in every
case by calm and sensible treatment not
a blister remained where a few min
utes previously the part had been as
white and stiff and lifeleSs as plaster
cast
Bruises and muscle strains seemed to
heal very slowly. A Sledge runner fell
on Larry Gould, giving him black and
blue arm that instead of healing in
few days was sore for several weeks;
and Paul Siple, who seemed to pick out
the hardest work to do, strained
shoulder muscle in chopping up dog
food and as a result of the delayed It's
sue repair carried his arm in sling for
couple of months. With protective
eyeglasses that would not fog we SUI
fered very little from snow glare.
The provisioning of our expedition
followed a dietary basis worked out
largely on the advice of Prof. E. v. Nc
Collunl, the nutrition authority. and our
statistical computations made by the
heads of the diet Schol at the Johns
| Hopkins Hospital. Misses Lewis and
Rowe. Not only did this elimination Of
gueSswork save considerable expense,
but with an economical larder it pro-
vided balanced ration furnishing the
necessary calories, the essential food
factors, minerals and roughage, with an
opportunity for variety sufficient to
eliminate many of the diseases former
| large expeditions have suffered in polar
| regions.
The Fight Against Scurvy.
Scurvy, Of course, was especially kept
in mind. And to combat it We had
| citrus fruits in every conceivable form.
| We had such fruit preserved in sirup
or partially dehydrated under carbon
| dioxide; We had vacuum packed sterile
| fresh Juice and the powdered whole
fruit; and most satisfactory of all, we
had the actual frozen grape fruit and
lemons, which experimentally proved q
brilliant success, for until the end Of
our stay when thawed out they were to
all appearance, taste and reaction the
fresh fruit.
Various forms of yeast, wheat germ.
cod liver oil, ETC., were provided, and
powdered whole milk, matted milk,
| evaporated and condensed milk, timed
sweet butter. whole wheat and white
flour, as well as cake flour and potato
flour, frozen eggs and dried eggs,
canned tomatoes, spinach, string beans,
peas and unbleached green asparagus,
and large variety of carefully selected
canned fruits, including cranberry sauce
and applesauce, green gage and damson
plums, ETC., until We felt that even the
most evasive vitamin must be present.
We anticipated the lack of mineral
salt in the only water available, the
melted neve or granular snow being
practically distilled water, by providing
lime, specially treated table salt and
large quantities of dehydrated foods
rich in potash, iron. etc. The deny
drafted potatoes, for instance, had been
scrubbed but not peeled, aid the rice
was unpublished. Paying attention to
such items was q complicating detail
but without question was q large fac
tor in our unusually satisfactory health
record. --
Meat Supply.
Besides frozen carcass beef, mutton,
fresh pork, ETC., which we carried, and
for which extensive refrigeration was
necessary across the tropics, the region
itself provided a great abundance of
whale meat, seal meat, penguin and
Skua gull. The whale meat was like
very coarse beef, but slightly flshy; we
preferred the crabeater seal as less
gamy than the Wedell variety; the
penguin seemed like not overtender beef
liver favored with fish oil, and the
skua gull, according to Jack Bursey,
was not quite as good as the common
Seaglll here.
But all these were sources of fresh
meat, potentially at least, and Byrd by
his own example tried more than any
one else to get the men accustomed to
this somewhat distatSteful fare, for he
realized the everpresent possibility Of
disaster, of the ships not being able to
get through the ice pack, or of the iso-
lation Of one or the other contingent.
Yet the best that most of us could do
was to eat very small portions of these
curioSa.
The emergency food for use on the
trail and on the airplane flights proved
exceptionally satisfactory. The penn
mican, consisting of compressed blocks
depends for its palatability and quality
almost entirely upon the care used in
its preparation. One of the last serv-
ices Amundsen did for Byrd was to
supervise the preparation of this prod
uct in Denmark. We found that we
could depend quite freely upon the
pemmican as our principal emergency
food, many Of us liking 1t so we'll that
we know we will miss 1t on our first
frosty morning
The Eskimo biscuit. hard bread rich
In bran and containing finely shredded
beef, formed perfect balance for the
pemmican. 1t contained a large
amount OF roughage and became q
popular bedtime snack throughout the
Winter. Like the pemmican, it had
been made with great care, Floyd Ben
net and Bernt Balchen supervising its
preparation In Canada
Copyright. 1900