Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/726

 �The diagram on the sugar-bowl represents the comparative total consumption of sugar of the eight countries mentioned

SWEETS are the true food for fighting men, as sugar is almost instantly converted into heat and energy. It is pure fuel for the human furnace and it burns without ashes. Mosso, the distinguished Italian physiological chemist, through experiments in Naples many years ago, proved this v/ith the ergograph, a contrivance which measures the fatigue that ensues when the hand is opened and shut, for example. He demon- strated that from three to five ounces of sugar eaten in the afternoon between the hours of five and seven o'clock restored the vitality which lags always at that period of the day and practically started the human machine going with the same force which it had in the early morning.

The German Army Fights with Sugar as Well as with Bullets

Germans, always on the alert to utilize the discoveries of science, have, in eflFect, claimed the work of Mosso as their own and put it into practical application at their army maneuvers. Soldiers under special rations of sugar withstood the hardship of forced marches much better than did those who had none or even a normal amount.

With the declaration of war, the

��Our War Sugar Bowl

Sugar is a quick-action food, and that is why armies must have it to restore energy

��By John Walker Harrington

��amount of sugar consumed by each per- son in Germany rapidly increased, and the army got most of it. In the meantime, the vast beet fields of France and Belgium had been devastated, and the whole cane sugar trade which had been supplying Great Britain with such enormous quanti- ties was much disturbed. Of the 18,000,000 tons of sugar which the world produces a little more than half is cane and the balance beet. In making esti- mates the sugar derived from the maple tree and other insignificant sources is not considered.

Australians Have the Sweetest Tooth of All

Although the United States is out- stripped in both beet and cane growing by six nations, she leads in the world's sugar marts. We consume nearly 4,000,000 tons a year and each person eats an annual allowance of 86 pounds, according to the returns for 1917. Although the American sugar barrel demands the most, the American sugar bowl, that is, the amount eaten by each person, is not so large as in some countries. The less sugar a nation produces, the more, rela- tively, it is likely to eat. The Australians have the most eager sweet tooth, for each one of them in twelve months con- sumes 106 pounds.

Denmark, which is small in population, suddenly rose to a per capita consump- tion of 93.48 pounds a year in 1914-15, an excess which perhaps her Teuton neighbors can explain. The United Kingdom, that is England, Ireland and Wales, is credited in that period with an annual per capita consumption of 89.49 pounds, while for the same season every American was eating sugar at the rate of 84.40 pounds a year. The Germans had been having before 1914 forty pounds a year each. Owing largely to needs of the army and also to the fact that the Teuton countries which had been ex-

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