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Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 3"


Such are the two results of the system: not only is the food which is
supplied to Paris scant and poor, but the regular consumers of it,
those who take their turn to get it, obtain but a small portion, and
that the worst.[76] A certain inspector, on going to the corn market
for a sample of flour, writes "that it cannot be called flour;[77] it
is ground bran," and not a nutritive substance; the bakers are forced
to take it, the markets containing for the most part no other supply
than this flour." - Again, three weeks later, "Food is still very
scarce and poor in quality. The bread is disagreeable to the taste
and produces maladies with which many citizens are suffering, like
dysentery and other inflammatory ailments." The same report, three
months later during the month of Niv?se: "Complaints are constantly
made of the poor quality of flour, which, it is said, makes a good
many people ill ; it causes severe pain in the intestines, accompanied
with a slow fever. - During Vent?se, "the scarcity of every article
is extremely great,"[78] especially of meat. Some women in the Place
Maubert, pass six hours in a line waiting for it, and do not get the
quarter of a pound; in many stalls there is none at all, not "an
ounce" being obtainable to make broth for the sick.


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