490 OF FOOD, AND THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS. 



prisoners require a fuller diet than persons at large ; this is probably erro- 

 neous ; but more variety is certainly desirable, to counteract, as far as possi- 

 ble, the depressing influence of their condition upon the digestive powers. 

 The circumstances which occurred at the Milbank Penitentiary in 1823, form 

 a lamentable warning against the reduction of the diet-scale to an insufficient 

 amount. The allowance to the prisoners had formerly been from 31 to 33 

 oz. of dry nutriment daily, and the prison was considered healthy; but in 

 1822, it was reduced to 21 oz. The health of the prisoners continued un- 

 broken for nearly six months ; but scurvy then showed itself unequivocally, 

 and out of 860 prisoners, 437, or 52 per cent., were affected with it. The 

 effect of previous confinement here became remarkable ; for those were chiefly 

 attacked, who had been in the prison for two years, a year, or six months. 

 Again, the prisoners employed in the kitchen, who had 8 oz. of bread addi- 

 tional per day, were not attacked, except three who had only been there a 

 few days. After the epidemic had spread to a great extent, it was found that 

 the addition of 8 oz. to the daily allowance of vegetable food, and 5 oz. to 

 the animal, facilitated the operation of the remedies which were used for the 

 restoration of the health of the prisoners. The effects of confinement have 

 been further shown in the experience of the Edinburgh House of Refuge, 

 which was first established in 1832, for the reception of beggars during the 

 cholera, and which has been continued to the present time. The diet was at 

 first a quart of oatmeal porridge for each person, morning and evening ; and 

 at dinner 1 oz. of meat, in broth, with 7 oz. of bread ; making altogether 

 about 23 oz. of solid food a day. During some months, this diet seemed to 

 answer very well ; the people went out fatter than they came in, owing to 

 the diet being better than that to which they had been accustomed ; but after- 

 wards a proneness to disease manifested itself in those who had been resi- 

 dents there for a considerable time, and the diet was therefore somewhat in- 

 creased, with good effect. The quantity of animal food was probably here 

 too small ; and the total weight might still have been sufficient, if it had 

 been differently apportioned. In a Convict-ship, which took out 433 prison- 

 ers to New Holland in 1802, the mortality was very trifling, and the general 

 health good; although these prisoners were supported on 16 oz. of vegetable 

 food, and 7 1 oz. of animal food per day ; a quantity which was found to be 

 perfectly sufficient for them. The aged inmates of work-houses, especially 

 those who have been accustomed to poor food during their whole lives, re- 

 quire much less than this ; their vital functions being comparatively inactive, 

 and their amount of labour or exercise small. In the Edinburgh work-house, 

 of which the inmates usually have good health, they are fed upon oatmeal- 

 porridge morning and evening, with barley-broth at dinner ; the total allow- 

 ance of dry nutriment is about 17 oz. ; namely 13 oz. vegetable, and 4 oz. 

 animal. 



652. It is a curious effect of insufficient nutriment, as shown by the recent 

 inquiries of Chossat,* that it produces an incapability of digesting even the 

 limited amount supplied. He found that, when turtle-doves were supplied 

 with limited quantities of corn, but with water at discretion, the whole amount 

 of food taken was scarcely ever actually digested ; a part of it being rejected by 

 vomiting, or passing off by diarrhoea, or accumulating in the crops. It seems 

 as if the vital powers were not sufficient to furnish the requisite supply of 

 gastric fluid, when the body began to be enfeebled by insufficient nutrition ; 

 or perhaps we might well say, the materials of the gastric fluid were wanting. 

 Hence the loathing of food, which is often manifested by those who have 

 been subjected to the influence of an insufficient diet-scale in our prisons and 



* Recherches E.xperimcntales sur 1'Inanition, 1843. 



