A HARD-WORKING DIET. 371 



This calamity, which in many of its lessons was so 

 important an event in the commercial history of the 

 country, and which so aroused kindly feeling for those 

 in temporary need, was the cause of the first official 

 inquiry into the diet of any portion of the artizans of 

 England. Workhouse dietaries had before been an 

 object of investigation ; but workhouses contain 

 people who have drifted there from different causes 

 and from different occupations, and after varying 

 periods of struggles for existence in health and 

 weakness. The returns sent in are in a form that 

 suggest that economy in management was the prin- 

 cipal point. There may possibly have been some 

 philanthropic motive in the background, but it is 

 not apparent. Those inquiries went but little to 

 show what was the necessary diet for any particular 

 class of artizan in work as could be learnt from their 

 usual habits. 



The theory that an Englishman's home is his 

 castle was so far disregarded that Dr. Edward 

 Smith, who had already distinguished himself by 

 inquiries into the kind of foods that furnish muscular 

 power, was sent down in accordance with instructions 

 of the Privy Council to make inquiries into the lives 

 of people in their little castles. Dr. G. Buchanan had 

 been already sent down to be in the suffering districts, 

 at the request of the Lords of the Privy Council, that 

 they might " satisfy themselves that due local precau- 

 tions were being taken to prevent the destitution 

 which breeds diseases " (p. 1 8, Report). The object in 

 sending down Dr. E. Smith is recorded thus 



" Their Lordships found it expedient also to provide 

 themselves with more exact scientific information than 

 was at the moment available with regard to the 



2 B 2 



