650 



Dietaries of Labouring Prisoners in Indian Jails. [part iv. 



gratifying that such an improvement should be coincident with the introduction of a 

 uniform diet, and with the efforts they have made to promote the interests alike of 

 the inmates of the prisons and the public at large." And the Commissioners in their 

 Third Eeport (July 1880), the last which I have seen, write as follows (para. 73): — 

 " The death-rate is again lower than in any previous year, and we cannot but regard 

 this as a substantial proof that such changes introduced since the prisoners were 

 transferred to us, or have any bearing on the health of the prisoners (the most 

 important being the new diet), have been justified by their operation." 



18. I have not been able to procure such full details regarding the dietaries in 

 force in Convict Prisons in England, but in Appendix D to Volume I of the Report 

 of the Commissioners on the treatment of Treason-Felony Convicts (dated 

 September 1870), and in Appendix K to Volume III of the Report of the 

 Commissioners on the ivorking of the Penal Servitude Acts (dated July 1879), I 

 gather that the following scales are allowed to convicts on light and on hard, and (at 

 Milbank and Pentonville prisons) on industrial labour. The light labour consists of 

 oakum-picking, etc., and industrial labour comprises weaving, shoe-making, etc. 



Daily average allowance of food to convicts on light, on industrial and on hard 

 labour in English Convict Prisons. 



19. There is somewhat greater variety in the food issued to prisoners undergoing 

 sentence of penal servitude and a more liberal allowance of animal food, the highest 

 rate being a weekly allowance of 3 lbs. 5 oz. against 1 lb. 4 oz. given to class IV in 

 local prisons. There is, however, no very material difference in the aggregate nutritive 

 value of the dietaries of the two classes of prisons, as the oatmeal issued to convicts 

 is less than half the amount given in local prisons, and no peas are given. The 

 comparative value of the two dietaries will, however, be more readily perceived by a 

 study of the following statement in which the average daily food-allowance is reduced 

 to albuminates, carbo-hydrates and fats, as also to grains of nitrogen and carbon, than 

 from a comparison of the several ingredients of which the dietaries are composed : — 



