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



quantity of food contained in the several dietaries is fairly proportioned to the amount 

 of labour required of the prisoners. We have arrived at this conclusion from personal 

 observation, as the convicts seen by us at hard labour at Chatham, Portland, Dart- 

 mouth, and Portsmouth, appeared in excellent health and quite equal to the work 

 upon which they were employed." And, in paragraph 102, they recommend that when, 

 in exceptional cases, the diet is found insufficient " the medical officer should have the 

 power of recommending an increased allowance of bread without, as at present, waiting 

 for the previous sanction of a Director, and that all such cases should be brought 

 before the Director at his next visit, whose duty it should be to make special inquiry 

 into them." Finally the Commissioners in their remarks concerning the Scotch and 

 the convict dietaries (paragraph 108) say — " We recommend such a revision of the 

 former as may cause them to approximate closely to those in force in England, of the 

 sufficiency of which we have received satisfactory evidence." 



CHAPTER III. 



THE ADAPTATION OF THE DIET SCALES OF LABOURINGr PRISONERS IN ENGLAND TO INDIAN 



REQUIREMENTS. 



21. Testimony of the character cited as to the suitability of the maximum 

 dietaries issued both to convicts and to labouring Local jail prisoners in England 

 appear to be so conclusive as to warrant and even to invite the suggestion that they 

 should, at all events for the present, serve as the basis for the construction of dietaries for 

 labouring prisoners in other countries. Considering the previous habits of the inmates of 

 English jails, the very small amount of animal food which has been found compatible with 

 the exaction of hard labour, especially in the case of Local Prisons, is a noteworthy 

 circumstance ; and this, taken together with the high proportion of the carbonaceous 

 to the nitrogenous ingredients in the food, seems to indicate in a special manner the 

 suitability of such a standard to Indian requirements. Moreover, the lessons which 

 a study of the history of these dietaries seem to teach have not that degree of 

 uncertainty about them which must of necessity characterise lessons acquired by 

 means of specially devised experiments in the carrying out of which more or less 

 artificial conditions are inseparable. The experience gained in connection with the 

 English prison diets has been very gradually acquired, and the unconscious subjects 

 of the experiments belonged to the very class for whom it is desired to solve the 

 extremely difficult problem of providing for their sustenance and at the same time 

 carrying out the primary object of their imprisonment. 



22. As to what is to be regarded as " sufficiency " in a prison diet, the Diet 

 Committee of the English Local Prisons express themselves thus: — Sufficiency is not 

 a quantity capable of demonstration. There is, at the outset, the defect inherent in 



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