PART I v.] Question as to ''Sufficiency" in a Prison Diet. 653 



all scales, that a uniform diet is given to persons of various age, weight, height, 

 idiosyncracy and physical conformation, but scales will, nevertheless, be always rendered 

 necessary by the exigencies of administration wherever bodies of persons have to be 

 dealt with in the mass. It is the duty of those who are called upon to frame scales of 

 diet to be guided by averages, and it is the duty of those who use them to provide for 

 exceptional cases by special means. ' 



23. Bearing in mind the spirit of these observations, it may now be considered 

 what proportion of the diet which has proved so successful in English prisons should 

 be considered as sufficient for native labouring prisoners in India, and which of these 

 two kinds of maximum labour dietaries should be selected. The latter point may be 

 considered in the first instance. As already remarked, there is but very little 

 difference in the aggregate nutritive value of the two dietaries. The little there is, 

 is slightly in favour of the maximum Local Prison scale. The work and the length of 

 the sentences of inmates of this class of prison correspond perhaps more closely with 

 that of the majority of Indian prisoners than do the work and sentences of those 

 undergoing penal servitude in England, so that, on the whole, the Local Prison dietary 

 would seem to be the more suitable. Moreover, the classification of the prisoners who 

 are placed on the two principal scales of the diets for labouring prisoners corresponds 

 very closely with that commonly adopted in India — " One to four months' " and " over 

 four months' " imprisonment. In India the more general classification is into " one to 

 three months' " and " over three months' " imprisonment. It may be added that the 

 labour diets of the Local Prison Committee form the bases for the principal non- 

 labouring dietaries.* 



24. The first question to be solved is what proportion of these English scales should 

 be adopted for Indian prisoners. In attempting to frame such an estimate, it has been 

 usual to accept the average relative weights of individuals as being the most satisfactory 

 and practically attainable basis ; though in estimating the food-requirements of the 

 prisoners of a province the activity natural to the population, as well as the physique, 

 must be prominently borne in mind. Acquaintance with the mere size of a furnace, 

 for example, will not, of itself, suffice to enable a satisfactory estimate to be formed of 

 the amount of fuel which it will consume. A small-built but a highly energetic people 

 require, proportionately to their weight, considerably more food than an apathetic or 

 indolent race, though, perhaps, it would be more correct to say that they require more 

 of that kind of food which has been shown to be the ultimate source of energy. When, 

 however, the ordinary habits of natives of this country are considered, it is clear that 

 exceptional activity does not exercise a disturbing element in such a computation, for 

 it is notorious that the disproportion in the amount of work which they perform is quite 



* " "We recommend," says the Committee, " that the articles of diet be the same to male prisoners with and 

 those without hard labour ; but that in the case of prisoners without hard labour, one-fifth of the total of articles 

 served up in a solid form (or one-sixth of the whole) be deducted from the diet appropriate to the requirement 

 arising when hard labour forms an integral par,, of the sentence." — Re^oi-t on Bletaru'tf, page 15. 



