66o Dietaries of LabowHng Prisoners in Indian Jails. [part iv. 



39. The seven cereals which form the staple grain of each of these diet scales 

 constitute the principal food grains of the three presidencies, though, for the most 

 part, they are known under different names. The extent to which they are severally 

 resorted to in jail dietaries varies considerably in the different provinces owing to 

 the unequal extent in which they are cultivated. In the North-West Provinces four 

 or five out of the eight are resorted to to a considerable extent, rice being adopted in 

 only one jail ; whereas in Lower Bengal rice and wheat alone are the cereals ordinarily 

 made use of. These two cereals may be referred to, generally, as the grains which 

 contain respectively the smallest and the highest proportion of nitrogenous material. 



40. The diets in which these two grains form the staple cereals suggested by 

 the Conference of 1877 approximate very closely in nutritive value (as inferred from 

 their chemical composition) to the diets approved by the Committee of 1864, except 

 as regards the fatty matter, which in the Conference diet has been materially reduced. 

 In some of the other diets in which the staple cereal is richer in fatty matter than 

 either rice or wheat, the curtailment of the amount of fat or oil separately issued is 

 not manifest, but, on the contrary, the aggregate fat in the diet is greater than in 

 the 1864 dietaries. In the non-animal food form of the rice diet there is a decrease 

 of 8 grains of nitrogen per diem, but an increase of 284 grains in the carbon owing 

 to 24 ounces of rice being issued instead of 20. In the animal food forms, however, 

 of this diet there is a slight increase both in the nitrogen and carbon, — an increase of 

 4 grains of the former and of 42 of the latter over the 1864 diet. If the wheat-flour 

 and non-animal food form of the Conference diet be compared in a similar manner, 

 it is found that the Conference diet is richer in nitrogen by 27 grains but poorer in 

 carbon by 279 grains. The meat form of the Conference diet contains 30 grains more 

 nitrogen than the 1864 diet, but owing to 4 oz. of meat being given in lieu of 4 oz. 

 of grain the carbon-value of the scale is less by over 500 grains. On the whole, 

 therefore, there is practically but little difference between the recommendations of 

 the Committee of 1864 and of the Conference of 1877 so far as the ultimate chemical 

 constituents of the dietaries are concerned ; but a pound of animal food per week 

 constituted part of the regular food approved by the former, whereas the latter left 

 the issue of this article to the discretion of the local authorities. The Conference, 

 however, increased the rice ration by four ounces daily when meat was not given (or 

 by two ounces should the interpretation of their intention adopted in this memorandum 

 not prove to be correct), and the vegetables were increased by two ounces per diem. 



41. The points of agreement and of contrast between the Conference scale and the 

 dietary given in English Local Prisons will be clearly discerned in the following table, 

 in which the chief proximate alimentary substances of the Conference diet and of the 

 " adapted " Local Prison Scale (para. 25) are placed side by side, with ylus and 

 TTiinus signs to the figures below to indicate the extent of the variation in the Con- 

 ference diet from the adapted standard : — 



