PART IV.] Dietary in Assam and BtLvma contrasted with that of Bengal. 66 j 



Computed on the English standard these scales should suffice for men weighing 

 considerably more than the average weight of natives of Bengal and of Behar — the 

 Bengali scales for a body weight of from 123 to 150 lbs. ; and the Behari scales for persons 

 weighing from 140 to 172 lbs. It was stated above that the Bengali and Behari diet- 

 scales adopted by the Indian Jail Committee of 1864, and which were in force up 

 to March 1879, should have sufficed for prisoners weighing respectively 110 and 

 134 lbs., so that the present scales are very materially more liberal than those 

 foimerly, and for so long a period, in force, and regarding which, judging 

 from the evidence recorded by Mr. William Tallack (the secretary of the 

 Howard Association) before Lord Kimberley's Jail Commission of 1878-79, there 

 seems to have existed a feeling abroad that even the old scales were far from 

 being deterrent. Mr. Tallack, on being asked to state generally his views on the 

 subject of penal discipline both at home and abroad,* remarked amongst other 

 things : — 



" I may also observe that through, as I believe, inadequate regard to this necessity of rendering prisons 

 deterrent and disagreeable, certain foreign countries are experiencing very inconvenient results, especially America, 

 where there is little doubt that the prisoners have, in many cases, if not generally, been actually pampered, and 

 as a result, or as one result, we find that American prisons are almost everywhere overflowing. I was talking 

 yesterday to a friend of mine who has been a missionary of the Church of England in India for many years, and 

 he told me that, with reference to the Bengal prisons, they are generally called by the natives ' our father-in-law's 

 house,' by which they mean that they have a comfortable resource to fall back upon in case of need, and he further 

 gave me an instance of the working of this feeling ; he mentioned the case of one Bengal prisoner who, when his 

 term of imprisonment was up, handed his brass water-jug to a comrade, saying ' take care of this for me until I 

 return ; I shall soon be back again to claim it.' " 



51. Kice forms the staple cereal of the jail dietary in the adjoining province of 

 Assam, as also in British Burma.; and as the natives of these provinces present many 

 features as to physique, habits, etc., in common with Bengalis, it will be convenient for 

 purposes of comparison to consider the diet scales in force in these provinces in con- 

 nection with those of Bengal. Full details regarding these two dietaries will be found 

 in Tables V and XIII of the appendix. 



52. In Assam, as in Bengal, two classes of prisoners are provided for, — Assamese 

 and Bengalis forming one class, and Beharis and natives of Upper India generally 

 the other. A summary of the nutritive value of these two dietaries is given below : — 



Nutritive value of the diets in force for labouring prisoners in Assam. 



Miimtts of Evidence, Vol. II, 1879, Question 2656. 



