PART IV.] Ingredients of the Dietaries in Madras Presidency. 



677 



nitrogen and 4,367 grains of carbon ; whereas the same scale with meat in lieu of pulse, 

 contains only 230 grains of nitrogen and 3,943 of carbon — a decrease of 30 grains of 

 nitrogen and of 424 of carbon. It will be noted that considerable difference exists 

 in the nutritive value of the several diets according as wheat or jowar or bajra forms 

 the staple ingredient ; but as it is probable that these cereals are, to . a greater or 

 less extent, issued alternately in most jails, the mean of the dietaries may, possibly, 

 serve to convey a more accurate estimate of the nutritive value of the food actually 

 issued. 



68. As the Bombay prison dietaries are not issued according to length of 

 imprisonment (i.e., to prisoners of under or over three or four months), it is not 

 practicable to institute close comparisons between the scales in force here and those 

 in force in England ; but, comparing the maximum scale of the English Local Prisons 

 with the maximum of the average of the Bombay Mofussil jail scales, the results are 

 as follows : — 



It will be seen that the difiference is in favour of the Bombay diet under every heading, 

 so that, man for man, and not merely weight for weight, the hard-labouring native 

 prisoners in Bombay receive more food than hard-labouring prisoners in England. The 

 ordinary medium-labour scale in Bombay is higher than the " adapted " maximum 

 English Local Prison scale (para. 25). 



69. In the Madras Presidency the numerous diet scales which were formerly in 

 force for labouring prisoners have been reduced to two classes, — the dietaries for central 

 jails, and those for the district and subsidiary jails. In both classes the staple cereals 

 are ragi, bajra (cumboo), and jowar (cholum) ; any or all to be adopted at the discretion 

 of the local officials ; but 24 ounces of ragi or jowar is to be considered as equivalent 

 to 25 ounces of bajra. In the central jails 1^ lb. of rice is issued weekly. Fifteen 

 ounces of animal food is also issued weekly in these jails, as also to convicts of "over 

 four months " in the district jails. The other ingredients entering into the diets will 

 be found tabulated in Table XVI, and their values computed in terms of nitrogen and 

 carbon. 



It is probable that two, if not all three, cereals are resorted to in most jails; 

 hence, in estimating the value of the dietary of the labouring prisoners of the 



