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



79. It has already been pointed out that chemical analysis, however exhaustive, 

 can only afford such information as will enable an approximate estimate to be formed 

 of the nutritive value of any food, seeing that it is not only what nutriment a par- 

 ticular food stuff contains that is of moment, but also what portion of it can be 

 readily digested and assimilated by the body. In a diet composed extensively of vege- 

 table substances, the quality of the cooking is of much more importance than it is in 

 animal food dietaries, seeing that a large proportion of nutriment contained in cereals 

 and pulses is enclosed in extremely -resistant, indigestible envelopes, which, if not 

 effectually disposed of by proper cooking, defeat all attempts on the part of the di- 

 gestive organs to profit by the food. In the endeavour which has been manifested 

 by many framers of jail dietaries to raise the proportion of the nitrogenous element 

 without necessitating a corresponding increase in the carbonaceous, a large addition 

 to the pulses has been a favourite mode of meeting the requirements of a view which 

 presupposed the rapid waste of muscle during exercise ; but it is questionable whether 

 so large an amount of nitrogenous material does not in reality deteriorate the value of 

 the diet on account of the increased work thrown on the excretory organs in getting 

 rid of a portion of the nitrogenous elements which the system does not require and 

 which, to a certain extent, acts more as an irritant than as a food.* In some instances, 

 however, the excess of the nitrogenous elements which is shown in many of the diet 

 scales above tabulated, is given in the form of parched, and otherwise imperfectly 

 cooked, gram, so that it is probable that a large proportion of the contained nutriment 

 will not be assimilated. On several grounds therefore the addition of an undue pro- 

 portion of pulses, and especially of ill-cooked pulses, is a doubtful advantage, and may 

 be even injurious. 



80. If the column giving the estimated weight of a person for which the several 

 diet-scales should suffice be examined, it will be found that great variations are mani- 

 fest. Whereas, for example, the maximum scale in force in British Burma has been 

 computed as sufficing for the support of a mean body-weight of only 94 lbs., that in 

 force in the Rupar Jail in the Punjab should suffice for a person weighing 268 lbs. 

 The latter, however, is a special diet, the average value of the scales for the jails of 

 the province generally, being for a body-weight of 162 to 180 lbs. 



81. This tabular statement, however, does not appear to call for any lengthened 

 explanation, but a brief reference to the data contained in it regarding the Bengal 

 dietaries may serve as an illustration of the manner in which the table may be studied, 

 and, also, show what appears to be the inference which a careful examination of the 

 dietaries of English and Indian prisons suggests regarding the recent changes made 

 in the Bengal scales. It will be seen that the value of the two maximum diet scales 

 adopted by the Indian Jail Committee of 1864 has been estimated as sufficient, on the 



* " A large meal of proteid material must tax the system to the utmost in getting rid of or stowing away the 

 nitrogenous crystalline bodies arising through the luxus consumption either in the alimentary canal or in the liver." 

 —Text-book of Physiology by M. Foster, F.R.S., Third Edition, page 442, 1879. 



