ON PRISON DIET AND DISCIPLINE. 71 



quaotity of potatoes, cheese, gruel, and soup. The soup, however, does not 

 contain meat, and the gruel is very poor. 



Tliere are certain limitations, depending upon the duration of the sentence. 

 Thus, for seven days the diet is twelve to twenty ounces of bread daily. For 

 fourteen days boys and girls receive half of the second-class rations, and for 

 a month adults have half of the third-class rations. There is also a great 

 and unique curiosity in the list of limitations which refer to itch patients, 

 who receive but twelve ounces of bread per diem, whether as a punishment 

 or a cure for their uncleanness is not stated. We cannot but regard this as 

 a meagre dietary, since we cannot tell in what degree the discretionary power, 

 which a foot-note states to rest with the governor and surgeon, in increasing 

 the dietary after three months' imprisonment, is exercised, and, so far as 

 adults are concerned, it appears that the only increase which can be made 

 extends to ten ounces of bread only. 



A gaol which has for its governor another gentleman of the name of Shep- 

 herd, viz. the Wakefield Gaol, is also remarkable in its dietary, but in a dif- 

 ferent direction from any of the foregoing. The peculiarity is in the greater 

 variety of food and the care which is taken to make it palateable. The di- 

 stinction into classes is maintained, and in the highest classes is so extended 

 that it begins only after twelve months' imprisonment. The breakfast and 

 supper are alike, except in the highest class, and consist of one pint of gruel 

 only in the first class (seven days), whilst in the second and third six ounces 

 of bread are added ; in the fourth class eight ounces of bread are allowed, 

 and in the fifth class the same quantity of bread is allowed, and milk substi- 

 tuted for gruel for breakfast, but not for supper. The dinner in the first 

 class is one pound of bread. In the second class it consists of half a pound 

 of bread and one pound of potatoes twice, four ounces of bread, with one 

 pint of pea-soup or a pint and a half of gruel twice, plain pudding and one 

 ounce of treacle twice, and twelve ounces of bread alone once per week. In 

 the third class the bread and potatoes alone is restricted to once per week ; 

 four ounces of bread, one pound of potatoes, and three ounces of cooked 

 meat are given once ; four ounces of bread, a plain pudding, and one ounce 

 of treacle once ; whilst four ounces of bread and one pint of soup, pea-soup, 

 or Irish stew, are given four times per week. In the fourth class the bread, 

 meat, and potatoes are given twice (once being instead of bread and potatoes 

 alone), the other diets remaining the same. In the fifth class the bread, 

 meat, and potatoes are given thrice, the same with half a pint of soup added 

 twice, and bread and Irish stew alone twice per week. The soup does not 

 contain meat, but is made from meat liquor, oatmeal, and vegetables. The 

 pea-soup has the large quantity of six ounces of peas and four ounces of car- 

 rots per pint, with mint and pot-herbs. The Irish stew contains three or 

 four ounces of meat with sixteen ounces of vegetables. The plain pudding 

 is a quart made from eight ounces of flour. As the soup is partly made 

 from bones, which are boiled for twenty-four hours, it contains a very essen- 

 tial article in abundance, viz. fat. Altogether, this is not only the most 

 elaborate dietary in the return, but it seems to be the ultima TTiule in that 

 direction, and whatever may be its defects, it certainly evinces an anxious 

 desire not only to feed the prisoners suflSciently, but to treat them with the 

 consideration due to beings who have the sense of taste. Yet with this diet- 

 ary, and with the entire absence of the treadwheel and the crank labour, a 

 very large proportion of the prisoners are reported weekly as losing weight. 



The Hertford Gaol at St. Albans * off'ers some peculiarities by which it 

 might have been ranged with the foregoing, but it has one which is quite 



