104 REPORT — 1865. 



not aware that they are more exempt from diseases, especially of the chronic, ca- 

 chetic kind, than those of a smaller size and more spare habit. 



6. Brute animals afford analogies. The fell sheep of the north of England and 

 of Wales, picking up a scanty subsistence on the poor pastures of the mountain sides, 

 are equally remarkable for their hardihood, activity, small size, and the goodness of 

 the mutton they afford. A like remark is applicable to the cattle of similar 

 districts, such as the Highlands of Scotland and the wilder parts of Ireland and 

 Wales — how inferior are they in size to the longhorns of Devon and the shorthorns 

 of Herefordshire, feeding in rich meadows ! The horse is another instance. Where- 

 ever the pasture is poor, ponies will be found; but though small, they are nowise 

 deficient in strength, activity, and power of endurance. Large horses are the pro- 

 duct of rich pastures and an unfailing supply of nutritious food. The Yorkshire 

 breeder, to secure horses most in request, as rated by size and muscle, allows the 

 colt the milk of two mares. And we are told that in some of the Polynesian 

 islands the sons of chiefs are similarly reared, so as to secure a princely bulk and 

 stature. 



7. If, then, it be not proved that a scanty or somewhat scanty diet is not perma- 

 nently injurious to man, is it right that men undergoing imprisonment for crime 

 should be otherwise than sparingly fed ? Should the allowance in the least exceed 

 that sufficient to keep the criminal in a state of health and strength somewhat be- 

 low par, and merely adequate to that moderate degree of labour erroneously desig- 

 nated " hard labour " to which he may be sentenced ? What is the general state 

 of health of such prisoners at present in the county jails, where the dietaries are 

 least in excess ? So far as the author had been able to learn, disease amongst 

 them is in less proportion than in the general population of the countiy, and the 

 mortality less. 



The advocates for a liberal diet for prisoners hold that, under the depressing 

 influence of such confinement, more food is required to prevent undue waste and to 

 preserve vigour. This seems a very questionable doctrine. Mental depression im- 

 pairs the appetite ; and without an appetite for food, little, it may be expected, will 

 be digested and assimilated. Were the doctrine sound, and to be carried out in the 

 instance of prisoners, should they not be allowed stimulants — wine and beer ? 



On the principle, indeed, of not endangering health, ought not imprisonment for 

 crime to be abolished altogether ? for, according to the advocates of a more liberal 

 diet, the confinement, with the opprobrium attached to it, operates on the mind, de- 

 presses the spirits, and is thus injurious to health. 



Those who expect effects deleterious to the constitution, productive of cachetic 

 diseases, and especially pulmonary consumption, from a spare diet, refer to poor 

 needlewomen and nuns, amongst whom this disease is especially prevalent. But in 

 their cases other causes are in operation ; and in the instances of the former almost 

 every cause likely to undermine the constitution — poor as well as scanty food — bad 

 lodgings, ill ventilated — overwork— privation of open-air exercise — and, not least, 

 the want of mental exhilaration ; and they are commonly of a class with sen- 

 sitive minds : and the circumstances acting on nuns are often in many respects 

 similar. 



The author contended that it was a false humanity to allow a high rate of diet 

 to prisoners, with the intent of supporting them in their full working strength 

 (thus making a prison life quortrl diet as little irksome as possible, and so far detract- 

 ing from the idea of punishment) and, on discharge in full vigour, the better able 

 to renew their criminal courses. 



The principle of a full diet for prisoners is not well established as essentially 

 necessary. There should be, he urged, further inquiry instituted to determine the 

 dietary limits, the lowest not seriously endangering a permanent injury of the con- 

 stitution. 



Is the Opinion that a Diet of Animal Food conduces to Leanness well founded 

 on Facts? By John Davy, M.D., F.R.S., #c. 



Those who have advocated this opinion, viz. that a diet of animal food conduces 

 to leanness, have supported it by two trains of argument, — one, that a vegetable diet 



