TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 189 
plexities and contradictions that invest correlative results could be satisfactorily 
enunciated. 
On the Influence of various Circumstances in causing Loss or Gain in 
the Weight of the Prisoners in Wakefield Convict Prison. By W. R. 
MILNER. 
The observations on which this paper were founded were made in the convict 
prison at Wakefield on prisoners between the ages of 16 and 50, confined in sepa- 
rate cells: 
The cells have a cubic content of about 900 feet, and from 30 to 35 cubic feet of 
air is passed through each cell per minute. 
The air is warmed in winter; the mean temperature of the cells for the year is 
61° Fahr.; the highest monthly mean, 66°5, was in August; the lowest, 56°9, in 
arch, 
The diet is uniform, subject only to such alterations or additions as may be ordered 
by the medical officer in individual cases. 
“The prisoners are all clothed and exercised alike, and they are all kept at work ; 
the greater part make mats and matting of cocoa-fibre ; some work at tailoring and 
shoemaking, and a few are engaged in other employments, 
The prisoners are all weighed on admission, and at the latter end of every month 
during their stay. 
The observations extended over ten years; the number of men under observation 
was 4000. The average number weighed monthly 372, and the total number of 
weighings 44°004. 
The results of these weighings were grouped with a view to exhibit the effect of a 
number of variable conditions, viz. season of the year, period of imprisonment, em- 
ployment in prison, age, and height. 
It was found that during the summer months the prisoners gained, and during 
the winter months, lost weight. 
The change from loss to gain took place in March, and from gain to loss in Sep- 
tember: these changes were not gradual, but abrupt. 
During the first two months of their stay at Wakefield the prisoners gained weight, 
during the second two months there was a large loss of weight; a small loss oc- 
curred in the third period of two months; subsequently to this there was a steadily 
increasing gain, owing probably in a great measure to the extra diet given to those 
who were falling off the most. 
The effect of muscular exertion was very clearly shown; as it appeared that while 
the men employed at sedentary work, such as tailors and shoemakers, gained on the 
average nearly two pounds per man during their stay, those who worked at coirs 
matting weaving, which is a very laborious employment, lost nearly seven pounds. 
Of the former it had been found necessary to give extra food to 26 per cent., while 
60 per cent. of the coir-matting weavers had extra food given to them. 
In the groups formed according to age, it at the first glance appeared that the 
younger and older prisoners gained weight, and that the middle-aged lost ; but when 
the numbers were corrected for the quantity which each group ought to have gained 
by development, it was seen that the younger men, although heavier when they left 
the prison than when they entered it, really sustained a virtual loss of weight, 
gradually varying from nearly 5 pounds in those under 18 to half a pound in those 
between 25 and 40: the men above 40 gained weight. 
The influence of height was, that the men below the average height gained weight, 
‘those about the average remained stationary, and those who were above it lost, 
On the Form of the Eyeball, and the relative position of the Entrance of the 
Optic Nerve inte it in different Animals. By T. NUNNELEY. 
The author observed, that the orbits are much larger than the eyeballs, and 
that their axes diverge considerably in an outward direction, while those of the two 
eyes are perfectly parallel. The eyeballs lie in the fore-part of the orbits, and acs 
cording as they are more or less prominent, and more or less covered with the lids, 
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