SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—-F. 409 
Prof. K. Nevitt—e Moss.—The energy output and input of the coal 
miner (10.30). 
The coal miner can be relied upon, if wages are adequate, to consume 
food of sufficient calorie value to enable him to expend the necessary energy 
during work and non-working hours. When wages are very low one of 
two things happen: either the miner has to do with less food and in con- 
sequence reduce his work-output, or he maintains his work-output and 
dietary standard at the expense of his family. In 1923 I published a paper 
showing that the average daily calorie value of the food actually consumed 
by 60 colliers was just over 4,700. ‘Two years later the Medical Research 
Council issued a report entitled ‘ The Nutrition of Miners and their Families,’ 
in which is stated, ‘ We shall therefore assume that the daily net energy 
requirement of a coal miner certainly does not exceed and probably falls 
a good deal short of 3,500 Calories.’ This figure was arrived at on the 
assumption that the average work-output of the coal miner is 10,000 kilo- 
gram-metres per hour, which is equivalent to walking on the level at the rate 
of just under 2 miles per hour. 
Actual determinations prove that the energy-output is 34 times greater than 
that assumed by those responsible for this report. Thus it is seen how 
seriously the experts misjudged a collier’s energy output and how gravely 
wrong, in consequence, was their estimate of his food requirements. 
Sir JOHN Orr (11.0). 
Prof. P. SaRGANT FLORENCE.—The actual cost of food requirements to 
working-class families (11.30). 
I. Economic and psychological factors increasing the cost of any given food 
values for working-class families. 
(1) Ignorance of the housewife what to purchase and how to cook it. 
Knowledge versus custom, prejudice and advertisements. 
(2) Poverty. Inability to purchase except hand to mouth in small 
quantities and often ‘ on tick.’ The wife’s housekeeping allowance often 
much below the husband’s earnings. Families not always models of thrift. 
(3) Poor judgment and household management. Mental wear and tear 
of straitened circumstances and large households. Lack of houseroom, 
storage and refrigeration. 
II. Relation of cost of food to working-class incomes. 
A survey of recent social surveys. The family budget. Various sources 
of income, and contributions of various members of the family. Necessary 
expenditure on housing, clothing, fuel and household requirements. Pro- 
portion of families in destitution, with incomes below the bare minimum 
cost of living. Is destitution diminishing? The effect of low wages, 
unemployment and large families. Correlation of poverty with death-rates. 
III. Calculation of changes in the cost of food from time to time. 
The official index number of the Ministry of Labour. Items included : 
methods of weighing and averaging of prices ; comparison with base period ; 
recent trends ; outlook for the future. 
GENERAL DISCUSSION (12.0). 
