298 Dr. Smith — Inquiries into the National Dietary . [June 16, 



is evident from tlie definition of the generic characters themselves. The 

 proposition itself is of some importance, as it furnishes a verification of 

 the completeness of the enumeration of generic characters contained in 

 Table III. 



II. ''Inquiries into the National Dietary.'' By Dr. E. Smith, F.R.S. 

 Received April 28, 1864. 

 (Abstract.) 



The paper contains an abstract of the scientific results of an inquiry 

 which the author had undertaken for the Government into the exact dietary 

 of large classes of the community, viz. agricultural labourers, cotton opera- 

 tives, silk- weavers, needlewomen, shoemakers, stocking-weavers, and kid- 

 glovers. The inquiry in reference to the first class was extended to every 

 county in England, to North and South Wales and Anglesea, to the West 

 and North of Ireland, and to the West, North, and part of the South of 

 Scotland, whilst in reference to the other classes it was prosecuted in the 

 towns where they were congregated. 



The object of the investigation was to ascertain in the most careful 

 manner the kind and quantity of food which constitutes the ordinary dietary 

 of those populations ; and the inquiry was in all cases made at the homes of 

 the operatives. 



The number of families included in the inquiry was 691, containing 3016 

 persons then living and taking food at home. The calculations of the 

 nutritive elements are made upon the basis of an adult, two persons under 

 the age of 10 and one over that age being regarded as an adult, and of 

 the elements, the carbon and nitrogen are calculated in each article of food, 

 whilst the free hydrogen is separately estimated as carbon upon the total 

 quantities. 



The author then cites the estimations which in his papers in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions for 1859 and 1861 he had made of the quantity of 

 carbon and nitrogen emitted by the body under various conditions, and com- 

 putes on those bases the amounts of those substances which are required as 

 food by various classes of the community. He then proceeds to state the 

 quantities which have been actually found in the dietaries of the persons in- 

 cluded in this investigation, and the great variations which the inquiry had 

 brought to light. He also compares the nutriment with the cost of it in 

 the food, and states the proportion which the nitrogen bears to the carbon 

 in each of the classes and in the difi'erent localities. 



Each article of food is then considered separately, and the frequency 

 with which, as well as the average quantity in which, it was obtained by 

 these populations is stated. 



