118 
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
To compare the food requirements of the various families, it is con- 
venient to express them in a common term. The requirements of an 
average man for a single day is taken as unity, and the relative require- 
ments of the other members of the household are taken as follows : — 
Woman, equivalent to 08 of a 
man 
at moderate labour. 
Boy, 14-16 
00 
© 
Girl, 14-16 „ 
„ 0-7 
Child, 10-13 „ 
„ 0-6 
: ? 
Child, 6-9 „ 
„ 0-5 
>> 
Child, 2-5 „ 
0-4 
Child, under 2 „ 
CO 
6 
5 ? 
These allowances were made by Atwater in his diet studies in New York, 
and have been used in subsequent investigations. Expressed in this 
common term, the average of the families studied in 1915-1916 is equivalent 
to 3*51 men per day, as compared with 4 '67 in the 1911-1912 families, 
that is, in the present studies the families were smaller as a whole or 
contained younger children. 
In every case the food consumed by the family was weighed and noted 
for a period of seven days. Further particulars of the manner of investi- 
gating dietaries, the treatment of waste, etc., and the method by which 
the energy value is calculated, will be found in Professor Noel Paton’s 
introduction to Miss Lindsay’s report. * 
The forty diets studied are very representative of the manner in which 
this class of the community lives. In connection with the same investiga- 
tion, over 600 labouring class families in Glasgow were visited, and the 
conditions of living were very much the same as those of the forty 
families here described. Many complaints were voiced about the price 
of food ; but as employment was easy to find, there was little actual 
privation, and where the children were suffering, it was the result of the 
indolence or drinking habits of one or both parents. The question of 
whether wages have risen sufficiently to compensate for the rise in prices 
is considered later. 
Habits of living have not changed since Miss Lindsay remarked upon 
them. Food and coal are got in small quantities, the inadequate accommo- 
dation in the majority of the houses making this necessary. The rent is 
seldom saved from the income of each week, but is usually paid out of 
* The schedules of the individual dietaries studies are not published as they were in 
Miss Lindsay’s report, but they are preserved in the Physiological Laboratory, where they 
may be consulted. 
