Physiological and pathological researches / being a reprint of the principal scientific writings of the late T. R. Lewis ... Arranged and edited by Sir William Aitken ... G. E. Dobson ... and A. E. Brown.

  • Lewis, T. R. (Timothy Richards), 1841-1886.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiological and pathological researches / being a reprint of the principal scientific writings of the late T. R. Lewis ... Arranged and edited by Sir William Aitken ... G. E. Dobson ... and A. E. Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    all scales, that a uniform diet is given to persons of various age, weight, height, idiosyncracy and physical conformation, but scales will, nevertheless, be always rendered necessary by the exigencies of administration wherever bodies of persons have to be dealt with in the mass. It is the duty of those who are called upon to frame scales of diet to be guided by averages, and it is the duty of those who use them to provide for exceptional cases by special means. 23. Bearing in mind the spirit of these observations, it may now be considered what proportion of the diet which has proved so successful in English prisons should be considered as sufficient for native labouring prisoners in India, and which of these two kinds of maximum labour dietaries should be selected. The latter point may be considered in the first instance. As already remarked, there is but very little difference in the aggregate nutritive value of the two dietaries. The little there is, is slightly in favour of the maximum Local Prison scale. The work and the length of the sentences of inmates of this class of prison correspond perhaps more closely with that of the majority of Indian prisoners than do the work and sentences of those undergoing penal servitude in England, so that, on the whole, the Local Prison dietary would seem to be the more suitable. Moreover, the classification of the prisoners who are placed on the two principal scales of the diets for labouring prisoners corresponds very closely with that commonly adopted in India— One to four months' and over four months' imprisonment. In India the more general classification is into one to three months' and over three months' imprisonment. It may be added that the labour diets of the Local Prison Committee form the bases for the principal non- labouring dietaries.'- 24. The first question to be solved is what proportion of these English scales should be adopted for Indian prisoners. In attempting to frame such an estimate, it has been usual to accept the average relative weights of individuals as being the most satisfactory and practically attainable basis ; though in estimating the food-requirements of the prisoners of a province the activity natural to the population, as well as the physique, must be prominently borne in mind. Acquaintance with the mere size of a furnace, for example, will not, of itself, suffice to enable a satisfactory estimate to be formed of the amount of fuel which it will consume. A small-built but a highly energetic people require, proportionately to their weight, considerably more food than an apathetic or indolent race, though, perhaps, it would be more correct to say that they require more of that kind of food which has been shown to be the ultimate source of energy. When, however, the ordinary habits of natives of this country are considered, it is clear that exceptional activity does not exercise a disturbing element in such a computation, for it is notorious that the disproportion in the amount of work which they perform is quite * We recommend, says the Committee, that the articles of diet be the same to male prisoners with and those without hard labour ; but that in the case of prisoners without liard labour, one-fifth of the total of articles served up in a solid form (or one-sixth of the whole) be deducted from the diet appropriate to the requirement arising when hard labour forms an integral par. of the sentence.—Rc})ort on Dktaries, page 15.