NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
Agents for the Sale of Books published by the Superintendent of
Government Printing, India, Calcutta.
IN ENGLAND.
Mr. E. A. ARNOLD, 41 and 43, Maddox
Street, Bond Street, London, W.
Messrs. CONSTABLE & Co., 10, Orange
Street, Leicester Square, W.C.
Messrs. MEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER
& Co., 43, Gerrard Street, Soho, London,
W.
Mr. BERNARD QUARITCH, 11, Grafton
Street, New Bond Street, W.
Messrs. P. S. KING & SON, 2 and 4, Great
Smith Street, Westminster.
Messrs. H. S. KING & Co., 65, Cornhill,
and 9, Pall Mall, London.
Messrs. GRINDLAY & Co., 54, Parliament
Street, London, S.W.
Mr. T. FISHER UNWIN, 1, ADELPHI
TERRACE, London, W.C.
Messrs. W. THACKER & Co., 2, Creed Lane,
London, E.C.
Mr. B. H. BLACKWELL, 50 and 51, Broad
Street, Oxford.
Messrs. DEIGHTON BELL & CO., Cambridge.
Messrs. LUZAC & Co., 46, Great Russell
Street, London, W.C.
ON THE CONTINENT.
Mr. RUDOLF HAUPT, 1, Dorrienstrasse,
Leipzig, Germany.
Mr. OTTO HARRASSOWITZ
Mr. KARL HIERSEMAN N
Leipzig.
Messrs. R. FRIEDLANDER & SOHN, Berlin
W. N., Carlstrasse, 11.
Mr. ERNEST LEROUX, 28, Rue Bonaparte,
Paris.
Mr. MARTINUS NIJHOFF, The Hague,
Holland.
IN INDIA.
Messrs. TRACKER, SPINK & Co., Calcutta
and Simla.
Messrs. NEWMAN & Co., Calcutta.
Messrs. R. CAMBRAY & CO., Calcutta.
Messrs. S. K. LAHIRI & CO., Calcutta.
Messrs. B. BANERJEE & CO., Calcutta .
Messrs. HIGGINBOTHAM & CO., Madras.
Messrs. V. KALYANARAMA IYER & Co.,
Madras.
Messrs. G. A. NATESAN & Co., Madras.
Messrs. S. MURTHY & Co., Madras.
Messrs. THOMPSON & Co., Madras.
Messrs. TEMPLE & Co., Madras.
Messrs. COMBRIDGE & Co., Madras .
Messrs. P. R. RAMA IYER & Co., Madras .
Messrs. A. R. PILLAI & Co., Trivandrum .
Messrs. TRACKER & CO., LD., Bombay.
Messrs. A. J. COMBRIDGE & Co., Bombay.
Messrs. D. B. TARAPOREVALA, SONS & Co.,
Bombay.
Mrs. RADHABAI ATMARAM SAGOON,
BOMBAY.
Mr. SUNDER PANDURANG, Bombay .
Messrs. GOPAL NARAYAN & Co., Bombay.
Superintendent, American Baptist Mission
Press, Rangoon.
RAI SAHIB M. GULAB SINGH & SONS,
Mufid-i-Am Press, Lahore and Calcutta.
Mr. N. B. MATHUR, Superintendent, Nazair
Kanun Hind Press, Allahabad.
Messrs. A. CHAND & Co., Punjab.
Messrs. A. M. & J. FERGUSON, Ceylon.
Babu S. C. TALUKDAR, Proprietor, Students
and Company, Cooch Behar.
List of numbers of Scientific Memoirs by Officers of the Medical and
Sanitary Departments of the Government of India (New Series)
Published previous to the present issue.
No. 1. Standardisation of Calmette's Anti-Venomous Serum with Pure Cobra Venom : the
Deterioration of this Serum through keeping in India, by Captain G. Lamb,
I.M.S., and Wm. Hanna, Esq., M.B. Price As. 3 or 4d.
No. 2. Malaria in India, by Captain S. P. James, .I.M.S. Price Re. 1-8 or 2s. 3d.
No. 3. Some Ob servations on the Poison of Russell's Viper (Daboia Russellii), by Captain
G. Lamb,I.M.S and Wm. Hanna, Esq., M.B. Price As. 5 or 6d.
No. 4. On the Action of the Venoms of the Cobra and of the Daboia on the Red Blood
corpuscles and on the blood plasma, by Captain G. Lamb, I.M.S. Price
As. 8 or 9d.
No. 5. Specificity of Anti-Venomous Sera, by Captain G. Lamb,I.M.S. Price As. 3
or 4d.
No. 6. First Report on the Anti-Malarial Operations in Mian Mir, 1901-03, by Captain,
S. P. James, I.M.S. Price As. 12 or ls. 2d.
No. 7. Some Observations on the Poison of the Banded Krait (Bungarus Fasciatus), by
Captain G. Lamb, I.M.S. Price As. 8 or 9d.
No. 8. A Preliminary Report on a Parasite found in Patients suffering from Enlargement
of the Spleen in India, by Lieutenant S. R. Christophers, I.M.S. Price Re. 1-8
or 2s. 3d.
No. 9. Second Report of the Anti-Malarial Operations at Mian Mir, 1901—03, by Lieute-
nant S.R. Christophers, I.M.S. Price As. 10 or 1s.
No. 10. Specificity of Anti-Venomous Sera (Second Communication), by Captain G. Lamb,
I.M.S. Price As. 8 or 9d.
No. 11. On a Parasite found in persons suffering from Enlargement of the Spleen in
India-Second Report, by Lieutenant S. R. Christophers,I.M.S. P r i c e
Rs. 2 or 3s.
No. 12. On the Morphology, Teratology, and Diclinism of the Flowers of Cannabis, by
Major D. Prain, I.M.S.. Price As. 14 or 1s. 4d.
No. 13. Oriental or Delhi Sore, by Captain S. P. James, I. M.S.. Price As. 10 or 1s.
No. 14. On a Parasite found in the White Corpuscles of the Blood of Dogs, by Captain
S. P. James, I.M.S. Price As. 10 or 1s .
No. 15. On a Parasite found in persons suffering from Enlargement of the Spleen in
India—Third Report, by Lieutenant S, R. Christophers, I.M.S. Price
As. 10 or 1s.
No. 16. The Specificity of Anti-Venomous Sera with special reference to a Serum prepared
with the Venom of the Daboia Russellii, by Captain G. Lamb, I.M.S. Price
As. 6 or 7d.
No. 17. Snake-Venoms in relation to Hæmolysis, by Captain G. Lamb, I.M.S. Price As. 6
or 7d.
No. 18.Hæmogregarina Gerbilli, by Lieutenant S. R. Christophers, M.B., I.M.S. Price
As. 10 or 1s.
No. 19. On Kala Azar, Malaria and Malarial Cachexia, by Captain S. P. James, M.B.,
I.M.S. Price Re. 1-4 or 1s. 11d.
2
No. 20. Serum-Therapy of Plague in India; Reports by Mr. W. M. Haffkine. C.I.E.,
and various Officers of the Plague Research Laboratory, Bombay, by Lieutenant-
Colonel W. B. Bannerman, M.D., B.Sc., F.R.C.S., I.M.S. Price As. 14 or.
1 s. 4d.
No. 21. On the Standardisation of Anti-Typhoid Vaccine, by Captain George Lamb, M.D.,
I.M.S. (Director, Pasteur Institute of India), and Captain, W. B. C. Forster, M.B.,
D.P.H., I.M.S. Price As. 6 or 7 d.
No. 22. Mediterranean Fever in India : Isolation of the Micrococcus Melitensis, by Captain
George Lamb, M.D., 1.M.S., and Assistant Surgeon M. Kesava Pai, M.B., C.M.
(Madras). Price As. 10 or 1s.
No. 23. The Anatomy and Histology of Ticks, by Captain S. R. Christophers, M.B., IM.S.
Price Rs. 3 or 4s. 6 d.
No. 24. On a Parasite found in the White Corpuscles of the blood of Palm Squirrels, by
Captain W. S. Patton, M.B., I.M.S. Price As. 12 or 1s.2d.
No. 25. On the importance of Larval Characters in the Classification of Mosquitoes, by
Captain S. B. Christophers, M.B., I.M.S. Price As. 8 or 9 d .
No. 26. Leucocytozoon Canis, by Captain S. B. Christophers,M.B., I.M.S. Price As. 12
or ls. 2d.
No. 27. Preliminary Report on the Development of the Leishman-Donovan Body in the
Bed Bug, by Captain W. S. Patton, M.B., I.M.S. Price As. 8 or 9 d .
No. 28. The Sexual Cycle of Leucocytozoon Canis in the Tick, by Captain S. R. Christophers,
M.B., I.M.S. Price 12 or 1s. 2 d.
No. 29. Piroplasma Canis and its Cycle in the Tick, by Captain S. R. Christophers, M.B.,
I.M.S. Price Rs. 2 or 3s.
No. 30. The Theory and Practice of Anti-Rabic Immunisation, by Captain W. F. Harvey,
M.B., 1.M.S., and Captain Anderson McKendrick, M.B., I.M.S. Price As. 12 or
1 s. 2 d.
No. 31. The Development of the Leishman-Donovan Parasite in Cimex Rotundatus—Second
Report, by Captain W. S. Patton, M.B., I.M.S. Price Re. 1 or 1s . 6d.
No. 32. An Enquiry on Enteric Fever in India carried out at the Central Research Institute,
Kasauli, under the direction of Lieutenant-Colonel D. Semple, M.D., and Captain
E. D. W. Greig, M.D. Price Re. 1-2 or 1 s 9d .
No. 33. The Production of Alkali in Liquid Media by the Bacillus Pestis, by Lieutenant-
Colonel W. B. Bannerman, M.D., B.Sc.,
Price As. 5 or 6 d .
No. 34. Standards of the Constituents of the Urine and Blood and the bearing of the
Metabolism of Bengalis on the Problems of Nutrition, by Captain D. McCay,
M.B., I.M.S. Price As. 12 or 1s. 2 d.
No. 35. Black-water Fever, by Captain S. B. Christophers, M.B., I.M.S., and Dr. C. A.
Bentley.
No. 36. Observations on Rabies : with special reference to an Atrophic form of the disease
occurring in animals, by Major G. Lamb, M.D., I.M.S., and Captain A. G.
McKendrick, M.B., I.M.S. Price As. 8 or 9 d .
Published by and on sale at the Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India, Calcutta.
Copies are also available from all Agents for the sale of Government publications.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION
.
.
.
. . . . . . . . . .
1
HISTORICA
L —
Surgeon-Major I. B. Lyon's memorandum .
.
.
. . . . . .
2
Surgeon-Major T. B. Lewis's
,,
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
4
Major R. I. MacNamara's
,,
. . . . . . . .
9
THE SCOPE OF THE PRESENT ENQUIRY
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
10
ACCOUNT OF WORK DONE
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
18
Methods of work .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
21
PART I
THE FOOD-STUFFS OF BENGAL JAIL DIETARIES.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
2 7
Chemical Analysis of Food-stuffs of Bengal Jails.
3 2
Heat of combustion of Food-stuffs.
.
38
C H A P T E R I I .
THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF BENGAL JAIL DIETARIES
.
. .
.
.
.
39
A. —BENGALI DIET.
.
.
. .
.
. . .
40
1. The value of this diet in proximate principles.
.
.
.
.
4 1
2. The amount of nitrogen undergoing metabolism on the ordinary jail diet of
Bengal.
.
.
.
4 4
3. The effect on nitrogenous metabolism of varying the quantities of the com-
ponents of the ordinary jail diet.
.
.
.
.
.
57
4. The effects of varying the components, i.e., of adding wheat ata, fish or
meat
.
.
. . . . . . . .
75
Summary of results obtained.
. . . . . .
95
B.—BEHARI DIET
. .
.
.
.
. .
99
1. The value of the diet in proximate principles. .
.
100
2. The amount of nitrogen undergoing metabolism on the ordinary jail diet of
Behar.
. . .
.
.
102
3. The effect on nitrogenous metabolism of varying the quantities of the com-
ponents of the ordinary jail dietaries of Behar.
111
4. The effects of varying the components of the Behari diet, i.e., of
adding an animal protein to it .
.
150
PAGE
5 (i) The relative value of Burma and Country rice .
.
.
.
157
(ii) The relative value of the different dals
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
157
(iii) The relative value of wheat and makkai ata
.
.
.
.
158
GENERAL SUMMARY OF RESULTS OBTAINED
.
.
.
. . . . .
159
CHAPTER III.
REPORT ON SIX MONTHS' USE OF SPECIAL DIETS IN PURI JAIL
.
.
.
.
.
.
164
CHAPTER IV.
THE EFFECTS OF THE LARGE QUANTITY OF SALT GIVEN IN BENGAL JAIL DIETARIES
.
.
169
CHAPTER. V.
SOME SIDE-ISSUES OF THE INVESTIGATION
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
183
1. The relationship between the quantity of rice in the diet and the quantity of urine
passed
.
.
183
2. The influence of Burma and Country rice on the excretion of urine
.
.
.
188
3. The quantity of fæces passed by prisoners on Bengal jail dietaries.
.
.
.
189
4. The average amount of nitrogen contained in the fæces
.
.
.
.
.
191
5. The average amount of uric acid excreted in the urine by prisoners on the Bengal
Jail diets.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
191
6. The quantity of purins excreted
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
192
7. The percentage of urea to the total excretion of nitrogen
.
.
.
.
.
193
8. The relation of ammonia nitrogen to the total nitrogen of the urine
.
.
.
193
9. The relative absorption shown by Hindus and Mahomedans on an animal diet .
196
PART II.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF FOOD TO PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT.
.
.
199
Discussion of Chittenden's views on the level of nitrogenous metabolism in con-
nection with the work in Bengal.
199
The evidence afforded by the Bengali on the effects of a low protein absorption
.
204
The evidence afforded by the Behari on the effects of a low protein absorption .
.
206
Examination of Dr. J. H. Kellogg's views as to the cause of the defective develop-
ment of the Bengali.
.
.
.
207
The evidence afforded by the Hill-tribes of Bengal on the effects of a low protein
absorption.
211
Conclusions regarding the relationship of food to physical development. .
220
Note on the aboriginal tribes of Chota Nagpur
..
2 2 2
BENGAL JAIL DIETARIES
With some observations on the Influence of Dietary on the
Physical Development and Well-being of the People of Bengal.
INTRODUCTION.
T HE investigations that have been engaging the attention of the staff * of the
Physiological Department of the Medical College, Calcutta, have, we hope,
shed a considerable amount of light on the nutritive value of Indian food-stuffs,
and particularly on the nutritive value of jail dietaries in Bengal. They will also
be found to have a very distinct bearing on the much discussed problems of
nutrition.
The work recorded in this memoir has been carried out on the initiative and
at the expense of the Sanitary Department of the Government of India. The im-
portance of the subject of jail dietaries had been fully recognised by the Govern-
ment of India. They had already caused certain enquiries to be made, which.
will be referred to, but had deferred further action until a suitable officer became
available for the purpose of estimating the nutritive value of the different food-
stuffs in the dietary of prisoners.
The present enquiry is limited to the jails of Bengal. The Work began on the
1st February 1908 and has been going on practically continuously (so far as other
official duties permitted) for the last eighteen months..
Historical.
It would not serve any useful purpose to go very deeply into the history of
all the work that has been done on jail diets at Home and in India. Certain
important papers will be referred to in so far as they are of interest in the
light of present investigations ; but all the work hitherto done has been based
on the assumption that the chemical analysis of food-stuffs afforded a direct
measure of their nutritive value. Further, the diet scales laid down for Indian
prisons have all been calculated on the result of chemical analyses and not on the
actual nutritive value of the food materials, i.e., the percentage of their proximate
principles that is capable of being absorbed by the intestinal tract of the prisoners
* Thr ee As s i s t ant Sur geons wer e empl oyed on t he enqui r y, vi z. : —
Satis Chandra Banerji, L.M.S., Assistant Professor of Physiology.
Lal Mohan Ghoshal, L.M.S.
Demonstrators, Physiological Department, Medical College, Calcutta..
Madan Mohan Dutta, L.M.S.
B
2
The present enquiry aims at estimations of the actual amount of some of the
proximate principles— especially protein—that are absorbed and assimilated, and
for this reason the papers above referred to, while of great importance so far as they
go, do not give much assistance in the present work.
Surgeon Major T. R. Lewis* writes : "A mere tabula statement of the several
ingredients constituting the several diets would be of comparatively little value un-
less accompanied by a statement of their chemical composition ; and, in order to
judge of the comparative merits of dietaries so analysed, it is essential that a clear
conception should be formed as to what particular portions are specially adapted
to the nutrition of the body." To this we may add that it is of even more import-
ance to know in what proportions the proximate principles of the different food-
- s t u f f s a r e a b s o r b e d a n d m a d e u s e o f i n t h e e c o n o m y .
It is futile, for example, to work out diet scales furnishing say 80 grammes of
protein per man daily, if instead of 90 per cent. only 60 per cent. of this is
absorbed, and then imagine that we have provided for the prisoners' physiological
needs. Yet, so far as we have been able to find in the literature of this subject
that is what has been done hitherto.
The diet scales would also appear to have been based on those in use in the pri-
sons of European countries, an allowance being made for difference in weight.
So far back as 1881 Lewis wrote, and it is equally true to-day :—" So far
as I am aware, no systematic series of observations has been conducted
on the precise food-requirements of the inhabitants of this country when under-
going laborious exertion, as compared with the requirements when the body is at
rest, so that all inferences as to what these requirements are, are based on experi-
ments made in Europe and on people accustomed to a far larger proportion of
animal food than the great majority of the inhabitants of Eastern countries."
The first work done on the subject by actual experiment, to which we have
reference, is an able and interesting memorandum by Surgeon Major I. B. Lyon,†
Chemical Analyser to Government, Bombay. From actual experience of native
prisoners on hard labour in the Bombay House of Correction, Dr. Lyon devised
three scales of diet, based on the analysis of the diet on which these prisoners
had been working and which had proved sufficient.
We need not go into the details of this paper : it will be sufficient for our
purpose to say that the work done by Dr. Lyon was carried out from the exactly
opposite point of view to that recorded in this memoir.
Dr. Lyon found that native prisoners in the Bombay House of Correction in-
creased in health, weight and physical development when sentenced to hard labour ;
* A memorandum on the Dietaries of Labouring Prisoners in Indian Jails--A nnual Report of the
sanitary Commissioner with, the Covernment of India for 1880, page 159.
† Memorandum by Surgeon Major I. B. Lyon, F.C.S.—Gazette of India, 19th May 1877.
3
be very properly analysed the diet on which this was possible, and found it to con-
tain quantities of nitrogen and carbon which (when allowance is made for difference
in weight) were practically identical with Letheby's estimate for ordinary labour
in England, and of the same value as the hard labour diet of English convicts. On
the basis of this experience his three scales of diet were formulated : —
No. 1 Scale.—The labour scale ; is simply the Bombay House of Correc-
tion scale raised or lowered proportionally to the weight of the indivi-
duals to be fed.
No. 2 Scale.—The light labour scale ; is scale No. 1 reduced in the pro-
portion that the light labour diet of English convicts is lower than
English convict hard labour diet.
No. 3 Scale. —The bare sustenance scale ; is scale No. 1 reduced in the
proportion that a mean between Edwin Smith and Letheby's esti-
mates for bare sustenance is lower than English convict hard labour
diet.
Dr. Lyon, therefore, devised his diets by working back from an analysed diet
which had proved itself sufficient for all physiological purposes, i.e., a diet from
which enough of the different proximate principles was absorbed to supply the
needs of the body. The ultimate object of the present investigation is to devise
diet scales in which the several ingredients are so combined that the maximum
absorption is obtained with a minimum of waste—a point not taken notice of in
either Lyon's diets or any other diet scales that have been framed for Indian jails.
The reason why dietaries for prisoners in India have all been worked out from
the chemical analyses of the foods in use appears to be that, from the investigations
that have been carried out in Europe and America on the percentage absorption
of the proximate principles, a fairly fixed proportion of these was found to be
absorbed, i.e., above 90 per cent. in a mixed animal diet and above 85 per cent.
in a so-called vegetable diet. So that, by assuming these percentages to hold good
for Indian food-stuffs, the framers of the different diets estimated that between 85
and 90 per cent. of the proximate principles found by chemical analysis in the diets
would be absorbed. This we shall show is not by any means the case ; and, further,
we shall give abundant evidence that the actual amount of absorption does not
vary directly with the quantity of the proximate principles contained in the diet ;
this at least we can strongly assert is so in the case of most important of the
proximate principles—protein. It was a very natural assumption to make and, so
far as we know, the fallacy was not discovered until actual examination* of the
excreta of prisoners on a known jail diet proved that a comparatively poor absorp-
tion of protein takes place when the actual amount of protein offered in the diet is
taken into consideration.
* Scientific Memoirs No. 34—Standards of the Constituents of the Blood and Urine and the Bearing of
the Metabolism of the Bengali on the Problems of Nutrition.
B 2
4
The next paper to which we wish to refer is Surgeon-Major T. B. Lewis's Memo-
randum * on the Dietaries of Labouring Prisoners in Indian Jails. This is a most
important and comprehensive discussion of the whole subject of Indian jail diet-
aries. Dr. Lewis evidently clearly foresaw the importance of the absorbability of
a diet, for in discussing the nutritive value of the diet scales of labouring prisoners
h e s a y s : " T h e r e a r e p r a c t i c a l d i f f i c u l t i e s i n d e c i d i n g t h e e q u i v a l e n t v a l u e s o f t h e s e
various food-stuffs, not only because the chemical analyses which have been made
of many of them are not so complete as desirable, but there is also a want of definite
knowledge as to their exact position as true aliments based on their adaptability for
being assimilated."
This valuable memorandum traces the history of the different scales of diet for
Indian prisons and gives their values in the principal alimentary constituents.
Thus the Government of Bengal in 1860 adopted certain scales on the recom-
mendation of Dr. Mouat. The interesting point regarding these diets for labouring
and under-trial prisoners is that animal food was included. These diets appear to
have been in force in Lower Bengal for eighteen years. Their chief constituents
are worth recording :—
Rice
20.5 ozs.
Rice
20.5 ozs.
Meat
4.1 " (4 days).
Fish
4.1
" (4 days).
Dal
4. 1 "
Dal
4.1
"
Vegetables 4.1 " (8.2 ozs. 3 days). Vegetables
4.1
" (8.2 ozs. 3 days).
Computed by Lewis to be equivalent to practically 14 grammes of nitrogen
or 87.50 grammes of protein daily.
When compared with the scales of diet which have been adapted from the
English local prison scale for men of an average weight of 110 lbs., it will be found
that the amount of nitrogen in each day's food in the scale for Bengalis is precisely
the same as is contained in the "adapted" maximum scale, 205 grains. The
amount of carbon is greater by over 800 grains.
The diet scale for natives of Behar is considerably more liberal as 10 ozs. of
wheat was substituted for 8 ozs. of rice. The chief constituents of these diets are
also of interest :—
Rice
12.3 ozs.
Rice
12.3 ozs.
Wheat Ata
10.2 "
Wheat Ata 10.2
"
Meat
4.1 " (4 days).
Fish
4.1
" (4 days).
Pulse (Dal)
2.0 " (4 days).
Pulse (Dal)
2.0
" (4 days).
6.1 " (3 days).
6.1
" (3 days).
Vegetables
4.1 "
Vegetables
4.1
"
Computed by Lewis to be equivalent to 16.80 grammes of nitrogen or 105
grammes of protein daily.
*loc-cit.