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CONTENTS.
PAGE.
INTRODUCTION
. .
.
. .
. . . .
.
.
.
.
. . 1
HISTORICAL
.
.
.
.
. .
.
.
. .
.
.
.
.
. 1
Surg.-Major T. R. Lewis's memorandum
.
.
.
.
. .
.
.
. 2
THE SCOPE OF THE PRESENT ENQUIRY
.
. . .
.
.
.
.
. . 6
ACCOUNT OF THE WORK DONE .
.
. . .
.
.
.
.
. .
. 9
Methods of work
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 11
CHAPTER I.
THE FOOD-STUFFS OF THE JAIL DIETARIES OF THE UNITED PROVINCES
. .
.
. 14
The Diet Scales at present in force .
.
.
.
.
.
. .
.
.
. 14
Notes on the different food-materials
.
.
.
. .
. . .
.
. 2 1
Chemical Analyses of „
.
.
.
.
. .
. .
.
. 24
Average Chemical Composition and Caloric values of the food-stuffs
.
. .
.
. 28
CHAPTER II.
The values of the Jail Dietaries of the United Provinces in proximate Principles .
.
.
. 29
The apparent value of these diets .
.
.
.
. .
.
. .
.
. . 34
CHAPTER III.
The average amount of nitrogen absorbed from the Jail Dietaries of the United Provinces
.
. 35
Summary and conclusions .
.
.
.
.
. .
.
.
.
.
.
. 51
CHAPTER IV.
The determination of the co-efficients of absorption of the nitrogen offered in the food-stuffs enter-
ing into the Jail Dietaries of the United Provinces
. .
.
. .
.
. . 52
Summary of results obtained in Benares Jail .
.
.
.
. .
.
.
. 69
„ „ „ Naini Jail
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 79
„ „ „ Lucknow Jail .
.
.
.
.
.
.
. . 90
„ „ „ Agra Jail
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 106
General Summary of work on nitrogen absorption .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 109
CHAPTER V.
The determination of the co-efficients of absorption of the Carbohydrates offered in the food-
stuffs entering into the Jail Dietaries of the United Provinces
.
.
. .
.
. 112
Summary of the results obtained for the absorption of Carbohydrates
.
.
.
.
. 122
CONTENTS, ii
CHAPTER VI .
PAGE
The suitability of the Jail Dietaries of the United Provinces .
.
.
. .
.
. 124
The Dietaries discussed
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 124
The individual food-stuffs discussed
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. . . 128
Summary of the different points discussed with conclusions arrived at .
. .
. . . 135
CHAPTER VII.
The Revision of the Jail Dietaries of the United Provinces
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 138
Conditions to be observed in the framing of new diet scales
.
.
. .
.
.
. 139
The new scales of dietaries proposed
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 152
Table contrasting the points of chief importance in the present Dietaries, Voit's Standard and in
the proposed scales .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. . . 1 5 3
The proposed new Dietaries discussed . .
. .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 154
The cost of the present Dietaries
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. .
. . . 159
„ „ „ proposed „
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. .
.
.
. 160
C H A P T E R V I I I .
SOME SIDE-ISSUES OF THE INVESTIGATION
—
1. The quantity of salt in the Jail Dietaries of the United Provinces
.
.
.
. 162
2. The average quantity of urine secreted
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 163
3. The excretion of chlorides in the urine
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 166
4. The quantity of fæces passed
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 167
5. The effect of an increase or decrease of the wheat on the quantity of fæces passed
.
. 171
6. The average amount of nitrogen in the fæces
.
.
.
. .
.
. . 173
CHAPTER IX.
THE RELATIONS HIP OF FOOD TO PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT .
.
. .
. . . 186
The evidence afforded by Prisoners in the United Provinces .
.
.
.
.
. 187
The evidence afforded by information collected from Regimental Medical Officers
.
.
. 190
1. On Jats .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 191
2. On Brahmins .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 192
3. On Rajputs .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 193
4. On Dogras
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 195
5. On Jat Sikhs .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. .
. 195
6. On Sikhs
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 196
7. On Pathans
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. .
. 200
GENERAL SUMMARY
.
. .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 200
INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE JAIL
DIETARIES OF THE UNITED
PROVINCES.
INTRODUCTION.
T
HE investigations herein recorded have engaged the attention of the staff
of the Physiological Department of the Medical College, Calcutta, during
all the time that could be spared from official duties. The work began in July
1909, immediately after the conclusion of the investigations on Bengal 1 J a i l
Dietaries, 2 and has lasted just a year. As in the case of the Bengal Jail
Dietaries, the investigations have been carried out on the initiative, and at the
expense, of the Sanitary Department of the Government of India.
Owing to the fact that there were no laboratories suitable in the United
Provinces the work had to be done in Calcutta. This entailed a considerable
amount of travelling as may be judged from the fact that the jail nearest to
Calcutta worked in was over 500 miles away, and the most distant over 800
miles from the laboratory.
Historical.
Under this heading in our account of the investigations on Bengal Jail.
Dietaries we referred to certain important papers on the subject of the dietaries
of Indian. Jails. In discussing these papers we pointed out the fallacy
of assuming that the chemical analysis of food-stuffs afforded a direct measure-
of their nutritive value. The diet scales laid down for Indian prisons have
been worked out from the chemical composition of the available food-
stuffs, and for the United Provinces in particular the combinations have been
so arranged in the several dietaries as to present a practically constant intake
of nitrogen and carbon—the nitrogen not to exceed 282.3 grains nor to be less
than 277.8 grains. That is, no account is taken of the-spurce from which the
1 Four Assistant Surgeons were employed on the enquiry :—
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.,
Rajendra Kumar Roy, L.M.S., Attached for duty.
2 Scientific Memoirs, No. 37.
2
nitrogen is derived or whether presented in a form easily made use of ; so long
as the actual quantity present in a diet comes up to the standard it does not
matter seemingly what the source may be. The present inquiry aims at
estimations of the percentage absorption of nitrogen shown by the different
food-materials and the framing of diet scales based on the knowledge thus
obtained, i. e., on their actual nutritive value and not on the gross chemical
composition of the food-stuffs available.
We further pointed out that the standards of the diet scales of Indian
prisons appear to have been adapted from the dietaries of English Local
Prisons, adjusting the quantities of their proximate principles for the difference
in weight between English prisoners and Indian prisoners. This method we
have shown to be fallacious with regard to the food-stuffs in use in Bengal
Jails, and in the present publication, we shall bring forward plenty of
evidence to disprove its correctness when applied to the food-stuffs of the United
Provinces. We stated that, if the proximate principles of the materials enter-
ing into the composition of Indian diets were absorbed in the same proportion
as is the case in European diets, this method of framing diets and of calculating
their nutritive value would be permissible. But the absorbability of the
ultimate alimentary principles of Indian food-stuffs is very far from being
identical with that of European food-stuffs, so that, while the gross intake
may be identical in the two types of diet, the amount of protein absorbed from
each may be very dissimilar, In his Memorandum 1 on the Dietaries of
Labouring Prisoners in Indian Jails, Lewis traces the history of the different
scales of dietaries for Indian prisons and gives their value in the different
alimentary constituents, contrasting them at the same time with the adapted
English Local Prisons scales.
In 1877 an Indian Jail Conference, assembled at Calcutta, adopted the
following resolution suggesting the introduction of a new scale of dietary for
labouring prisoners : —
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
(2) That the following scale be laid down as maximum for adult male pri-
soners sentenced to hard labour :—
(1) Grain 26 ozs. (including four ozs. pulse) in. the form of sifted
flour, or 26 ozs. in the case of wheat, rice or barley.
(2) Green vegetables, 6 ozs.
(3) Fatty matter, 1¼ ozs.
N .B.—Whenever it may be considered necessary, 4 ozs. meat or fish, or an equivalent of milk, may be given
instead of 4 ozs. of grain.
*
* * * * * * * * * * * *
1 A Memorandum on the Dietaries of Labouring Prisoners in Indian Jails. By Surgeon-Major T. R. Lewis,
M.B., F.R.S. Annual Report of the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India for 1880, page 159.
3
Lewis states that a comparison of the scales of diet recommended by this
Conference with those approved by the Committee of 1864, shows that the
main difference consists in the adoption of the principle that the issue of
animal food should be left to the discretion of the local jail authorities instead
of making it a compulsory article of the labouring and under-trial dietary. In
doing this it would seem the Conference was influenced by the satisfactory
experience furnished by the jails of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh and
also of the Central Provinces, of the dieting of all prisoners without the
issue of any animal food whatever.
The diet scales in force in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh—now
United Provinces—jails as stated by Lewis appeared to be very much the same
as those at present sanctioned in the jail code. From a summary of their
nutritive values Lewis observes, "The adapted English scales are, under every
heading, considerably smaller than the average nutritive value of the North
-Western Provinces' dietaries : the latter may, indeed, be said to be practically
identical with the actual English scales. So that if weight have any influence
on the food requirements of the body, it may be assumed that the labouring
prisoners in these provinces are, weight for weight, considerably better fed than
labouring prisoners in England."
The following statement taken from Lewis' Memorandum brings out the
points clearly :—
3 MONTHS AND UNDER.
OVER 3 MONTHS.
Protein.
Carbo- hydrate.
Fat.
Protein.
Carbo-
hydrate.
Fat.
o z s .
ozs.
ozs.
ozs.
ozs.
o z s .
Average nutritive value of United
Provinces diets for labouring
prisoners .
.
.
.
.
2.66
16.83
1.08
3.98
19.56
1.16
Average nutritive value of English
Local Prison scale
.
.
.
3.13
16.22
1.02
3.91
19.67
1.37
"Adapted" ditto
.
.
.
2.37
12.30
0.77
2.96
14.92
1.04
The jail authorities in those days, as at present, did not limit themselves to
the recognised scales but adopted many others in practice. Most of these raised
very considerably the intake of the several ingredients, thus making the excess
over the adapted English scale even more marked than with the official dietaries.
B 2
4
Thus the chemical analyses of the several diet scales for labouring prisoners
in force in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh jails on the average gave a
daily value of :—
3 months and under.
Over 3 months.
Nitrogen .
. 184 grains.
275 grains.
Carbon
. . 4,261
„
5,128 „
While the average intake from diets actually issued to labouring prisoners during
1880 in six District and in six Central jails worked out to be :—
3 months and under.
Over 3 months.
Nitrogen .
. 233 grains.
324 grains.
Carbon
.
. 4,341 „
5,208 „
These figures should be contrasted with the following summarized statement
reproduced from Lewis' Memorandum :
—
Nutritive value of the principal dietaries at present in force for labouring prisoners in
English Jails.
Diet Scales.
ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
NUTRITIVE VALUE IN
GRAINS.
Protein. Carbohydrate.
Fat.
Nitrogen.
Carbon.
ozs.
ozs.
ozs.
CONVICT PRISONS.
1. Light labour .
.
.
3.28
16.26
1.25
226
4,353
2. Industrial labour .
.
.
3.53
17.09
1.47
243
4,648
3. Hard labour .
.
.
.
3.82
18.53
1.52
263
5,013
LOCAL PRISONS.
1. Hard labour, 1—4 months
3.13
16.22
1.02
215
4,232
2. Hard labour, over 4 months
.
3.91
19.67
1.37
270
5,204
It will be, therefore, evident that so far as proximate principles are con-
cerned the diet scales of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh are superior to
those in force in English prisons. Lewis computed that the nutritive value of
the principal maximum scales should be sufficient for prisoners weighing 147,
182 and 164 lbs. judged on the basis of the English Local Prisons standard, viz.,
270 grains of nitrogen for a body weight of 145 lbs. Seeing that the average
weight of the prisoners in the United Provinces is between 110 and 120 lbs.,
the scales do appear very excessive. Lewis lays his finger on the weak point,
when he states, " That chemical analysis, however exhaustive, can only afford
such information as will enable a proximate estimation to be formed of the
nutritive value of any food seeing that it is not only what nutriment a parti-
cular food-stuff contains, that is of moment, but also what portion of it can
5
readily be digested and assimilated by the body. In a diet, composed entirely
of vegetable substances, the quality of the cooking is of much more importance
than it is in animal food dietaries, seeing that a large proportion of nutriment
contained in cereals and pulses is enclosed in extremely resistant, indigestible
envelopes, which, if not effectually disposed of by proper cooking, defeat all
attempts on the part of the digestive organs to profit by the food. In the
endeavour which has been manifested by many framers of jail dietaries to raise
the proportion of the nitrogenous element without necessitating a correspond-
ing increase in the carbonaceous, a large addition to the pulses has been a
favourite mode of meeting the requirements of a view which presupposed the
rapid waste of muscle during exercise; but it is questionable whether so
large an amount of nitrogenous material does not in reality deteriorate the
value of the diet on account of the increased work thrown on the excretory
organs in getting rid of a portion of the nitrogenous elements which the system
does not require and which, to a certain extent, acts more as an irritant than as
a food. In some cases, however, the excess of nitrogenous elements is given
in the form of parched, or otherwise imperfectly cooked grain, so that it is
probable that a large proportion of the contained nutriment will not be assimi-
lated. On several grounds, therefore, the addition of undue proportion of
pulses,—and especially ill-cooked pulses—is a doubtful advantage, and may be
even injurious. "
We have nothing further to add to this, except to state that the results of
all our work in Bengal jails and in the jails of the United Provinces have
been to confirm the above opinion expressed by Lewis in 1881, long before any
experimental work on the absorbability of the protein of Indian food-stuffs had.
been done. The chemical composition is of very little value in determining
the amount of nitrogen that will be absorbed from the food-stuffs in use in
Indian jails, and no reliance can be placed on diets framed on the basis of the
gross quantities of proximate principles offered so far as the absorption of
nitrogen is concerned. For example, let us take two of the diets officially sanc-
tioned for the jails of the United Provinces, offering an approximately close
intake of nitrogen, and contrast the actual result obtained experimentally :—
Diet 1.
Diet 2.
Composed of juar, wheat, arhar
dal and vegetables offering
16.79 grms. nitrogen shows
12.748 grms. nitrogen absorbed,
or 75.9 per cent, of the
nitrogen of the diet.
Composed of wheat, bajra,
arhar dal and vegetables
offering 16.552 grms.
nitrogen shows 10.57 grms.
nitrogen absorbed, or 63.8
per cent. of the nitrogen of
the diet.
6
In the experimental work carried out with different food-materials in order
to ascertain the percentages of the nitrogen of those food-stuffs undergoing
absorption, numerous examples of the same condition will be met with, and
ample evidence will be afforded that the amount of nitrogen offered in a diet
is no criterion of the level of nitrogenous metabolism attained on that diet.
For this reason alone it is quite impossible to frame diets, composed of
Indian food-stuffs, whose chemical composition is similar to those in use in
Europe and expect that a similar degree of absorption will take place. It is,
therefore, evident that any adaptations from the English prisons scales, as,
suggested by Lewis, or from the prison dietaries of Scotland, as suggested by
Macnamara,1 a r e w r o n g i n p r i n c i p l e a s t h e y m a k e n o a l l o w a n c e f o r t h e g r e a t
difference in the absorbability of the nitrogen of European and of Indian food-
stuffs.
Further, much of the criticism aimed at the Indian jail dietaries, with a
view of showing how excessive they are for prisoners of an average weight of
110 lbs., falls to the ground, as it is mainly based on the fallacy that an
equally good absorption will be obtained with Indian as with European food-
materials. That absorption from the two classes of food-stuffs is very different
and very much to the disadvantage of the Indian, may account for the fact
that no action has been taken to reduce the quantities of the food-materials
entering into the composition of the Indian dietaries despite several strong
recommendations to that effect.
Experience had shown that, while the diets did appear most excessive,
lesser quantities had not been satisfactory, or at least that the mortality rate
has shown a gradual decrease as the prisoner has been better fed. The decrease
in the death rate is probably much more intimately connected with the
advances made in Sanitary Science than with the dietary changes during the
last 50 years : however, the history of Indian Jail dietaries points to increases
in the quantities of the food-materials as a rule to meet some exceptional out-
break of sickness and increase of mortality.
The Scope of the Present Enquiry.
The present investigations deal with the
—
(1) Chemical analysis of the food-materials in use in the jails of the
United Provinces.
(2) Estimations of the quantities of each proximate principle offered in
the several diet scales.
1Notes on the Indian Jail Dietaries with special reference to the Punjab. By Major R. J . Macnamara, I.M.S.
1906.