Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/229

DIETETICS 211 stone raised 10,000 feet such, for instance, as carrying up ladders, altogether 1-J- mile high, three tons of stone daily calculation would show that to add this amount of labour to the outgoings caused by the functioning of physiological life, would involve the addition to their spare diet of at least 117 Ib of bread, or of 58 ft) of bread with 44 ft) of lean meat and 63 Ib of potatoes. The slightest imperfection or indigestion of any of this would cause a loss of bodily weight, and cases of illness would be culpably frequent. Were a draught of milk, or a cup of cocoa aud sugar, or some oatmeal porridge and treacle, or even a little dripping or butter or bacon given, the danger would probably be averted. The .most conspicuous fault in the dietary of the working classes is want of variety. Many of the articles which combine ample nutritiousness with small cost are habitually neglected, because when used exclusively they are disagree able and unwholesome. From never being eaten they become absolutely unknown. There are many sorts of cheap beans, vetches, and pease, unheard of except at gentlemen s tables, of which a complete meal may be made, or which may support the dish of meat ; while beet-root, cresses, kail, carrots, and other plants easily grown are left unused. Quantity of Food required. The calculations of Dr Flayfair " on the food of man in relation to his useful work 1 " enable us by another route to arrive at an estimate of what amount of solid victuals is required by an adult living by bodily labour to preserve his health under various circumstances. The circumstances which chiefly affect the question can be classified thus : (1) bare existence ; (2) moderate exercise; (3) active work; and (4) hard work. 1 . The first is calculated from the mean of sundry prison dietaries, of the convalescents diet at hospitals, that of London needlewomen, and of that supplied during the Lancashire cotton-famine, as reported by Mr Simon. The result is that, in a condition of low health, without activity, 2J ounces of nitrogenous food, 1 ounce of fat, 12 ounces of starch, and ^ of an ounce of mineral matters a day are necessary. The amount of carbon in this is equal to 7 44 ounces. In other words, a man s life will be shortened or burdened by disease in the future, or he will die of gradual starvation, unless his provision for a week is equivalent to 3 ft) of meat with 1 tt> of fat on it, or with the same quantity of butter or lard, two quartern loaves of bread, and about an ounce of salt and other condiments. If he cannot get meat, he must supply its place with at least two extra quartern loaves, or about a stone and a half of potatoes, or between 5 and 6 Ib of oatmeal, unless he is, indeed, so fortunate as to be able to get skim milk, of which 5 pints a week will replace the meat. A person reduced to bare existence diet can undertake no habitual toil, mental or bodily, under the penalty of breaking down. " Bare existence " diet is that which requires to be estimated for administration to certain classes of the community who have a claim on their fellow-countrymen that their lives and health shall be preserved in statu quo, but nothing further. Such are prisoners, paupers, or the members of a temporarily famine-stricken community. It would be obviously unjust to apply the same scale of quantity and quality to all persons under varying circum stances of constitution and outward surroundings ; and to attempt to feed in the same way all these people for short or long periods, idle or employed, with light work or hard work, in hot or in cold weather, excited by hope or depressed by failure, involves an error of either excess or defect, or both at once. The dietaries recommended by 1 Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, London, April 28,. 1865. the Home Office for prisoners very properly take all these circumstances into consideration. They allot "bare existence " diet only to those sentenced for short terms without labour. And they recognize the fact that a man s health is not injured (perhaps sometimes it is improved) by a few days of such abstinence as would iu the long run be deleterious to him. Under a sentence of seven days a prisoner gets daily 1 ft> of bread, and a quart of gruel con taining 4 oz. of oatmeal. For more than seven and under twenty-one days he has an extra |ft> of bread. For longer terms it is advised to add potatoes and meat. The nutritive value of the first named diet is thus calcu lated by Dr Pavy (Treatise on Food, p. 415) : Nitrogenous matter 1 SOO 02. Fat -480 Carbohydrates 10712 ,, of the second Nitrogenous matter 2 448 oz. Fat -608 Carbohydrates 14792,, In the convict establishments prisoners are all under long sentence, and are classified for dietetic purposes according to their occupation. The sparest of all is called " punishment diet," and is administered for offences against the internal discipline of the prison. It is equivalent to corporeal chastisement, being designed to make the stomach a source of direct pain. It is limited to a period of three days, and fully answers its proposed end as a deterrent by causing the solar plexus to experience the greatest amount of distress it is capable of ; for after the expiration of that period sensation becomes blunted. It consists of 1 S) of bread and as much water as the prisoner chooses to drink. This last-named concession is not an unimportant one ; for i has been already remarked that a supply of fluid enables starvation, and by implication abstinence, to be longer borne. At the same time it probably postpones the anaesthesia, and therefore makes the intended suffering more real. " Punishment diet" contains, in Dr Pavy s estimate, Nitrogenous matter 1.296 oz. Carbohydrates 8 160 ,, Fat 0-256 ,, Mineral matter .. 368 ,, Total of dry solids 10D80 ,, This is about half of what an average man requires to sustain himself without work, and under its discipline he would probably lose 3 or 4 ounces of his weight daily till his bodily substance was reduced by six-tenths, at which period, according to Chossat s experiments, he would die. " Penal diet" is that which is apportioned for more pro tracted punishment. It may be continued for three months. It consists of 20 oz. of bread, 8 oz. of oatmeal, 20 oz. of milk, and 16 oz. of potatoes daily. Its chemical constitu ents are as follows : Nitrogenous matter. 3784 oz. Carbohydrates 19 864 Fat 1-580 Mineral matter 972 ,, Total of dry solids 26 200 Upon this diet a fair amount of work may be done. The combustion of the carbohydrates evolves sufficient force to raise a ton 4193 feet; and thus the effete muscular sub stance maybe worn off by destructive assimilation, making place for new muscle derived from the nitrogenous matter of which a bare sufficiency, but yet probably a sufficiency, is supplied. A man of strong constitution is usually found

at the end of it to be in good health aud of normal weight ;