5

     In 1877 another Jail Conference was assembled in Calcutta when it was found
that such diversities existed as to the quantities and nature of the food given in
different jails that it was deemed expedient to make an attempt to introduce a new
scale of dietary. Excluding the recommendations regarding vegetables, fats, salt,
etc., the following scale was laid down as a maximum for adult male prisoners
sentenced to hard labonr.

     26 ounces (including 4 ozs. pulse) of sifted flour, and 28 ozs. of grain in the
case of wheat, rice or barley.

     Whenever it may be considered necessary 4 ozs.of meat or fish, or an equi-
valent of milk, may be given instead of 4 ozs.of grain.

     As Dr. Lewis points out, the principal difference between these diets and those
recommended by the 1864 Committee 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.
On the whole there is practically but little difference between the recommenda-
tion of the Committee of 1864 and of the Conference of 1877 so far as the ultimate
chemical constituents of the dietaries are concerned; but a pound of animal food
per week constituted part of the regular food approved by the former, whereas the
latter left the issue of this article to the discretion of the local authorities. The
Conference, however, increased the rice ration by four ounces daily when meat was
not given, and the vegetables were increased by two ounces per diem.

     Lewis says that in March 1879 the Bengali and Behari prisoners were placed
on the diet proposed by the Conference and he continues thus: " During this year
the health returns of the prisoners in Bengal were exceptionally unfavourable; and
as the period during which the new dietary was in force coincided with the period
of maximum mortality, it was concluded that the high sickness and mortality
in this particular province was attributable to insufficient food. In consequence
of this inference extra rations were issued from March 1880 to July 1881 when
completely new scales of diets were introduced with the sanction of the Local
Government."

     In July 1881 the dietary scale introduced for Lower Bengal was :—