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Rice is the poorest of all cereals in protein; when cooked it swells up and absorbs
about three and a half times its weight of water, some of its mineral constituents
being dissolved and lost when the boiled rice is strained. Very little of
the protein is removed when rice is boiled in a large quantity of water and the ex-
cess of water drained off—the ordinary method of cooking rice in Bengal
jails. From analyses of the drained material there appeared to be a loss of about
0.20 per cent. protein.

    The percentage of starch in rice is high, up to about 80 per cent. This starch
is present in small and easily digested grains. Fat is very deficient in rice.

    According to Continental authorities,* practically none of the starch of rice
is lost from non-absorption, but the waste of protein amounts to about 20 per cent.
These figures, however, were obtained from dietaries in which the quantity of rice
given was only a few ounces—a very different thing from a diet containing twenty-
six ounces, so far at least as absorption of protein is concerned.

    The different dals in use in Bengal jails are:—

    Mung, Gram, Mottar, Arhar, Massur and Kalai dals. They belong to the
natural order Leguminoseae and are chiefly characterised by their richness in pro-
tein, being termed for this reason " the poor man's beef. " The chief protein of
pulses is legumin† which closely resembles casein of the milk in its composition.
It is by the addition of dal to the diets in Bengal that their deficiency in protein is
made up. The amount in the dietaries has undergone a gradual increase and is
over six ounces per man daily.

    As will be seen from our analyses the percentage of protein is uniformly high,
but varies in the different kinds of dal in use—Mung and Massur containing up to
26 per cent., Mottar and Kalai somewhat less, and Arhar and Gram dal
less still, in round numbers about 20 per cent. When cooked, dal in whatever form
takes up a large amount of water, usually at least three times its own weight,
This increase in water means a corresponding increase in bulk and must, therefore,
be taken into account in considering the real nutritive value of this form of food.
Investigations‡ on the absorption of pea or lentil flour, properly cooked, show
that the protein is all taken up except about 8 or 9 per cent. If, however, the
pulse is not given in a state of fine division, as when the lentils are simply boiled
till they become more or less soft—the method of cooking in Bengal prisons—the
loss of protein has been found to rise to 40 per cent.§ In Lower Bengal, rice, dal
and vegetables make up the whole diet—the only variations possible being the
ringing of the changes in the different kinds of dal.

     We have already referred to the value of this diet as regards its digestibility
and absorbability. We know that if the bulk of a vegetable food given be small

                     * Kumagawa, Virchow's Archiv, CXVI.

                      † A nucleo-albumin (Maly's Jahres-Bericht), see Hutchison, page 229.

                    ‡ Strümpell, Deut. Archiv. f. klir, med. 1876.

                    § Strümpell, loc.cit.