On sufficient and insufficient dietaries : with special reference to the dietaries of prisoners / by William A. Guy.

  • William Augustus Guy
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On sufficient and insufficient dietaries : with special reference to the dietaries of prisoners / by William A. Guy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    1863.] Dieturiea of County Prisons. sentence which is spent at Millbank, Pentonville, Leicester, or Wakefield, in separation, or in separation followed by association, and that larger part which is spent at public works (at Portland, Chatham, and Portsmouth, or at Dartmoor) in associated labour. I shall present these several dietaries in separate tables, and make such observations upon them as may throw light upon the curious varieties and anomalies which they present. The existing dietaries for the county prisons date from the year 1813, when Sir James Graham, then Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for the Home Department, addressed a letter to the Chairmen of Quarter Sessions, in which he adopts the recommendations of the Inspectors of Prisons. These recommendations, it should be stated were not unanimous, for one of their number, Mr. P. Hill, emphatically dissents from the received doctrine that the depressing effect of imprisonment on health could be counteracted by a liberal allowance of food; and he expressed bis opinion on the contrary, “ that a depressed state of the mind weakens the digestive powers, “ and makes them incapable of receiving even so much food as when “ the mind is cheerful.” It was under the influence of an opposite feeling, and after consultation not only with the Prison Inspectors, but with medical men of the greatest eminence, possessing the advantage of long experience, that these dietaries were framed.*' The dietaries recommended for the use of county prisons, as given in the Eeturn for 1857, are shown in the following table ;— County Gaols and Prisons. Without Hard Labour. With Hard Labour. Per Week, Class 1. Less than 7 Days. Class 3. More than 7 Days, and not more than 21 Days. Class 8. More than 21 Days, and not more than 4 Months. Class i. More than 4 Months. Class 2. More than 7 Days, and not more than 21 Days. Class 3. More than 21 Days, and not more than 6 Weeks. Class 4. More than 6 Weeks, and not more than 4 Months. Class 5. More than 4 Mouths. Bread OZ8« 112 ozs. 168 ozs. 140 64 6 ozs. 168 32 12 OZS. i68 OZS. 140 64 6 ozs. 168 32 OZS Potatoes Meat .... 154 II2 i6 12 Total solid 1 food ... . J I IZ i68 210 212 i68 210 212 282 Soup Pints. Pints. Pints. o Pints. 3 14 Pints. Pints. Pints. Pints. Gruel , 14 14 14 2 3 3 Cocoa H 14 14 1 1 — 3 Total liquid 1 food 1 • + 14 i6 I'/ '5 16 17 •7 n : 'Viiu me letter ot Sir .lames Graham sec 1’: voluminous details of the dietaries of jirisoners Htid convicts, sec Parliamentary Report, No. ]54-, 1857. *