Tuesday, July 02, 2013

The Prisoners’ Soup.

It is always interesting to see how the other half lives or lived, and in today’s post I want to show you how nineenth century French prisoners fared. The story comes from Statistics of France (London, 1832) by Lewis Goldsmith.

The English author had been living eight years in France, and was asked by his friend M. de Villèlle, to write a “work which would give a faithful account of the resources and industry of France.”

One of the faithful reports is on prison conditions, including the diets provided. As far as my brief reading on the topic suggests, it seems that French prisoners (in the general prisons, not the prison hulks or galleys) fared better than English in the matter of vegetables, which were the basis of the diet in the former, and almost non-existent in the latter.

The author notes the diet (and gives recipes of sorts) in the prison at Bicêtre:

Regulations and Discipline.
Prisoners who work at a trade, either in the departmental prisons or in the maisans centrales, receive twice a day during five days in the week, soupe maigre, made from haricots, lentilles, green peas, potatoes, or from rice, with a portion of butter or grease, and vegetables.
The rations are as follows :—For 100 prisoners:
30 lbs. of haricots, lentilles or peas (légumes secs).
30lbs. of carrots, leeks, turnips, parsnips, celery, onions, cabbage or sorrel (these are called legumes verts).
4 lbs. of butter or lard.
1 ½ lb. of salt.

Ration of rice soup for 100 prisoners.
24 lbs. of rice.
10 lbs. of dried vegetables.
30 lbs. of green vegetables.
4 lbs. of butter or lard.
1 ½ lb. of salt.

Ration of potatoe-soup for 100 persons.
80 lbs. of potatoes.
10 lbs. of dried vegetables.
30 lbs. of green vegetables.
4 lbs. of butter or lard.
1 ½ lb. of salt.
These different rations are delivered alternately.
Three days dried vegetables.
One day rice.
One day potatoes.

OnThursdays and Sundays the working prisoners receive four ounces of boiled beef of good quality, and without bone; the meat used for one hundred rations is fifty pounds of raw meat, ten pounds of green vegetables, and a sufficient quantity of salt and water to furnish a pint of soup for each person. The prisoners who do not work receive two-thirds of a quart of soup maigre, prepared for one hundred persons from fourteen pounds of dried vegetables, thirty pounds of green vegetables, three pounds of butter or grease, and one pound and a half of salt.
Convalescents receive for the time prescribed the same ration as that distributed to the working prisoners on Thursdays and Sundays. The sick are divided into the following classes: those on diet, those on the quarter of a ration, those on half a ration, those on three-quarters of a ration, and those on full ration. For the sick the ration of meat is fixed at six ounces without bone. The sick placed on the régime maigre, instead of meat, receive other food of the kind and quantity prescribed by the medical attendants, such as rice, prunes, vermicelli, eggs, or milk. Convalescents placed on the three-quarters or the half ration receive, if the doctor orders it, two-tenths of a quart of wine per day.

Women who suckle or are in the eighth month of their pregnancy receive daily one pint of bouillon gras, eight ounces of boiled meat without bone, and two-tenths of a quart of wine.

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