HEALTH AND WELFARE. 251 
We have throughout been greatly impressed by the importance of the 
part played by defects of dietary. The questions of nutrition and dietary 
are subjects of constant research in most Western countries, and not a few 
(Governments have deemed it advisable to found Institutes of Nutrition, 
in which the necessary investigations can be organised and carried 
out and through which co-ordination with outside research can be 
obtained. We visited the Deficiency Diseases Enquiry Laboratory at 
Coonoor, where Colonel McCarrison, I.M.S., under the auspices of the 
Indian Research Fund Association, has been engaged for some years 
past in nutritional researches. The Royal Commission on Agriculture 
has indicated the directions in which they consider his work 
should be linked up with agricultural research problems, and we 
support their recommendation that India should have an Institute 
of Nutrition of its own. While we were struck with the advan- 
ces which had already been made by Colonel McCarrison, it was 
obvious that his staff was quite insufficient for the purpose we have in 
view. The Institute should have a Director witha sufficient number of 
qualified assistants, so that the work so well begun canbe extended on a 
scale more commensurate with India’s needs. Publicity work should 
be a legitimate sphere of activity of such an Institute, because the Indian 
worker, both industrial and agricultural, requires guidance in regard to his 
diet. It should be impressed on all concerned that the health and, in a 
large measure, the happiness and contentment of the workers are bound up 
with this question, and that, to quote Colonel McCarrison, “ the output 
of work by the human machine is closely related to the quality of the 
food with which it is provided.” The propaganda material required for 
these purposes could best be prepared under the supervision of the Direc- 
tor of the Institute of Nutrition in consultation with provincial Public 
Health Departments. 
Markets and Co-operative Stores. 
We noticed a general lack of care over food supplies. In 
few industrial areas are the markets sufficient in number, and those we 
saw appeared to receive little sanitary supervision. All kinds of food 
grains, vegetables and fruit are exposed for sale in such a way as to 
become quickly contaminated, and in many areas are retailed on the 
road side and in the vicinity of the street gutters. In all urban 
and industrial areas the local authorities should construct sanitary 
Markets on convenient sites and take steps to ensure that the food 
brought there for sale is protected, as far as possible, from con- 
tamination. It would also be of advantage, at least in the larger 
industrial areas, for employers and trade unions to organise co-operative 
shops at which pure and clean food of all kinds could be obtained. The 
Managements of the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in Madras and the 
Burma Corporation in Namtu have made very successful experiments of 
this nature which are highly appreciated by their employees. The 
workers are advantaged not only in the quality of the food obtainable, but 
also in its cost in relation to general market prices,