to other prisoners for tobacco;
occasionally he was detected and punished, and I always observed that
he came out of 'Chokey' fatter than when he went in. Neither was his an
exceptional case in this respect. The penal diet, which mainly consists
of farinaceous food, will keep up the flesh, though not the strength,
as well as the regular diet. In Scotland I have seen prisoners get
stout in appearance on the oatmeal! but on the other hand they
generally broke out in boils, after being six or nine months without
other varieties of food; and I have also known very stout men lose two
or three stone in weight in as many months. I am inclined to believe
that tobacco is beneficial in cases of insufficient food. I do not use
it myself, nor do I think it beneficial to those who have plenty of
food, but the reverse. I have known prisoners, however, who had good
health in the Scotch prisons, when they used tobacco--and fortunately
for them, the weed and many other luxuries are easily obtained there,
if you only know the way and have money. If I had known at the
commencement of my prison career what I now know, I might have had
mutton chops daily, if I had been inclined to adopt some of the
'dodges' I afterwards learnt. I knew one prisoner who obtained his end
in a somewhat questionable way. He had made some complaint to the
doctor, who, as usual, paid very little attention to it. On seeing that
he was not to receive any medical aid by fair means, he resorted to
foul, and took up a certain utensil, full to the brim, and emptied its
contents in the face and over the shirt-front of the hapless
pill-compounder. The remedy was doubtless severe, but the disease was
chronic and the improvement marked and rapid. The prisoner got good
diet and was soon after in good health.

The price of tobacco at the "Thieves' Palace or Invalid Criminal
Hotel," for so the Surrey Prison was sometimes designated by the
inmates, was about one shilling per ounce, when I left. It seldom went
below 10_d._ At first when I arrived, there were yards of it in
one place or another, but the crime of having a bit of it found on the
person, being now severely punished, the convicts keep it out of sight
more carefully and are more on their guard, seldom having more on their
person than they can swallow. All 'fly' men who use tobacco can procure
it in any convict prison; but the 'flats,' have to deny themselves the
prisoners' greatest luxury, but even they sometimes get