individuals in a class, it being urged on the guardians that the medical officer should be restricted for his patients to a choice among four fixed dietaries which he was to draw up once for all, and hang up in the sick wards for permanent reference. These were described as "high, middle, low, and fever"; and he was expressly to be instructed "that the quantity of articles to be allowed for each should be minutely specified."[232] [228] Instructional Letter of 5th February 1842, in Eighth Annual Report, 1842, p. 109. [229] Circular on Workhouse Dietaries, 1836; in Second Annual Report, 1836, pp. 64-66. [230] Consolidated Order for the Administration of Relief in Town Unions, 7th March 1836, sec. v. art. 23; in Second Annual Report, 1836, p. 91. [231] Instructional Letter of 5th February 1842; in Eighth Annual Report, 1842, p. 113. [232] Instructional Letter of 5th February 1842, in Eighth Annual Report, 1842, p. 113. This instruction was made mandatory on the medical officer in 1847, but he was permitted to frame in advance, not four only, but as many different dietaries as he chose. The instructions of 1842 were not, however, superseded (General Consolidated Order of 24th July 1847, art. 207, sec. 9; _see also_ under art. 108). Finally, as it had been found that the old men and women who were allowed weekly ounces of tea and weekly allowances of butter would not take their teas simultaneously or consume their little pats of butter evenly, this distressing deviation from the dietetic uniformity led the Central Authority to suggest the withdrawal of the privilege, in favour of a simultaneous service of "a certain quantity of liquid tea" and of portions of bread and butter.[233] [233] _Official Circular_, 30th July 1842, No. 20, p. 301.