785

DR. MOUAT’S REPORT ON THE BENGALPRISONS.

WE have pointed out on a former occasion the extent to which sickness and death play havoc amongst the prisonersconfined in the various prisons of Lower Bengal, in consequenceof the hitherto almost total neglect of preventive hygienicmeasures. We recur to the subject in connexion with theReport of Dr. F. Mouat, the able Inspector-General of Gaolsof the lower provinces of the Bengal Presidency, for 1866and 1866-67, which has just reached us from India, andfrom which we learn the results of his recent inspections.Condemnation is freely passed (although improvements havebeen effected during the past year) upon the condition of themajority of the prisons, and Dr. Mouat condemns once morethe collective system of imprisonment, and ascribes much ofthe sickness amongst convicts to the fact of the wards inwhich they sleep being insufficiently raised from the groundin a malarious country.The amount of sickness in 1866 had increased considerably,

chiefly by zymotic diseases; the total number of cases of fevertreated having been 12,066, or 3710 in excess of the previousyear. The average number of cases sick each day was 827’14,being an increase of 306’91 over that of 1865. The constant-

sickness rate of the year amounted to 3’7 per cent. of prisonersin gaol, being an increase of 1 per cent. over that of the pre-ceding year. The death-rate among the total sick was 6’45

per cent., as against 376 in 1865; showing an increase of 269per cent. The ratio of discharges by cure showed a decreaseof 14’73 per cent. in 1866, as compared with the precedingyear. More than half the mortality of the year, it is curiousto note, occurred amongst prisoners who had been in prison fora short time, or who were reduced by privation and distressprior to admission; and, moreover, the European prisoners inthe Presidency gaol were the greatest proportional sufferersfrom sickness. The death-rate of the year for the total pri-soners in gaol was 10’59 per cent., being an increase of 4’64per cent. over that of 1865 ; the highest-75 per cent.-occur-ring in the Singbhoom gaol.Famine accounted, in some measure, for the great rise in the

mortality of the various prisons; but, making due allowancefor this, we learn that the majority of the gaols in India are,as regards their site, construction, and management, in such acondition that epidemic disease is always courted, lives areunnecessarily jeopardised, and unusual frequency of sickness issecured. When we remember, moreover, that a large numberof prisoners are Europeans (the lives of whom are valuable outof all proportion to those of natives, even though they belongto the incarcerated), and that, as the energies of prisoners aredepressed by sickness, their imprisonment cannot be maderemunerative, the dilatoriness of Government in introducingwide reforms is more than censurable, and it is an egregiousblunder. We see no reason why new gaols, when required,could not be built in healthier situations, away in the hillseven. Many of the old ones must be razed to the ground fromtheir very filthiness, and the sooner this is done the better, asin the case of Moorshedabad. ’

A very interesting portion of Dr. Mouat’s Report is thatwhich refers to the fever which has proved so destructive inthe Punjab and north-western provinces - a fever of an

adynamic remittent type, complicated with frequent relapses,and under certain conditions apparently highly contagious.The immediate condition that makes this fever contagious,Dr. Mouat holds, consists in the noxious exhalations from thelarge amount of putrefying excreta buried in the gaol gardens;and the cessation of the disease in some districts he regardsas due to the practice of thorough deodorisation of all ordure.Reference is made to the change in the course of the Gangesand Brahmaputra and their channels, by which tracts of

country have been altered, together with the natural drainage,so that the generation of malaria is thereby encouraged.

In the statistical section of the Report Dr. Farr’s systemof classification of disease has been adopted ; and we trust theexample set by Dr..Mouat will be universally followed byother reporters. We last week specially directed attention tothe suggestion of a medical aide-memoir for India.The Report contains information relative to the sex, age,

religion, state of education, occupation, diet, and punishmentof prisoners, as well as their cost to the Government. Lastlyis appended an account of Dr. Farr’s method of determiningmortality in gaols, together constituting a valuable Report.

THE

TERRIFIC EXPLOSION OF NITRO-GLYCERINEAT NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.

OUR Newcastle-on-Tyne Correspondent sends us particularsas to the injuries received by the sufferers from the dreadfulexplosion of nitro-glycerine on Tuesday last. It appearsalmost certain that the immediate cause of this sad accidentwas an incautious attempt to empty some vessels of nitro-glycerine in a crystallised or solidified form by means of anaxe or shovel. Four individuals were actually blown to pieces,and three have been so dreadfully injured that one has alreadydied in the Infirmary, and the recovery of the two others isalmost beyond hope. At the moment of the explosion it sohappened that Mr. A. H. Walpole, a medical student, and atpresent clinical clerk at the Infirmary, was walking in thevicinity. He was considerably shaken himself, but upon re-covery he hastened to the aid of the sufferers. Those whowere not immediately killed he found thrown together in aheap. The Sheriff, Mr. Mawson, claimed his first attention.He was stated by some of the bystanders to be dead ; but uponexamination, Mr. Walpole found this not the case, though hewas cold, insensible, and almost pulseless from shock. A boy,Charles Wardley, about sixteen years of age, had receivedconcussion of the brain, from which he soon died in the In-firmary. Mr. Walpole, with commendable presence of mind,had his three patients put into a spring cart, which was com-pelled to travel very slowly, Mr. Bryson, the town surveyor,having among other injuries sustained a fracture of the leg.Mr. Walpole sent one of the bystanders with money and ob.tained a supply of brandy; this stimulus he most judiciouslyadministered to the wounded from time to time on their

journey to the infirmary, and thus, as far as it was possiblefor him to do, averted the danger arising from extreme shock.Dr. Bolton, house-surgeon, hearing of the explosion, had inthe meantime made every preparation for their reception, sothat everything was in readiness upon their arrival. The in-

juries of the sheriff, Mr. Mawson, are laceration of face anddestruction of the eyes; integument of chest and arms alsolacerated. He was conscious, but low cerebral symptoms withvomiting have supervened. Mr. Bryson has sustained lacera-tions of face with comminuted fractures of nasal and superiormaxillary bones, eyes apparently destroyed, wound in rightinguinal region, and compound comminuted fracture of tibiaand fibula. From this detail of injuries, it will be seen thatthey are similar in character to those arising from some of theworst accidents during blasting in mining operations. Onepeculiarity has been observed in the bodies of the wounded-the presence of a multitude of minute perforations of the in-tegument. The abdominal wound of Mr. Bryson is not large,but it is of the same character as the smaller perforations, andappears as if punched out by some very sharp instrument. Themedical staff of the infirmary have been most unremitting intheir attention to the sufferers, and it is painful to add thatour correspondent informs us that their prognosis as to bothcases is very unfavourable.

Since the above was written we have received the painfulintelligence that the Sheriff and the Town Surveyor died onThursday morning.

DEATH OF M. LAGNEAU.-This distinguished physi-cian has just died at Paris. More than forty years ago, M.Lagneau began his publications on venereal diseases; and was,for a long time, an authority on these complaints. Ricorcl,

however, attacked the school of which the deceased was partly. the leader, and the latter was gradually eclipsed. His career

was of a most honourable character; lie was member, of theAcademy of Medicine, and has left a son who has successfullyworked in the same field.