On the mortality of London hospitals : and incidentally on the deaths in the prisons and public institutions of the metropolis / by William A. Guy.

  • Guy, William A. (William Augustus), 1810-1885.
Date:
[1867]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the mortality of London hospitals : and incidentally on the deaths in the prisons and public institutions of the metropolis / by William A. Guy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    From these figures we learn that pulmonary consumption is a disease which prevails to a remarkable extent among our convicts— to such an extent as to accomrt for 44 to 48 per cent, of all the deaths—that the number of its victims may be increased nearly twofold from one year to another, and that, when compared with other causes of death, it is subject to a much more considerable fluctuation, as measured by the numbers 85 or 89, compared with the figures 61 or 59. Though these figures relate primarily to the convict prisons taken collectively, they doubtless admit of application to the prisons of London, and when taken with the preceding statement, and the facts established in the body of this paper, render it in the highest degree probable that the curious increase of deaths in prisons in 1864, and the high mortality of the two years following, is due in great part to consumption, hastened in its attack, and rendered speedily fatal by the exceptional severity of the season in the years under consideration. If such an increase of deaths by consumption may take place in our London prisons, where their inmates are so largely protected from the weather, it is easy to understand how at public works, where a considerable exposure to the weather is unavoidable, con- sumption and diseases of the lungs may come to prevail to an extent to alarm the authorities, and, in the absence of such infor- mation as this paper contains, to lead even medical men to attribute the result to the last change, dietetic or otherwise, which may happen to have been made. We have only to suppose this partial and inaccnrate view of the case to be submitted to an English jury, and a verdict to be returned in accordance with the evidence, to be able to forecast the consequences. The opinion of the jury, though utterly valueless in a question of medical science, carries with it such undue weight, that no expense -will be spared by the autho- rities to carry its recommendations into effect; and thus it is that the money of the public is wasted, and the public burdens unneces- sarily increased. Let me, by way of conclusion, insist on the great value of those statistical records and researches which, when rightly used, minister not less to State efficiency and economy than to truth. “ Prisons in England; and especially on the Rate of Mortality at present Prevail- “ ing among Convicts.” By W. A. Guy, M.B., Medical Superintendent of Mill- hank Prison.—“ Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of “ Social Science, 1862,” p. 561.