A letter on the nature and effects of the tread-wheel, as an instrument of prison labour and punishment, addressed to the Right Hon. Robert Peel ... / with an appendix of notes and cases. [By J.I. Brisco] by one of his constituents, and a magistrate of the county of Surrey.

  • Briscoe, John Ivatt, 1791-1870.
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter on the nature and effects of the tread-wheel, as an instrument of prison labour and punishment, addressed to the Right Hon. Robert Peel ... / with an appendix of notes and cases. [By J.I. Brisco] by one of his constituents, and a magistrate of the county of Surrey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    as from the labour of the Tread-wheel;” and he adds “ this man has evidently had a superior education, and from the candour with which he spoke about the justness of his own punishment, the necessity of rendering Prison Discipline severe, and the inconveniences which he himself experienced, I consider his representation deserving THE FULLEST CONFIDENCE.” Now, this representation is concurrent in almost every point, with that of all who object to the Tread- wheel infliction, and consists of three distinct charges against it;—pains,—-overheat,—and chill succeeding to the overheat: but whether the pains proceed from the labour or the effects of the labour, that is, directly or indirectly from the Tread-wheel, he cannot tell. Nor is it of much importance for the world to know; since, in either case, the Tread-wheel is as chargeable with the pains, as with the liot-fit and the coldfit> that alternately succeed each other. We thus come to a common understanding ; and it is remarkable that the statement made by William Nash of the sensations which he experiences is almost a verbal copy of the mischiefs exposed, and complained of by Dr. Good, in an early visit which he made, in conjunction with another medical practitioner, to the Cold Bath Fields’ prison; the surgeon of the prison accompanying him. “ The surgeon in attendance,” says he, “ concurred in admitting 6 that they complained in general of stiffness and numbness in their hands, by which they hang*, as much as they are able, and of pains in their loins, and in their legs, both over the heels and instep; and that they are almost “ *The above description does not precisely apply to the representation in the Plate, but at the Cold Bath Fields Prison the bar is so placed that many were observed to hang the whole weight of their bodies upon it.”