The terror of the tents, or, Quarantine restrictions as imposed and enforced in Jamaica during the prevalence of small-pox, under so-called paternal government.

Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The terror of the tents, or, Quarantine restrictions as imposed and enforced in Jamaica during the prevalence of small-pox, under so-called paternal government. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    beiugs were crowded togetlier, was injudicious and mis-* chievous. See the result. Seven of these people caught the disease from the first case placed in the tent. Your statement in the 24th paragraph, that there is no evidence before the Governor that the medical attendance and management were in any way faulty, is truly surpris- ing- I have told him it was, and I have professed ray ability, by my own evidence and that of others, to prove that the medical attendauce of the Government medical officer in charge was faulty—^very faulty ; and in the memo, of sub-^ jects for inquny I do profess to know something of this matter. Of course, the dead sufferers cannot speak, but their friends and others who witnessed their sufferings, in spite of so-called quarautine restrictions, are ready to do so before a fair and proper tribunal. My conviction is, that they will not give evidence before a departmental inquiry ; they have already been too much coaxed and cajoled, and others too much vilified and abused, threatened, intimidated, and persecuted, to do so. They have had enough of Government treatment for Small- pox ; they dread the departments of public health, medical p,id, and police. I have no doubt, however, they will speak the truth before impartial judges, and in open court. Under these circumstances therefore, to deny an independent commis- sion is virtually to refuse justice, burM^ the question, and to perpetuate abuses. Let me ask—is the rate of mortality in the tents no evidence of mismanagement, taken by itself or as com- pared with the mortality without the tents ? This speaks trumpet-mouthed, and of itself should point out the neces- sity of a very strict, impartial inquiry. 5 out of 9 as opposed to 8 out of 22, As to the 25th paragraph, there is no doubt that the people refused to enter the tents, especially after the deaths of Bell and Hall; and that they did so because of the character they had obtained. The, Terrors of the Tent& deterred them. For the same reasons they have refused to this day to enter the hospital. We all know the aversion people have to enter such a place, but in my experience in Jamaica, I never knew a hospital left altogether and entirely enipty, To exclude Small-pox patients from the