The Press. — London, England, 1856-10-18 00:00:00

OCTOBER 18, 1856. THE SALE OF DISEASED MEAT to the poor of Marylebone was proved by Dr. Thomson, the medical otlictr of health for the parish. In his monthly report be says : l have great reason, with regret, to state that a large amount of diseased meat is sold to the poor in the course of the month. Mr. Porter, one of the inspectors, seized the entire carcase and the hind quarters, with some fragments, of two cows in a slaughterhouse in Middlesex-mews. One of these carcases was traced from a cowkeeper's near Ken• sail-green. The animal was affected with disease of the lungs, and, when on the point of death, it was killed, and sent, in the middle of the night, to the slaughterhouse in question. The flesh was in a most flabby state, and possessed a peculiarly offensive smell characteristic of the animal being in the last stage of pleuro pneumonia, while the fat, which was deficient in quantity, presented a watery aspect, and feculent matter was detected in considerable quantity in more than one portion of the animal. From the evidence obtained, it was clear that this particular place was I. favorite deposit for the carrion before being sent out to the markets of the poor. The vestry have desired Dr. Thomson to expose such practices as much as possible. THE ADMINISTRATION OF MARYLESONE WORKHOUSE was again discussed at great length at the weekly meeting of the Marylebone vestry on Saturday last, with reference to the violence lately employed towards some refractory young women. In the course of the debate. Mr. Jacob Bell stated the results of his ex perience. He remarked that : These poor girls had been nurtured and imbued with an impression, in the first place, that the workhouse was their natural borne, then that they were so lost and bad that there was no one to sympathise with them. They committed wrong, and were punished. That hardened them, and they did worse. His own opinion was, that the vestry should adopt a resolution in the form he bad prepared as an amendment. It was to this effect : That this vestry having taken into consideration the circum stances connected with the recent infliction of corporal punish ment ou women in the workhouse, is of opinion that such con duct on the part of the master is highly reprehensible, and proves him to be incompetent for the efficient discharge of the duties devolving on him as the superintendent of such an estab lishment. He would not go so far as to dictate to the guardians that they should dismiss the master; he would take no notice whatever of the I'oor•Law Commissioners in the matter; but he would merely record this as the opinion of the vestry, based upon the facts within their knowledge. The meeting was adjourned. PROFESSOR Mor.sE was entertained at a public dinner last week at the Albion. The dinner was given in relation to the projected submarine telegraph between England and America, the experiments to test the feasibility of which plan were satisfactorily concluded last week by Professor Morse. In pro posing the toast of the evening, Mr. W. F. Couke, the chairman, said : I have been thinking during the last few days upon what Professor Morse had done. He stands alone in America as the originator and carrier out of a grand conception. We know that America is a great and enormous country, and we know the value which the telegraph must be to her; but I think we have a right to quarrel with the professor for not being content with giving the benefit of his concep Lions to his own country, but that he has extended it to our colonies of Canada and Newfoundland; and that beyond that he has now got it introduced all ever Europe—and the nuisance is that we in England are obliged to communicate abroad by means of his system. I, as A director of the Electric Telegraph Company, should be ashamed, however, if I did not acknowledge the debt we owe him. But he threatens to go further still, and, if we do not do it, to carry ont the communication across the Atlantic between New foundland and Ireland. lam nearly pledged to pay him a visit on the other side of the Atlantic to see what he is about, and if he persists in his obstinate atienipt to reach England by his electric telegraph I believe I shall be compelled to join him. Professor Morse, in reply, said : A European unity, in a political sense, was a problem which once engaged intensely many philosophic minds. We a-e to resolve the question of a cosmopolitan unity, of more comprehensive importance, if not directly in a poli tical, certainly in a commercial point of view. Can the world be brought into union ? What should prevent it ? The telegraph has already achieved for itself the conquest of a vast domain. Its network covers the United States and North America with the meshes of more than 40,000 miles of conductors, and Europe is covered with a network q uite as extensive. Shall its conquests be stayed within its present limits? Towards the close of the evening the chairman paid a high compliment to Professor Wheatstone for his services in aiding to bring the electric telegraph practically to bear for commercial purpcses, and ex pressed his regret that the professor was not present. THE CITY GASWORKS NUISANCE WRS discussed at a special committee of the Commission of Sewers on Tuesday. The evidence brought forward was given by residents in the locality. The smell from the gasworks was described by all the witnesses as being very bad and offensive, particularly at night, and productive of headache, depression of spirits, nausea, and in some cases actual vomiting. Some of the witnesses had had to send their families out of town on account of the injury to their health. One of the witnesses being asked by Mr. Deputy Lott whether ho could distinguish between the THE PRESS, smell of the gasworks and that of the Fleet Ditch, said that he could, and that lie preferred the latter. Mr. Seward said that about a year ago a formidable explosion took place at the works through the bursting of a pipe fifteen inches in diameter and a piece of pipe about four inches long, three wide, and half an inch thick, was blown over the tops of the houses into Chatham place. This concluded the evidence against the company, who were beard in reply yesterday. A DEATH FROM CHLOROFORM. took place on Tues day at St. Thomas's Hospital, in the case of John Gibletts, a seaman, about to submit to amputation of the finger. The man requested that some chloro form should be administered to lull the pain. Mr. Fowler, the house surgeon, accordingly at once ad ministered it, but the unfortunate man expired under its influence. A coroner's inquest was held, when Mr. Fowler described the action of the chloroform upon deceased : Soon after he began to administer the chloroform wit ness was called into the next room to see an accident. Mr. George gave up the chloroform, and came to witness to ask if he should discontinue it. As the accident was slight, witness returned to the room and ordered the ad ministration of the chloroform to be continued. The patient was then partially sensible, and he began to spit as If about to vomit. He was violently convulsed throughout his whole frame, and the chloroform was discontinued. He had to be held by three men to prevent him from falling on to the floor from the chair on which he was sitting. He was placed in a horizontal position, when his breathing was laboured, and the pulse almost ceased. The tongue was drawn out of the mouth by forceps, and artificial respiration resorted to. Ammonia was held to his nostrils, and he appeared to rally a little, so as to be able to breathe without assistance, but almost imme diately he relapsed into his former condition. The gal vanic current was passed to the regions, but in a minute or minute and a half life appeared to be extinct. The gal vanic action was kept uo for half an hour, and he was made to breathe oxygen gas by means of artificial respiration, but it had no effect. His death undoubtedly was occasioned by chloroform. A good deal of additional evidence was gone into bearing principally upon the state of health in which deceased was before and at the time of the adminis tration of chloroform. Ultimately the inquiry was adjourned for the attendance of one of the senior surgeons of the hospital. THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S RETURNS for the week show a low rate of mortality. The deaths decreased from 1,085 the previous week to 939 in this. The average, allowing for increased population, would be 1,103. The births amounted to 1,539. THE GREY-COAT HOSPITAL, Westminster, caught fire on Tuesday, happily early in the evening. In a few minutes a powerful force of engines was on the spot, and the flames soon subdued. Much damage was done, and great alarm was created among the children. A DEAD MAN was found floating past Waterloo bridge on Monday. The body is not yet identified. NEW STREETS, from the South-Eastern Railway terminating at Stamford-street ; and from Cranbourne street to King-street, Covent-garden, were proposed and agreed to by the Metropolitan Board of Works this week. The architect has been ordered to pre pare plans. The intercepting drainage question stands adjourned for further consideration. The Long and Sea Reach plans have been rejected. THREE CHILDREN were simultaneously knocked down and run over by an omnibus in Oxford-street on Monday afternoon. Two were severely injured, and the head of the third poor child was nearly cut off from his body by the wheels. The accident oc curred close to Bond street. . A COMMERCIAL. TRAVELLER in the house of Gillott and Foster, Cannon-street, a Mr. Howell, jumped out of the fourth storey window on Wednesday morning, and killed himself on the spot. In his fall the unfortunate man struck down a passer-by, a Mr. Reece, clerk to Messrs. Berens and Blomberg. Mr. Reece was seriously injured. An inquest on Howell resulted in a verdict of "Temporary Insanity." He had been disappointed in love. AT THE EASTERN STEAK NAVIGATION COMPANY'S half-yearly meeting on Wednesday, a report from Mr. Brunel anticipated that within a few months the Great Eastern, now building at Poplar, would be ready for launching. HOLFORD-HOUSE, Regent's-park, is about to become a Baptist college. The purchase money is 8,0001. DR. LETHERY'S ANNUAL SANITARY REPORT, pub. lisbed this week, shows a decrease in the rate of mortality of seventy per cent. compared with the last eight years. Dr. Letheby gives some curious facts as to the length of life amongst different trades. The mean age at which shopkeepers and domestic servants die is 58.8 and 58.6. Butchers, poulterers, and fishmongers live to the are of 53.8. Clerks, accountants, and messengers reach to the age of from 52 to 52.3. The same is about the mean age of blacksmiths, gasfitters, and the workers in the coarse metals generally, while publicans, wine merchants, waiters, tailors, labourers, and shoemakers live to the age of from 49.9 to 50.3. Cabmen and ostlers and draymeu live only to 49.4, and soldiers, sailors, 993 and policemen reach only to 48 years. A like differ. ence exists in the longevity of women, for while the wife of a shopkeeper will live to be about 57 years of age, and the domestic servant to 51.5, the wife of the publican and beershop keeper and the wife of the cabman and ostler will only reach to 44.2 and 48 years of age; and, worse still, the poor ueedlawoman sinks into the grave at 42.6 years of age. In con clusion Dr. Letheby makes an earnest appeal in behalf of better drainage for the metropolis. VroVintial. THE STATE OF CRIME IN BERKSHIRE IVES alluded to on Monday last by the chaplain of the Reading Model Prison, in a report read before the bench, Viscount Barrington, the Earl of Abingdon, Sir Richard Throckmorton, Bart., do., present. The rev. gentleman said : I felt gratified in reporting last year that there had been a reduction of twelve per cent. in the number committed to the county prisons, and I am happy to congratulate you on a further diminution during the succeeding twelve months. Sixty-four juvenile offenders, of whom four• teen were girls, have been committed to your county gaol during the past year. I have thought it important for several successive years to show the age at which the recommitted or worse class of criminals entered upon their vicious course, and were first committed ; and by referring to the tables of the last year, it will be seen that, of 1-12 previously in separate confinement, not less than 61 (more than forty per cent.) had been in gaol before they were seventeen years of age. These have been committed 372 times—that is, on the ave►age more than six times each. MR. MECHI was entertained at a public dinner at Woodbridge last week. In replying to his health, he gave a sketch of his career as a practical farmer When be bought a farm or two he did to those farms what, as a man of business, he thought was proper and right to do,—that was to begin to spend money upon them and to alter their unimproved condition. At that time there was a great difference of opinion as to what im provement should be made. The first thing he did was to drain the heavy land which wanted it. He was told that it was no use to drain those yellow tenacious clays, because the water would not go through them; but he considered that if it could get into them it would get through them. Well, then he thought that tumble-down, old, ricketty buildings were not satisfactory, so be put up brick and slated ones, which he thought were cheapest in the end to both landlord and tenant, for his had been up now fifteen years, and they looked as fresh n 3W as ever, and be had no periodical charges for repairs. The next thing was to pull down a great many pollards, with a great extent of hedge rows. He pulled down four and a half miles of fences upon 128 acres to begin with. He assured them that, instead of having to manure the roots of the fences and trees, when the ground was cleared it was perfectly astounding to see what acreage he had gained, which before was damaged by the existing fences, and the extent to which the roots went for their food. He next put up a steam-engine, the first in the county, and then his friends pronounced him en tirely mad; but time had gone on, and be thought he could now count seventy which had been brought into use around him ; and he dare asy his friend Mr. Garrett would be glad to find them numbering 17U instead of seventy. But all these things cost money, and he came to this con clusion, that it would be better for the tenant, the landlord, and the country at large that rents should to twice or three times more than they now were (he could see that some of the faces around him began to look serious), provided the difference in price was a fair interest for the improve ment made. He would illustrate this : He could show them upon his own farm a crop of oats, and other crops as well, but particularly a crop of oats, in which the difference between those of some of his neigh bours was six or seven quarters per acre. Now, that arose simply from the want of drainage, of deeper cultivation, and of more manure. Well then, he said, if the difference was three, four, five, or six quarters in the crop of oats per acre, with other things in proportion, they would be better off if they had to pay ten per cent. upon the improvements effected; and he maintained that he could go from one end of the kingdom to the other, and point to farm after farm, where, by investing a sum for drainage, ten per cent. could be cbarged upon it, and the tenant be in abetter position than now. He was not speaking from prejudice, for these facts met him in every turn; therefore, he thonght they must make up their minds that great changes would take place in agriculture ; but they must first get rid of the belief that drainage was of no use in strong clays. Mr. Mechi then alluded to Boydell's steam-plough, which he hoped to see in use the next visit he paid to Suffolk : He would be disappointed if he did not see a ♦ery con siderable enlargement of their fields, and find those beau tiful Suffolk horses somewhat superseded by the iron steamer ploughing their ground. which would consume coal instead of oats. Then some, perhaps, would ask, " What am Ito do with my oats?" Nby they must grow wheat after wheat, or take some other little liberty with the soil. And that brought him to another part of the question, ♦iz., that they did not half farm in feeding the soil by manuring. He believed that they never ought to feed off a green-root crop without feeding it with an abun dance of cake or corn. He would take an instance of the general poor land of the country. He would say that a man who gave to his animals three quarters of beans upon an acre—by which he would lose Ms. or the proportionate