The Express.
London, England, 1847-07-17 00:00:00

ALLEGED DEATH FROM VIOLENCE DI THE

DURREY COUNTY LUNATIC ASYLUM.

Yesterday an extraordinary special meeting of
" The Committee of Visitors" of the Surrey County Lunatic
Asylum was held in the board room of the asylum, to
inquire into the cause of the death of James Burden, a
lunatic, whose decease was alleged to have been caused by
violence received whilst an inmate of that institution.—The
chairman, Mr. Kemble, M.P., stated that no ono was
charged with any specific offence.
Mr. Bridgeland, the steward, said that on Monday, June
the 14th, Mr. Ilollsnd, the medical officer, reported to him
that the deceased had had a pain in his aide for live days
pest. lie visited the patient, who said that he was very
unwell during the night, and about 10 or 11 o'clock
he knocked hard at his door to be let out, and on the door
being opened he received a severe blow in his side from some
man with a long pole. The force of the blow drove hint
back against the wall with great violence Since that time,
which wan three days be he had suffered much pain,
and had great difficulty in breathing. During this interview
deceased appeared quite rational.
Mr. Joseph Holland, resident surgeon of the institution,
stated that on Sunday, the 10th, he found deceased suf-
fering from diarrhcca, and in a state of great exhaustion. lie
treated him accordingly, but at 8 o'clock ir, the evening he
found him breathing with great difficulty ; his pulse was
quick, and akin hot. Witness was about to ask the deceased
some questions, when the attendant, John Steel, remarked
that he had made a strange complaint to Sir Alexander Mor-
rison, to the effect that he had been ill.used by him, Steel.
He examined the deceased, and discovered that he had a
broken rib on the right side there were two contusions
ou the right side of the body. Deceased gradually
sank, and died on the 23rd ult. The post mortem exami-
nation showed that the eighth rib was fractured, and that
that injury was the cause of death. He found deceased, on
one occasion, locked up in his room till betweca 10 and 11
o'clock, and he was then in a most filthy state.
John Logan Steel said deceased had complained of a pain
in his side from the time he was admitted. Deceased had
told him that he had quarrelled with Roberta, another
patient, who had kicked him in the side. Ho told Sir Alex-
ander Morrison that he was kicked. He had also told
witness he had been violently assaulted in Brixton gaol.
James Burden, the son of the deceased, maid that his
father had told him, his wife, and his mother, that his
teeth had bees knocked out, his eyes blackened, his head
knocked against the wall, sad he had been violently, thrown
against the side of the bedstead, which had hurt his ribs
Deceased told his mother he had been struck with a piece cf
the bedstead. The keeper Steel appeared to be attentive to
deceased. Steel turned the conversation on two or three
occasions when deceased was about to speak.
The committee consulted for a few minutes, and expressed
their opinion on the cane in a resolution that " the committee
are not enabled to decide whether the injury from which the II
deceased died was occasioned by a blow received on or about
the let of June, in a scuffle which took place between him
and &lunatic of the name of Roberts ; whether it was from the
injury received in a fall which he got in attempting to get
through the ventilator over the door of his ward; or from the
blow stated by him to have been inflicted lay some of the
attendants. They regret the unsatisfactory manner of this
conclusion, but they feel that it would be unjust to the
attendants to throw upon them, or any one of them, a
stigma which is not borne out by the evidence."