The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-24 00:00:00

TURTLE, TURTLE, TUalwßayTsLE.
Clew and Invalid TURTLE SOUPS read/.
ST. JASESMkt. SII-SLILLL, REGENT-mum nocADrus.
WM. DONALD. Proprietor.

LONDON must have a SUPPER and MUSIC
ROOM for Gentlemen.—Remember, we waft tor you at
EVANS'," after the cerent Garden Opera and the Theatres.

Eke larsreOli.

TO COIIII.IISPONDENT&
dvertbementa intended for " The Exuma" Lowden Evening
Twr, mut be at the Moe, 10, Bouveriastreet, by Two
o'clock on as day of publication.

HAYMARKET.
TIM IMMO, THE BALANCE OF COMFORT. Warn.
Move, Rogers, Braid, de. ; Mies Ada Cavendish —THE FAVORITE
OF FORTUNE. Mersa Backstone, Chippendale, and &Ahern
xi% chippendalo, tte. —And THE WOLF AND THB LAMB.

THIS EVIININO, • LUCKY HIT —After which MISRY VIII.
Cardinal Wolsey, Mr. Charles Kean ; Queen Katherine, Mrs.
Obsess Kean.

LICILUM.
Ten EVININO, STMPSON AND CO. Mr. Emery and Mize
sigwortby—And THB CORSICAN BRAYTHERS. Means. Fech-
ter, Jordan, Binary, Vertn, Wlddicomb, Moreland, & Fitzpatrick;
Mesdames Lavern; Duverney, Mcnrade, and Ternan.

BRITANNIA.
THIS LWRirrnO,RICH AND POOR: OR, THE FOUR SEASONS.
—The Hungarian Dancers. from the Oxford and Alhambra—To
conclude with THE CORPORAL'S DAUGHTER. Messrs. Rey-
nolds, Cranford, et Bigwood ; &Ilse ClaesSt Caste &Mrs. S. Lane.

HIGH-WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE.
Tins DAT —Morning, 10b. 17rn Afternoon, 10h. 40rn.
TO-MOnitow—Morning, 11b. 21m Afterneon, 11b. 49m.

LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 24.

TEE Poor-law Board has wisely taken the
medical officers of the metropolitan workhouses
into its counsels, and with a highly satisfactory
result. It is of the first importance that those
bent upon aiding Mr. Villiers in that reform
in the administration of the Poor-law to which he

is pledged, should act with unanimity and fore-
thought. The obstructivea, resolute on upholding
present abuses, could wish for nothing better than
that the reformers should differ among themselves,

and much malevolent rejoicing would arise if the

medical authorities of the various workhouses
could be made to contradict each other as to the
necessity of change.
This is happily impossible. A form containing
a carefully prepared series of questions has been
issued from Whitehall to every workhouse doctor
in London, and these gentlemen met in conclave

yesterday to deliberate upon their replies. Neither
hint nor innuendo was given by the authorities.

Indeed, " judging by your own experience and
observation only," was astutely made the condition
under which the evidence should be ten-
dered, and the conclusions arrived at are especially
valuable, as coming front impartial men, whose li
personal experience and professional knowledge
entitle their opinions to full weight. It was curious,
too, at yesterday's gathering, to see doctors who
have been sharply criticised for the shortcomings
of the infirmaries they are theoretically supposed
to rule, and to hear from their own lips the causes
which have led to the lamentable break-down in
the parochial system. Each of the seventeen formal
questions put by the Poor-law Board, some of
which contained several subdivisions, was care-
fully discussed, and two important resolutions were
agreed to. The bed space absolutely necessary for
the well-being of sick paupers, and the nursing,
without which the best medical skill is unavailing,
were both decided ou ; the first resolution, which
was carried with one dissentient, being—" That
1,000 cubic feet of air and 80 feet of floor space
should be the minimum recommended to the Poor_
law Board for each sick inmate of an infirmary
ward."

It will be useful to remember that this is two
hundred feet less of cubic air than the Barrack
Commission declares to be necessary for the sick
soldier, and is the amount now allowed in prison
hospitals for the sick felon. This proves the
moderate character of the demand, and if it were
not that in the specifications now out for a new
metropolitan workhouse a space of five hundred
feet has been sanctioned by the local authorities, it
would be worse than idle to dwell upon its justice.
The metropolitan workhouse doctors have, how-
ever, at a meeting composed of a majority of their
class, declared that the sick felon's allowance of
air is sufficient for the sick pauper, and in the face
of this it is not likely that the Poor-law Board will
insist upon the quantity deemed essential for mili-
tary lungs being given in our workhouses. The
second resolution was carried unanimously, and ran
thus :—" That the system of pauper nursing is to
be wholly condemned, and that paid nurses ought
to be appointed in the proportion of one day nurse,
one night nurse, and one helper to each fifty

s patients."

We shall content ourselves with hinting at the
horrifying particulars given by these:medical gen-
tlemen of their experience of pauper nurses. Let
the reader imagine the natural consequence of em-
ploying drunken, renal, ignorant, cruel, and
broken down wretches as irresponsible dictators in
a sick room, and a faint shadow of the reality may
be guessed at. One doctor, after issuing diet and
prescription cards, and carefully labelling medicine
bottles for his patients for years, had just discovered
that only one out of the fourteen nurses under
him was able to read ; another deposed that none
of those employed in his workhouse ever had a
day out without returning helplessly drunk ; while
a third said he had nothing to say against the
respectability of the nurses assigned to him, but
that none of them were under sixty years of age,
and that they all laboured under the striking dis-
advantage of being either imbecile or chronically
infirm. On the confusion in the administering
medicine, on the embrocation given for draughts,
the neglect of instructions as to the time of taking
medicines when reading is an unknown accomplish-
ment ; on the misappropriation of wine, brandy,
and medical comforts when abandoned drunken-
ness is the rule ; and on the sufferings endured by
those unable to move in bed or lift themselves
without assistance when imbecility is gibbering and
infirmity pottering about the dying couch, it is un-
necessary to dwell. The finishing stroke to the
heavy charges brought against workhouse hospitals
has been given by workhouse doctors ; and
if Mr. Villiers and the Poor-law Board
wanted to have their case strengthened, no-
thing could be more conclusive than the
meeting of yesterday, and the answers agreed
upon to the circular sent out. The admissions so
frankly made by the President of the Poor-law
Board to the deputation from the Sick Poor Asso-
ciation ; the repeated public exposures of the
cruelties practised on the ill and dying ; the unani-
mous call fur reform from thinkers who agree
on no other topic, will, it is to be hoped,
speedily bear fruit. The time is ripe, and the
occasion ready to hand, and the meeting of
yesterday is by no means the leant significant of
the heralds of beneficial change.

NATIONAL ARTILLERY ASSOCIATION,—The Na-
tional Artillery Association will hold its first annual meet-
ing at Willis's Rooms tomorrow, immediately after the
termination of the business of the National Rifle Associa-
tion, which commence, at 2.30 p.m. on that day.