The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-08 00:00:00

BRITANNIA,

TUTS EVENING. TIFF: PKINCEM iiE THE PEARL ISLAND:
Mt, THE riiREE KINI:DOMS IF PEARL. LULU. AND
SILVER ND,. a”.l ?lis,.l.lcobe.—Fir-t•r.:c Pantomimist'.
—And Ilia ,ILLLLIoN CREW.

HIGH W kTER AT LONDON r.RIDGE,

TED DAT —%l..n.ing, Thu ltternoc.n. 11.
10-1101ROW-3torning, 4h. 2tll AtternoOn 411. 2021.

LONDON, TUESDAY, JA U. 4 EY 8.

Iv abates somewhat from the optimism which we
are all apt to indulge that an able-bodied man,
capable of earning his bread, should have died from
acute starvation in the heart of London, and at the
very height of the charitable season. The fort-
night which extends from just before Christmas to
the Epiphany is a time when we read of benevo-
lence, hospitality, and compassion in every news-
paper, and when none of us should feel comfort-
able in withdrawing to the pleasures of home and
family without having taken some thought of our
unfortunate fellow-creatures who are less favoured
than we are in their worldly lot. It was precisely
at such a time that James BROOKS fell down in
Fenchurelestreet and died, as Dr. THOMAS Moorte
Caosev, who saw him in his last moments, assures
us, from syncope—a failure of the action of the heart
consequent upon want of food. BhooKS was a
man of 45i years of age. What little we know
of his history and circumstances is chiefly derived
from the testimony of JOHN STANDING, a fellow-
sufferer. These two persons came on the scene on
Wednesday, JAIL ::atd, the day of the great snow
fall, which litany of us will long remember. On
the morning of that day STANDING had walked up
through the storm of wind and snow from Croydon
—a stage of his journey from Brighton to London
in search of work—and met the deceased man, at
that time a stranger to him, in Fenchurch-street.
Fellowship in distress soon made them friends.
Hewes told Sraroneu that he was a Devonshire
man, and had no lodgings in London, whither he
bad come in quest of employment, hoping to ob-
tain it at the Underground Railway. This was at
two in the afternoon, at which time BROOKS
bad had nothing to eat that day. The two
went to the relieving-office in Fenchurch-street,
and each got a piece of bread about the size of a
penny roll. Beotets had been so long in the cold
that he could hardly hold the bread in his hand.
Be began, however, to eat it, but had not gone
more than a dozen yards when he leaned against a
street post and could go nu further. All his powers
failed him, the heart beat slow, the lungs did their
work laboriously, and did it badly. The man com-
plained of a pain in his chest ; he made an effort,
however, to walk on, but at the corner of Leaden-
hall-street he reeled, and was only prevented front
falling by a gentleman, who, passing by at the
time, took him by the arm. The compassion of
the bystanders was excited, and a surgeon and the
police were sent for. The poor man was carried
to Dr. CROSBY'S surgery, and restoratives were
applied, but too late. He was just able to say,
in answer to a question, that he had no home, and
then died. Dr. Ceosar told the jury that
Hawes, when he saw him, " was suffering from
" faintness and cold. He was as cold as ice. He
" died front want of food and the very low tem-
" perature then prevailing. If he had been given
" a basin of hot soup he would have Leen alive
" now, in witness's opinion. He was cold and
" frozen. There was nu other cause for death
" but acute starvation. He only wanted warm
"nourishment. Witness's impression was that
" he would have rallied if ho had had a warm
" meal."
A case of starvation so decided as this
is seldom so well established by evidence in any
civilized country, and we may reasonably hope
that in England such cases are rare. It may
waist us to imagine what privations this man
must have suffered if we remember that the daily
allowance to the British soldier, fixed irrespective
d the special demands of a severe climate, is a
pound of bread and three-quarters of a pound of
meat daily, besides other provisions, which he is
left to procure for himself. In the United
States Army the allowance is a pound and a
quarter of beef, a pound and three ounces of
bread, besides an ounce and a quarter of sugar,
and two-thirds of an ounce of coffee. BROOKS,
however, had had nothing to eat all that Wednes-
day. Moreover, the maintenance of the bodily
heat against extreme cold calls for an increase in
the products, and therefore in the rate of the bo-
dily combustion. It is the lowness of the tempe-
rature in which he lives that makes the Esquimaux
a consumer of fourteen pounds of raw meat daily.
The body loses heat from its surface both by radia-
tion and by what is called convection, or the im-
pinging of the aerifonn particles upon it with more
or leas velocity. Concurrently with this process a
loss of heat takes place front the lungs, which have
to warm the respired air, and which also
give out heat in the watery vapour exhaled.
Having to fight external nature with resources cut
of, it is no wonder that BROOKS succumbed.
There can be no doubt that at the time he pre-
sented himself in Northumberland-alley he was a
litter subject for the hospital than for the relief
bench. His system was reduced to the lowest