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

lain EnttUisence.

TREATMENT OF THE SICK IN sHoRENTair
WORKHOUSE.

BAIL COURT.-MAr 23.

bitting, at Nisi Prius at Westminster.—{Before bir.Justice

Yesterday Mr. Humphreys, coroner, held en
inquiry at the Green Man Tavern, Holton, touching the
death of Moses Mitchel, aged about U years.
Sophia Wood, paid head-nurse of the sick ward of Shore-
ditch workhouse, was the first witness called. She said
that the deceased was • pauper patient. He came under
her care last Tuesday, she beMeved by Dr. Clarke's orders.
The following day he was visited by Dr. Clarke. He said
on the Wednesday morning that he felt better. After
dinner time witness was going a round, and when she came
to the last bed (deceased's) she was much surprised to
find him dead. She had not seen him from 9 till 3.
Witness had • paid nurse under her. The under-
nurse bad five wards to attend to, and she
could not always be in one ward. Witness's duties were
so numerous, drawing the beer and arranging various
things, that witness could not be always in the ward.
Witness could almost be positive that the deceased did not
suffer any injury while in the ward. He vomited • great
deal ; it was like blood that he threw up. There were 23
patients in ward No. 16.
Edward Parry, a pauper inmate, said that he had been
a clerk, but was at present in No. 16 sick ward of Shore-
ditch workhouse. Deceased complained of pain on Wed-
nesday last. He appeared more prostrate on Wednesday
than on the previous day. On Tuesday he was sent a
meat dinner, but he did not eat much of it. Wit-
ness told him that he should go to bed and have
his clothes taken away. He declined to do so. Wit-
ness told him that it was the rule to go to bed and
give up his clothes. Witness assisted in the ward,
and bad his clothes in consequence, although he was a
patient. Witness gave deceased a bath, and admi-
nistered remedies for the flux, from which he was
suffering. He got tea, ke., on Tuesday night. An inmate
wardsman slept in the wardat night. Onthe Wednesday, at
dinner time, witness noticed that deceased was eating pea-
soup, and witness having heard the under nurse say that
she would endeavour to get some beef tea for him, witress
told him not to eat it. The beef tea was got, and he par-
took of it. At twenty minutes to 4 o'clock he was found
to be dead, but still quite warm. He never made any
complaints.
The Coroner—The ward is under the charge of • head
nurse and under nurse, a pauper wardsman, • youth as a
helper, and yourself?
Witness—l only acted voluntarily. There was no
I advantage in food, tic.. to me.
Coroner—You were merely an amateur ; but as you
apparently did more for the deceased than any of the
others, I supposed you were on the staff.
Ellen Harding, under nurse, said that the deceased got
medicine at 11 o'clock on Wednesday ; he got none on
Tuesday. Thewitness afterwards corrected this statement
by saying that she gave him a does of " plaster of Paris"
on the Tuesday. That was without any special orders ; she
hadit by her, and the man said that he had been taking it
before. Witness was allowed to give plaster of Paris to
those who had a touch of diarrhrsa. On Wednesday she
had not seen Dr. Clarke when she gave him medicine. A
bottle was sent up labelled, and she gave some of the
medicine in it. Dr. Clarke told witness on Tuesday to
watch deceased carefully, for he was very bad. Witness
considered that she carried out those instructions.
Charles Itoberton, a pauper inmate of Shoreditch
workhouse, said that deceased wee ill in the workhouse
several days prior to the 10th inst., when he went out, and
on his return said that he bad got medicine from a chemist
which had done him a great deal of good. He afterwards
got medicine from the wardsman. The medicine was
labelled " plaster of Paris." It was • solution of chloride
of lime, capsicum and tincture of peppermint. He asked
for the doctor, and after some hesitation on the part of the
wardsman, be was allowed to see the doctor on Saturday
week, who ordered him to go on with the plaster of Paris.
He saw the doctor a second time, and was told to go on
with the same medicine. The doctor did not examine
his pulse, 4:c. The next day (Tuesday) the inmates
reported to the labour master that it was dan-
gerous to have the man in the yard (No. 1)
in such a state, but although it was then 6.30 a.m.,
nothing was done until 12 o'clock, when a message came
that be was to go to the infirmary to see the doctor. Mean-
while nothing was done to save the deceased. He was
going in with the stream to the dinner when he was told
to go to the infirmary. He had been suffering severely
from the severest form of diarrhoea. On the Saturday the
doctor had given him a bottle of plaster of Paris. On the
Wednesday morning that bottle was sent for to be given to
him in the infirmary.
Edmund Wynn, another inmate of No. 1 ward, corrobo-
rated the last witness, and said that after the state of the
deceased was reported to the officials on the Tuesday morn-
ing all the inmates of that ward were, in the usual routine,
locked in the ward. There were no means of communicating
with the officials then until dinner time. There was no
bell, kc. The ward communicated with a yard in which
the oakum sheds were, but the yard was cut off from the
front of the premises. On Tuesday morning deceased
asked the deputy master if he might go out to get more
medicine from the chemist; the deputy-master told him
that he should be attended to. Deceased thought that he
had taken too much plaster of Paris, and that it had
" bound him up." Unless by kicking at the doors, there
were no means of communicating with the officers when the
ward was locked.
The master of the workhouse contradicted this latter
statement, and asked the witness whether he had not him-
self gone up at times into the sick ward.
The witness said that sometimes if a gate was open lie
went up by stealth, but certainly not to see an officer.
With a view to ascertain the correctness of the state-
ment that the medicine given on the Wednesday in the
infirmary to the deceased was merely the remains of the
plaster of Paris, given him by the doctor on the previous
Saturday, the nurse Harding was recalled. She said that
the medicine was now thrown away, but she believed the
bottle was full when it was brought up to the sick ward ;
but if she was to think of all these things, she would
have to " make an almanac of her head," which she was
not going to do. The pauper wardsman said that the bottle
was full when he saw it on the Wednesday.
Mr. Painter, master of the workhouse, said that de-
ceased had been an inmate of the house since August, 1865,
and that he was a carman by calling.
Dv. Tebay, of the Greycoat Hospital, said that the post-
mortem examination showed that deceased died from syn-
cope, or failure of the heart's action. Exhaustion from
diarrhoea might tend to such a result, but deceased's heart
was weak. He attributed the death to natural causes,
with the qualification that the under officials ought to have
laid more stress on the symptoms, or rather urgency, to the
medical officers at the latter stage.
The coroner having summed up,
The jury returned the following verdict—" That the
deceased was found dead in Shoreditch workhouse ; and
that his death arose from the mortal effects of syncope from
exhaustion ; and the said jurors do further any that they
are of opinion deceased ought to have received medical
attention at an earlier period of the day before his death ;
that the wardsman ought to have given greater facility to
deceased to see the doctor ; and that there was neglect on
the part of the paid nurses in leaving the deceased to the
I care of the pauper inmates."
I'm

Lush and Common Juries.)
This yrs the first day of the in term Nisi Prius sittings.

CALDWILL tl. SMITH.
This was an action on a bill of exchange for 100/., drawn
on the 7th April, 1864, for three months, and endorsed to
the plaintiff, together with 5/. 18s. 6d. interest. The de-
fendant by various pleas denied his liability.
Mr. Pearce and Mr. E. Bailey were counsel for the plain-
tiff ; Mr. Murphy was counsel for the defendant.
The plaintiff is a licensed victualler and the proprietor of
a dancing academy in Dean-street, Soho, and the defendant
carrieson business at 4 ands, Leadenhell-market. When the
bill was drawn the defendant was in the employment of,
or bad a share in the business carried on at the market by
a person named Brookes. Plaintiff had had business
transactions with Brookes, and when plaintiff was 'faked
to advance the money he consented to do so if Smith
would draw the bill and Brookes accept it and endorse it
over. That was done, and when the bilk became due
Smith, on application to the plaintiff, obtained time, and
the bill was not presented. At the latter end of 1864 or
the beginning of 1865 Brookes passed through the Bank-
ruptcy Court, and Smith succeeded to the business, and
was now carrying it on. Smith afterwards supplied good'
to reduce the amount of the bill to the extent of
211. lls. 31., for which credit had been given to him, and a
Bankruptcy
sum of 16/. 4s
dividend of the from the
Bankruptcy Court. The question waa defendant's
liability.
The defence was that the bill was not presented, and
consequently no notice of dishonour. Brookes denied that
he ever asked for time, and said that if the bill had been
presented at the bank where it was made payable it would
have been paid, as there were assets with which to meet
it. Smith denied the statement made by the plaintiff and
his witnesses, and said the goods were not supplied in
payment of the bill, but were independent trarsactions, for
which the plaintiff was liable to him, and for which he
sent in the account Brookes said he had paid the plaintiff
several sums, amounting to upwards of 101., for holding
over the bill, in which case he would have absolved Smith
as the security, but it was denied by the plaintiff, but
be said he did receive some money from Brookes on
his I 0 U.
The jury ultimately returned a verdict for the defendant.

THE GREAT FIRE AT MANCHESTER.—Yesterday
morning, between 1 and 2 o'clock, the goods warehouses of
the London and North Western Railway Company. and the
Great Western Railway Company, covering an immense
area of ground in Liverpool-road, Manchester, were dis-
covered to be on fire. In the course of an hour from the
discovery of the fire one immense pile of warehouses,
mainly stored with oil, cotton, and grain, was a mass of
flames from end to end, and the roof and floors had fallen
in, so that it was gutted, and walls and woodwork were
crumbling away bit by bit. The Manchester City Fire Bri-
gades were on the spot, with the whole force at their com-
mand, in a short space of time, and the flames shooting
high up into the atmosphere, and spreading a red glow of
heat far and wide over the scene, telegraphed the news of
fire to places many miles from the city, so that a great
concourse of people soon gathered about the doomed pro-
perty. The pile in which the fire commenced is called No. 2
warehouse, fronting toCharles-street, and theflames,in spite
of all effortstoarrest theirprogress, soon spread to No. 1 ware-
house, occupied by Messrs. J. C. Bunter and Co., which
was filled with cotton, madder and madder root, and the
buildings bounded by Lower Byron-street, Chester-street,
and Water-street appeared to be enveloped in flames. The
yards between the various warehouses are intersected b
railways, on which were long rows of trucks, piled up with
every conceivable description of merchandise, but these
were mostly saved by being shunted out to open sidings
OD the railway. The man of fire was so grat that the
efforts of the firemen were mainly directed to cutting off
the approach of the flames in various directions, so as to
save property which had not been already attacked, and
in this they were eminently successful. For instance,
No. 3 warehouse was saved in this way, the firemen taking
their station inside and directing jets of water upon the
wood work and all the more vulnerable points of the build-
ing and its contents, with great success. No. 3 was the
largest warehouse, and was used by the consignees of goods
for storage, and these included flour, butter, oil, Rus-
sian tallow, lard and corn. The fire burnt with great
fierceness up to 4 o'clock before the fire police appeared to
have fairly gained command over it, and from that hour
to six a sensible impression had been made
upon it, but it was late in the day before
all the flames were completely extinguished. The
Manchester fire brigade was joined soon after the fire
commenced by that of Salford, and engines belonging to
private individuals from a distance were sent to lend all
the aid they could. The firemen made great efforts through.
out, and a large number of civilians made themselves useful
in removing goods from positions of danger. The offices of
the companies in Liverpool-road, and which once formed
part of the original Liverpool and Manchester terminal
railway station, were saved, as also was the residence of
Mr. Thomas Kay, the principal agent of the London and
North Western Railway Company. Mr. Kay was absent
from Manchester, but was communicated with bytelegraph.
The books and papers of the company and Mr. Kay s fur-
niture were removed during the fire to a place of safety.
It is too soon to form an estimate of the amount of damage
sustained, but moderate estimates place it at over 100,001.
and some people say it will probably be nearer to a quarto;
of a million.
CRYSTAL PALACE. ONE SHILLING DAY.
WEDNISDAT, MAT T. 3.— Admission' on payment, 8,429;
ditto by season tickets, 1,875 ; total visitors, 10,304.

• If
THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 24, 1866.