The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-03-19 00:00:00

WEST DERBY' GUARDIANS•

The usual weekly meeting of this Board of Guardians
was held yesterday, at the board room of the workhouse,
Mill lane, Evertou. The Rev. Mr. Badnall presided.
The other guardians present were, Messrs. Siddele),
Lunt, Leyland, Baynes, Morris, Elias, I. Edwards, J.
Harrison, H. Edwards, Abrahams, Wilson, Pickup,
Evans, Johns, Sagar, Callis, Richnacind, Medcalf, Heyes,
Alniond, Watkinson, Mawdsley, Shaw, Whitby, Batten,
and Wensley.

OFFICIAL RETURNS

The Master of the Hospital reported that last week
there were 113 patients in that establishment ; since
then 15 had been admitted, 15 discharged, and three
deaths. This week there were 110, and for the corres-
ponding week of last year 112,
Cheques to the amount of £252 were voted for the
relief of the out door poor, within the several districts
under the charge of the relieving' officers.
The Master of the Workhouse reported that last week
there were 675 paupers in the house; this week there was
the same number, and for the corresponding week of last
year, 726.
THE PLANS FOR THE ALTERATION OF THE WIRKHOUSE.
A communication was received from the General Poor
Law Board, approving of the plans submitted by Mr. t.
Efoltne for the altereion and extension of the workhouse,
which were then confirmed, and it was decided that
the cost should not exceed £BOO.

THE BOARD AND ITS MEDICAL OFFICER.

This subject, the details of which we gave in a copious
report last week, was again brought under the considera-
tion of the board by Mr. Cleaver, the clerk, reading a
note from Dr. Nevins, requesting to have the opportunity
of replying to the statements that had been made at the
board, in order that the same publicity might be given
to his reply as had been given to the assertions.
In reference to the same subject, it will be in the
recollection of our readers that at the previous meeting
Mr. Johns stated that he had applied to the proprietor of
this journal for the purpose of ascertaining the na'ne of
the author of the article which had given rise to the
present discussion. In answer to that, Mr. Johns had
received the fellciwing note :
" Dr. Nevins presents his compliments to Mr. Johns,
and begs to acknowledge the receipt of his card from the
NORTHERN DAILY TIMES, and to enclose his own ix the
reply to Mr. John's inquiry there.-25, Oxford. street,
March 11, 1857."
The Chairman : Gentlemen, is it your pleasure that
Dr, Nevins' request should be complied with ?
Mr. Shaw, finding that Mr. Harrison was in the chair,
said he should wish, as the Rev. Mr. Badnall had presided
on the former occasion, that that gentleman should do so
on the present occasion, as he is perfectly acquainted
with the letter, and also with the remarks I then made
upon it.
The Rev. Mk. 13adnall having taken his seat as the
ohairman of the board,
Dr. Nevins then proceeded to read as follows
DR. NEVINS STATEMENT. _ _

In the report of last Wednesday's proceedings I find
that some statements were made by Mr. Shaw referring
to me, which he said were made upon my own authority
—an assertion which I take the first opportunity of
denying, if his statements are correctly reported. He is
stated to have informed the board that I said I neither
could nor would devote more time to the sick at the
workhouse than Ido at present-tea statement which is so
far from being the whole truth, as to be a complete mis-
representation, by suppressing an essential part of the
conversation.
So long as the sickness in the workhouse did not aceed
100 or 120 beds I was able to visit the patients and finish
my.work at a single visit la the morning, and I almost
invariably did so. But when the board increased the
amount of sickness from 150 to 200 beds, I was no longer
able to finish my work at a single visit in the morning,
and I was obliged either to take such a period of the day
as would enable me to do it all at a single visit, or to
waste an additional hour upon the road and incur the
daily fatigue of a second journey without any compen-
sation, for the board made no addition to my salary,
although it was continually increasing my work. I
therefore selected the afternoon for niy visit; and
with very few exceptions I arrive at the workhouse at
half past rout in the afternoon, and remain there until
I have finished, which is generally at half past
seven or eight o'clock at night.
It will be evident to the board that after this hour the
house ought to he closed, and the attendance upon the
sick completed, and that. injury to the general manage-
ment would be produced by having the nurses and
patients nioVing about the house after this time. This
had been explained in the conversation Which Mr.--Shaw
has referred to, and I informed him that in consequende
of these circumstances I could not devote more time to ,
the sick than I already did. By the return which the-
board ordered last week, it will be found that I have
myself been engaged in the house, on an average, three
hours per day, and Dr. Wilson nearly four hours per
gay in attendance upon the sick during the winter, and
that, during the two days of Mr. Tiernan's services as
dispenser, ho was here four and three quarter hours the
first day and tour hours and ten minutes the second.
That is to say seven hours a day have been spent by two
experienced physicians in the necessary attendance upon
the sick in this workhouse. To this must be added nearly
an hour a day, of which the porter's book takes no
account, which is necessary for making up at my own
house, the weekly return required by the board, of all
the sick, and their diet, &c., making a total of eight hours
per day devoted to the sick in this workhouse. Yet Mr.
Shaw informed me that the board did not think it received
sufficient of my attendance.
But Mr. Shaw stated further, that I said I would not
spend more time in the workhouse.
I beg leave to remind the board that, about eighteen
months 'since, I offered to give up some of my engagements
out of the house and to devote the time gained thereby to
the increase of sickness sent in by the board, if it would
compensate me for the loss I should sustain by so doing,.
But it declined accepting my offer, and instead of doing so
voted me assistance until I no longer required it, and also
ordered thirty patients to be immediately sent to the
hospital from my sick wards. This also was mentioned
to Mr. Shaw in the conversation referred to, and I told
him that the necessity for additional time having been
caused by the acts of the board itself in doubling the
number of sick beds, I could not give np engagements
which I held before the increase had been made, unless
the board would compensate me for doing so. And this,
sir, Mr. Shaw has informed you and the guardians, was
saying that I neither could nor would devote more time to
the sick than I do at present.
iaMr. Shaw is reported to have stated that I acknowledged
to spending less time upon the sick at present than I did
when I was worse paid and had fewer patients.
The subject under discussion between us at the time
was, the appointment of a young man, jest beginning
practice, to reside in the workhouse as sole medical officer.
I stated that it would be impossible for him to do the
work, and gave as my reason my own experience in the
house, When I was first appointed, I had had more
experience than most young men of my age, having been
an unusually diligent student both in Leeds, London,
and Dublin, and I said that the 50 patients then in the
house occupied me four hours a day, whilst, with my
present increased experience, I could attend equally well
to three times that number in less time. If, then, it took
four hours to attend to 50 patients, it would take an in•
experienced young man 20 hours to attend to the 250 now
in the house, and it would be impossible for him to do it.
I leave the board to estimate the honesty of the manner in
which my remarks have been reported.
Mr. Shaw is also reported to have said, that if any one
was responsible for the neglect of the poor, it was myself,
and not the board.
The challenge having been thus thrown down, I will
accept it by reminding the board of circumstances too
recent to be forgotten by any one. It is not long since the
visiting committee desired me to report upon the great
number of cases of ophthalmia in the house, and the preva-
lence of this disease was a special subject of enquiry by
Mr. Mainwaring, the assistant commissioner of the Poor
Law Board, during his recent visit. It will probably be new
to the public to learn, through the medium of this discus-
sion, the care which the board takes of its children, and
the attention bestowed upon the prevention of disease. I
have brought before the board—until it is weary of hear-
ing, and I am weary of making them—representations
upon the state of the children's playground in the work-
house. There are 204 boys and girls, besides infants, and
there is not the slightest protection for them from the
weather when not in school, except the stone steps leading
to the sick wards. Rain or frost, hail or thaw, they are
exposed without shelter to the weather, and with melting
snow thick upon the ground they have been throughout
the winter in the exposed yards, or else crouching beneath
the steps alluded to, for such protection as they afforded ;
and the consequence has been that a very large number of
children at a time have been confined to the sick wards
with ulcerated frost bites, and there has been an
amount of ophthalmia which has appeared strange
to the board. And now, sir, what has the board
done in consequence of my representations on this sub-
ject ? I leave the gentleman to make answer, who
has said that if there has been neglect anywhere
it has been on the part of the medical officer and not on
that of the board.
Having now replied to the charges which have been
made against me by name, it is perhaps, right that I should
allude to an article in the NORTHERN TIMES, with which
the board is already acquainted, and say that I am
responsible for the truth of every statement contained in
it ; for they are all taken from a letter which I have sent
to the county magistrates. As some of the assertions
contained in it have been disputed at this board, it ;is
necessary that,l should reply to the contradictions and I
will first notice Mr. Shaw's denial of a remark attributed
to him, " that he would never allow a second medical
man to be in that house whilst he lived," which he said he
never made at the board, and the board responded that
he never did. Neither the article in question nor any
letter to the magistrates says that he did, but' he did make
it to me in that memorable parlour conversation, of which
!Is has Made such free WO himself, and.the guardians will