The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-03-10 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL DISPENSARIES.

CAPTAIN BOURNE, V•ce-President of North Dispensary.
Mr. CHARLES BOOTH Vice-President of t. outh Dispensary.
Mr. FRANCIS MILL, Treasurer. I Mr. J. W. WiLLIAms, Secretary.
OFFICE —2l, SOUTH CASTLE STREET.
Number of PatienPs during the past week.

New Cases Received Advice and Medi }
eine at the Institution
New Cases Visited at their own houses
and supplied with Medicine

NORTH

SOUTH. TOTAL.

WEST DERBY BOARD OF GUARDIANS•

NINETEENTH CENTURY TREATMENT 0:

PAUPERS.

" Rattle his bones, over the stones,
ii.o's only a pauper, whom nobody owns."

" Mr. Gallia was of opinion that a workhouse such as thtir"
was best suited to a young man just commencing Wel
and thought it would be better that their present wed:
officer should resign." —Proceedings of the Wes! 9;;i,
Guardians, March 4, 1857, reported in the Dail "
March 5, 1857. . tbst
The British public has lately been horrified by hearing
in a London workhouse the women were flogged, end':
in a private school children have been starved to destu
and we in Liverpool,with our noble, benevolent institotloo4
thar.k Heaven that we du not live there, or suffer
atrocities to be committed in our workhouses. I)"
perhaps, it may be well for us to look a little more Orr,
fully at borne before we condemn our neighb°.6.l‘
too severely, for we have before us the publisiFi
reports of the prtcedirigs of the West Derby Board.l,°,
Guardians, and also copies of circulars lately sent 1)/1'1
medical officer to the elected and ex officio members of I":
toard ; and it is from these that we have taken the telttl,
the head of our article, and derived materials for proPibil
reflection, on the eve of a new election of members of th

board.
"
It appears from these documents that the West will
Workhouse has gradually been losing its original eberee',{
and has now become little else than a large hospital, fe:;,
691 inmates, 251 are in the sick wards. There has e„..‘
times been not a single able bodied man in the holleet-to
there are frequently barely sufficient able bodied Welis,ellto
do the necessary work of the establishment. The ilwr;o1
are, therefore, almost exclusively the sick and ingrehtheir
those who are unable to help themselves either from 06
infancy or from their second childhood. Now, these of
prcei,ely the people that it warms our heerts tot
Tei::eying ; and, whilst we harden them like v
the idle anal profligate, we feel a °ol
against die
desire to ass;
those who are in unavoidable of
for them that we provide tier
tress,_ and it
Infirmary, our hospitals, our other benevolest
tions. We have always heard ta..2t the officers of the 00
Derby workhouse are anxious to do WTA..t.i5 in their re,
to promote the comfort of the inmates; and be:e nin°
s
there is for their goed offices we learn from fit''t,;:i
documents ; fur it appears that the sick poor are Fl.
positive crowds into the hcuse —the sick wards 'le (00
about to say, but truth compels us to alter the phrase'
seems that the wards are too limited to contain the C'ej'oo
dates for admission, and that patients have even diedbil'e
they could be accommodated in a sick ward at all. v",itii
bzd is required the answer of the nurse is freeload, dI
this fashion We have not one at present, but Soi;
is dying, and his bed can be used as soon' as heft
In the language of the circular to the county MaflienlihiJ3o
It has frequently happened that one sick man 110
wait for another to die before he could have a he"74isi
instances have occurred in which the patients ban sOO
without ever being able to get a bed in a sick toot
all." We can fancy what a cheerful prospect it ;-$lO
be in sickness. to look forward to the reversios e'sor
dying man's bedding, and think, af,er entering jute P°o4s
sion that some one else is anxiously waiting for eilt
exit, that he also may share in the comforts of the Pleee'tia
" Oliver asking for more" has become a proverb intifit'
English language ; awl, we regret to say, that as
of whom we desire to speak with reaPeet'eaidi
like him, dared to ask for more. The fie,
officer has declared that, although he has lotia °OP
" four, five, and even ten hours in the de/ 0
n'ght in attendance upon the sick in the workholieetsei
is " nut able to do justice to the unprecedented Were: di
sickness sent in by the guardians," and. he billtoe
dared to ask for more—assistance. Can prow:WB4i
further His duties are a mere bagatelle, sad yet n
he cannot discharge them properly. He
and prescribe for 250 sick patients in the wards, end
requir;ll
pound the whole of the medicine they 1314
superintend the general hygienic condition of the 110115:iiii
regulate the diet of every patient under his care b
attending to sundry other nameless requirement °I: 0,
establishment like the workhouse, and yet he -file
ho only to
0,
audacity to ask ter assistance, and to think that thee
Derby board of guardians will believe him cleecrlidipf,
receive it. Bat his fate has been such as his presei
deserved. The visiting committee of the 11001%)
may be supposed to know the condition of the 110 .001
the necessities of the case, recommended that the 01010
should be granted, bat the general board stood Dot •
the monstrous demand. What ! not able ta °cc"
only 250 patients—paupers to boot. " WO?
woman can attend to them."
"Rattle their bones, over the stones, aclea:,a
They're nothing but paupers, whom' nobody ori
and so, in solemn conclave, the following sentence boo
passed upon the offending culprit. Mr. Le 4,0,00
d
opinion that the sooner their medical officer resl
better; and Mr. Whitby concurred with his Woo tioi.
in this judgment. Mr. Shaw was " deterniitiedo/
biD j.
second medical man should never be in that house'
while he lived," and he made the board obey hiedaa
end the assistance asked for was most properly ref -a j'elri
Mr. Caine was more candid, or less cautious, eehette"
signed his reason for thinking that the doctor had .100)
He was too experienced—too high in the Pref.,sl(l!,‘°
old—in fact too little under the thumb of the 1/0;-,:,015,1
young man, just beginning business," whose serv'o-oAt
could " determine at a month's noticepe 0 rd.
person "best suited to a workhouse like tbeir°' forj
did they care for experience.? It was tobeetirio.;
tion of numbers amongst the patients the' tof")
and when the sickness was prevalent, and eese-fioro
they would drop through more quickly from the, I)
a " young man just commencing busines3," he
experience to gain than from those of a mull eZallie
beast already in his profession—the latter would Pre- ed
them alive longer, even if he did not cure ell'ofory
rates would suffer—and as for the possible raged,
who might otherwise die—who thinks that of tiw#

quence.
04°00
"Rattle their bones, over the stones,
They're nothing but paupers,whorta pob° di
and plenty of bones there are to 'lath, if it bfhtft
0:>.
stated in one of the circulars we quote from, t
dead bodies were waiting in the dead house Prbtirs
on a single day last week. Well may the rnettlh'9l",
board be called " guardians of the poor," whetl:t-,801
many whom they do not desert until death re° jaiooi
from their tender mercies ; and with such roetifirell,l
parochial affairs, well may we say, " Thank art;: iici rel/T
as others, to flog ou- women and starve our c'd
is
of/li
we only allow our sick to 'rot like sheep in the"-
and refuse to allow any assistance to the°
extremity. verso
We have written, in some degree, 'f thie ro
as ,be
fierce " 017

for jesting—but sometimes a dart will pit, -
recoils; and if our version of recent receedifir't
faithfully correct, shall conduce to the bene6t ° l 0
our efforts will not have been useless, nor 80l
having devoted our pages to be the mecliumt tl/11:1(11/
good shall have accrued to those Who are to
Communicated. d IS
le
[We
are authorised by the writer of this ar-Oc
municate his name to any Guardian asking for
his it
card.—En. N. T

* James Leeman, Emily Park, Ge°rge;
Thomas Crawford, Thomas Jones, Jane

_ djti°
tro, 014
TRE SEA S
SERPENT.—The Jews have
ereste7)o4
pair of these animals w, re originallY
lemale; but that the male was consumed forty 1e
ye.°
Jews during their wanderings for for"
wilderness.—From Notes and Queries.

Emma Mason.

mmes4ll4._
IANS.

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