The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-26 00:00:00

THE SICK OF THE HIMALAYA..

PORTSMOUTH, WEDNESDAY NIGHT.
At a meeting of the guardians of the poor of the Port.
sea Island Union, held in the Poor-house, Kingston,
Portsmouth, this evening, at which were present—Mr.
Alderman Levy, vice-chairman, president, the following
members of the town-council :—Messri. J. A. H.
Howell, Hannam, Newlyn, R. F. Jolliffe, Palmer, Daw,
Well, White, and Dore ; Messrs. King and T. Batche-
lor, guardians ; and Mr. Devereux, solicitor, clerk to
the board, the case of John Williams, the distressed
British seaman, landed from the Himalaya on the 3d,
and who died in the Poor-house on the evening of the
4th, of alleged exhaustion and neglect both on board and
after landing, was re-opened by the chairman, who read
the following letters which had been received since the
last meeting of the guardians, held this day fortnight :
"13, Cannon-row, Westminster, Jan. 12.
" Gentlemen,—l have road the report of your pro-
ceedings at your meeting on the 10th inst., as given in
The Son of this date, and with ;reference to that part -
of the certifi- ate and declaration of Mr. Bull, the stir-
' v.:eon of the union, wherein he states that the seaman
Williams died in consequence of neglect while on board
the Himalaya,' I think it right to forward you a copy
of a communication which I have sent to Lord Palmer-
ston, in the hope that his lordship will do me the justice
to take measures to relieve me of the most unjust im-
putation cast on me.—T am, gentlemen, yours obediently,
"JAMES M`CANN, M. D.,
" Late Surgeon in charge of Himalaya,"
"To the Guardians of the Poor of the Portsea
Island Union."
The following, is the statement alluded to in the above
letter :

"On the arrival of the Himalaya at Spithead, on the
2d inst., one of her Majesty's tenders, with a naval cap-
tain in charge, came alongside and received the naval
invalids, 11 in number, put on board at Malta. By
order of Captain Russell, of the Himalaya, I made over
the invalids, with their papers, for the purpose, as I be-
hove, of being taken to the hospital. The complaint
under which the seaman Williams laboured was chronic
disease of the liver, accompanied by hemorrhoid. The
man Williams, during the 14 days he was on board the
Himalaya, received every attention, professional and
otherwise. He was seen twice a day by me, and Dr.
Manifold, medical officer in charge of military inTalids
on board the ship, saw him with me. I declare that
Williams received every kind of attention, with suitable
diet, and six ounces of port wine daily, and that that
part of the report of Mr. Bull, surgeon of the Portsea
Island Union, 'that Williams died of neglect while en
board of the Himalaya' is entirely incorrect."
A letter was also read from Mr. W. J. Cooper, the
coroner, in which he explained the motives which had
induced him to decline to hold the inquest. Mr. Cooper
stated that he thought it unnecessary to have an inquiry
in the absence of evidence to sustain the shadow of a
doubt that the death of Williams had arisen from disease
engendered by exposure to the morbific influence of
climate. " If," said Mr. Cooper, "I had held an in-
quest on the body of Williams, I must, in consistency,
do so on the bodies of all the invalided soldiers of the
Himalaya, who may die within my jurisdiction."
Mr. Howell said, he was not satisfied with the answer
of the coroner, and he had therefore a resolution on
the subject to submit. No one could deny that all
the officers of the union who had had to do with the
case, including the relieving officer, the governor, and
the medical officer, bad done their duty. He was per-
fectly sure of this ; the public, however, were not satis-
fied as to the way the case stood at present, and a very
strong opinion bad been expressed in this borough. Re-
ferring to the way in which the man Williams had been
carried from place to place, and the refusal of the Sailors'
Home to receive him, Mr. Howell observed that he
should naturally have expected that a committee of
gentlemen who managed a sailors' home, would have
been in waiting at the dockyard to receive and take care
of invalids, in place of denying admittance to one who
was taken to their very doors. Mr. Howell concluded
by moving the following resolution :
"That this board having maturely considered the reply
of Mr. William Cooper, the coroner of this borough, in
reference to his not holding an inquest on the body of
John Williams, a seaman, who was landed from the
Himalaya, and who, in the recorded opinion of the me-
dical officer of the board, died from exhaustion and ne-
glect on his passage in that vessel from the Black Sea ;
resolve, that in the opinion of this board the said coro-
ner of this borough ought to have held an inquest on the
body of the said John Williams, which they regret was
not done, to satisfy the public mind."
Mr. Dome seconded the motion.
The CHAIRMAN (Mr. Levy) considered the reso-
lution a very mild one, and one for which he was
quite prepared to vote. He did not, however,
agree in all that had been said by Mr. Howell. It
was in the dockyard where the first lapse had taken
place : the man had come home in one of her Ma-
jesty's ships ; the Government thought proper to
take charge of the invalid sailors and soldiers,
and yet the parties present in berilMajesty's dockyard
had left this unfortunate creature without attending to
his case ; it was the officials at the dockyard who were
to blame more than any other party. Now, was it right,
he asked, on the part of the Government officials to
suffer John Williams, a shipwrecked sailor, who had
come home and landed in her Majesty's dockyard, to lie in
the docleyarl, so 10ne.3 suffering under piles, because that
was the complaint under which he was suffering ? The
poor fellow had first of all been taken to the Military
Hospital, and there he was refused admission because he
'lid not belong to her Majesty's service ; he was then
conveyed to the Sailors' Home —a home for sailors with
money in their pockets—and bad he bad money in his
pocket he would have been received ; then he was taken
to the local hospital, and there he was refused admission
because be had no order. (Cry of " Shame.")
Sir R. F. JOLLIFFE regretted that any misunderstand-
ing should have occurred with the coroner, and was of
opinion that it would be proved the' man bad not been
neglected in the Himalaya.; the neglect had been in the
dockyard and in the wan being hawked about. (Hear.)
It was a great shanle that a hospital (the local) to which
they ail subscribed should have acted as they had done
in this case, It was most disgraceful that the man
should have been brought to their gates and then turned
adrift. (Fleas, hear.)
Mr. PALMER defended the medical officer of the union-
house. He had no doubt that before their medical offi-
cer had made such a statement as to the man's treatment
on board of the Himalaya he had some foundation for
it. (Hear.)
Mr. ITAXNAM said he should vote for Mr. Howell's
motion ; the man had been treated most cruelly by the
Ho Government
m Home,
at
the authorities,
Military
ostatphiegl, antlaem lastly at
Hospital (the local hospital, styled " The Royal Ports-
mouth, Portsea, and Gosport Hospital").
The motion was then unanimously agreed to.
hteh e Sailor's
Royal
Mr. HowELL then moved—
" That a copy of the foregoing resolution be sent to
the Secretary of State for the Nome Department, and
also to the town-clerk of this borough, to be by him laid
before the town-council."

The resolution was rgreed to unanimously.
The board then discussed what ought to be done in
reference to the letter from the surgeon of the Himalaya.
Mr. PALMER moved that a copy of that letter be for-
warded to Mr. Bull, the medical officer of the union-
house, and that he be requested to report to the guar-
dians thereon. He thought Mr. Bull must have had
good grounds for what he had stated in his certificate,
and that it was but right to givo him an opportunity of
justifying himself. (Hear.)
The motion was unanimously agreed to.