The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-24 00:00:00

THE TREATMENT OF THE POOR IN

ST. PANCRAS.

Yesterday at a numerous meeting of Abe parochial
authorities of St. Pancras, held in the Court-hou-e,
King's.road, Camden-town, the following report was
presented by Mr. WALDEGRANZ, the surgeon to the
workhouse :

" Some months have now elapsed since, at my re-
quest, the attention of the board was directed to the im-
propriety of converting the receiving wards int.) places
of temporary accommodation for casuals admitted night-
ly, and I very much regret that no steps have as yet
been taken to remedy the evil in the female ward. There
are many serious objections to appropriating these
wards to such a purp.se, apart from the danger of
crowding in such a confined space so large a number of
individuals, the majority of whom are in the most abject
poverty—in a filthy condition—covered with vermin, and
frequently suffering from a loathsome disease. The ave-
rage number admitted nightly is, adults, 50 ; children,
15. I desire more especially to direct your attention to
the fact that patients are ft., quently admitted moribund,
and therefore incapable of being removed with safety to
the sick wards, and their detention in a small apartment,
filled with the individuals I have described is highly im-
proper, and would, I firmly believe, in many instances
hasten dissolution. To these wards all classes are taken
on their admission, and amongst the number in many
instances are persons who have been many years contri-
butors to the parochial rates, but through adverse cir-
cum-tances, over which they had no control, are reduced
to the deplorable necessity of becoming recipients of that
to which they bad formerly contributed. Now, if there
be one class more than another upon which extra care
and attention should be bestowed it should be this, which,
in addition to the sting of poverty, has to endure the
depressing influence of bodily suffering, the natural con•
committant of disease. I desire now to place before you
the a 'mission of an individual belonging to the class I
have alluded tn, in a dying condition, forced by an
impervious necessity to separate from relations on
whose lave reliance could bo placed for support and
comfort. In the last moments of life compelled to
leave a home endeared by many happy associations, to
seek a shelter iu a building against which a natural anti-
pathy must ever exist—the mind tortured by painful re-
collections and the contemplation of that from which all
eentient beings shrink back with instinctive terror— the
termination of existence—suddenly ushered into there fa
so-
cietyr of beings who, in point of kindly feelings,
are
below the brute—compelled to breathe an atmosphere of
moral and physical pollution, and to have their last mo-
ments disturbed by the obscene jest and blasphemous
expres.
sion. This is, indeed, a sad picture for contem-
plation, and is a stateof
gtahoinisg,satnhdat
ifw notould promnotbepatlllyowanedd
to exist in our criminal
eiffmay
moral
ttethl
legal
al most carious
nresponsibility.
again directing your attention to the existing evil I
The medical man, in the
v:oica ltvuia niglYno remediedt oii y a
eh
xa
ev
re'
discharged
exercise
of h i
sp my duty.
professional avocations, makes no distinc-
tt ihoen
ibetween
humble richan d
inmatep oo , f
ando the parish workhouse,
. holds
d as sacred
domain.
as the lordly owner of the broad
only say that I sincerely hope a. 1.1
d
having for its object the welfare of trustthe
reallytha that tth
e
s
re
er
pv
oi
n
r report,
thepo ci poor,
amayrd hasmeet e
ewithbeen
in a
the more
habitfavourableof
bestowing
V DECR.A.V.E.
than
r
ones. (Sioned) " SAMUEL
S"St. Pancras In'firmary, Oct. 23, 1355."
A. long discussion ensued upon the reading
of this
nre-
port, in which most of the directors took and en-
part,
deavoured to show that Mr. Waldegrave had exagger
ated the evils arising from the present system.
The medical officer, however, was firm, 'and said that
no personal consideration would ever induce him to
swerve from his duty. He would add to what had been
stated in the report that the receiving wards were in a
filthy state, swarming with vermin night after night,
and that the nurses who had charge of the sick were
decripid and incompetent, and in many instances
drunkards. It was also elicited that the chi:dren's ward
was in a very unsatisfactory state, and upon personal
inspection it was found that as many as 100 individuals
slept in a species of attic or loft, ill-ventilated, and
unwholesome, and that as many as nine children slept in
one bed.
A committee was appointed to inquire into the alle-
gations contained in Mr. Waldegrave's report.

HOPS.—From the best information we are able to pro-
cure we are inclined to believe the duty will fall between
335,000/. and 365,0001.—KentiA Gazette.