The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.-4t 13 the less difficult to understand the
repugnance of the poor to workhouses when we read
such a story as that of Timothy Daly and the Infir-
mary of the Holborn Union. The main facts of this
case have now been ascertained by a coroner's ine
quest, and although they do not altogether justify
the impression produced by the first account of it,
they are quite sufficient to call for a more searching
official inquiry. It appears that nearly two months
ago this poor railway labourer, aged 28, and of
strong bodily frame, was taken ill with rheumatic
fever, and removed on Oct. 30, into the Holborn
Infirmary. A fortnight ago he was taken out, at his
own earnest request, and conveyed to a lodging in
Union-court, whence he was transferred last Thurs-
day to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. There he died
of exhaustion on Friday morning. Dr. Andrews,
the assistant physician of St. Bartholomew's, and
Mr Lowne, the medical officer of the Farringdone
street Dispensary,who attended him in Union-court,
agree in attributing his death to bedsores, cf which
he had three on the lower part of his body, two of
them " denuding the hip bones of flesh for three
inches," The question was whether these bed sores
could have been avoided or cured with proper care
and attention, or were the result of neglect. Upon
this point, as might have been expected, the evidence
was not only conflicting but directly contradictory.
The poor man himself undoubtedly believed that
he had been cruelly treated. He protested that he
had been mule to lie on a bed too short and too
narrow for him, on linen saturated with perspiration
and that his poultices had not been changed for
days together. He complained of this to his wife
when she visited him in the infirmary; to Mrs Fitz.
gerald, who afterwards took him into her house in
Union-court; to Thos. Spillem, who saw him every
Sunday in the infirmary; to Mr Shuter, and to the
doctors. He assured Mr Shuter that the sores had
been forming about six weeks, and that during that
time the doctor had not looked at them above three
times, the last time being nine days before his re:
moval. His belief was that if ho had stayed in the
Infirmary a night longer ho must have died, and he
did actually die front the cause which excited his
apprehensions. As these statements, however, might
possibly represent no more than the fancies of a
sick man, it becomes necessary to see how far they
are borne out by independent testimony. Now, it
is fair to mention that Mrs Daly, the widow, does
not seem to have observed anything amiss when she
visited her husband, and thanked the master of the
workhouse for his kindness. Indeed, the deceased
himself, in telling her that the doctor used to pass
him by, spoke gratefully of the master's conduct.
To this we must add the deposition of Mr Norton,
the surgeon compromised, and of the Infirmary
nurses. The former declared that Daly was ema•
ciated and dirty when he came into the house ; that
the sores did not form till four weeks after; that
they were poulticed three times a day; that although
very low, the patient never complained of his bed or
expressed any wish to leave the house; that it was
highly dangerous to remove him, and that he died
from the effects of the fever. He also stated that in
the six weeks of his illness he got " 10 pints of wine
and 40 of porter, 2 pints of milk every day, arrow-
root whenever he could eat it, and mutton for dine
ner." The nurses testified that they had seen the
doctor examine the sores at least three times a week,
and that the deceased was not cleanly in his habits.
The master, Mr Francis, added that the bedclothes
were changed " whenever required." On the other
hand, Dr Andrews distinctly asserts that " with
proper care and attention the deceased ought not
to have got into such a condition, even though
suffering from rheumatic fever. A water-bed
and spring mattress ought to have been em-
ployed." Mr Lowne, the surgeon, who first called
public notice to the case, protested that the bed.
sores never ought to have broken out; that in rheu-
matic fever a man might be kept in bed for an
indefinite time without them ; and that he himself
never had a case of the kind, though he attended
some 2,000 persons annually. Both these medical
men seem to have considered the sores, as well as
the contraction of the knees, from which Daly also
suffered, as partly the consequence of the cramped
position in which he lay, owing to the small size of
the bed, With all these materials before them the
jury, probably, struck the balance es well as they
could in their verdict—" That the deceased died
from exhaustion from bed-sores and from rheumatic
fever; and that while he was in the Infirmary of
the Holborn Union he did not receive sufficient care
and attention from the medical officer." Thus rev
duced to its true proportions, the case no longer
wears the horrible aspect which it at first presented,
but it still suggests a great many painful reflections,
The appearance of bed-sores is certainly not con•
elusive proof of neglect, for, in spite of Mr. Lowne's
opinion, we know that this distressing symptom
often In•ftl-ei medical skill where the patient is sur-
rounded with all that money can procure. But it
is impossible to believe, after reading Mr. Lowne's
evidence, that much was done either to prevent or
to relieve them. Nor is it credible that Daly'e idea,
that the doctor seldom came near him and would
not look at his sores, though begged to do so,
should have been altogether aufounded, especially
when it is not directly contradicted by the party
itnp!icated. Moreover, Mr. Norton admits that the
card of dietary attached to the bed, though pur-
porting to be signed by himself, was really signed
by the master, and copied by the same hand into
the medical book, to which he afterwards appended
his initials. Where such a practice prevails there
is too much reason to fear that economy of time
and trouble is studied more than the alleviation of
suffering, and this is almost the worst thing that
can he said of a hospital, though it be only a boa.
pital for paupers. It is the proud boast cf these
noble institutions that the utmost resources of
science are placed at the disposal of the least and
lowest, and that a beggar once stretched on a bed
of sickness may command luxuries and comforts
for which kings in days of old might have longed
in vain. There is, perhaps, no virtue which has
been so much developed by civilisation as that of
humanity, and the growing sensibility of organism
which physiologists recognise seems to quicken
our sympathy with pain. The sanctity of the
sick chamber levels all social distinctions, and the
example of Sir Philip Sydney, though few may
have the fortitude to imitate it, illustrates a prin-
ciple which has ceased to be distinctive of chivalry.
No one has pressed the claims of the sick upon
the tender care of their attendants more forcibly
than Miss Nightingale, and from her writings
may be learnt, by those who do not know it by
experience, the terrible urgency of those little
wants and .capricious feelings which try the
patience of nurses. A navvy prostrated by rheu-
matic fever is as susceptible and nervous as the
most delicate lady or the feeblest child ; his tem-
per is as peevish, his spirits as low, his appetite
as fastidious, his thirst as craving, his sleepless-
ness as intolerable. He needs as much watching,
as much cheering, as much humouring, as much
soothing ; he should equally be spared contradic.
Lion and every source of needless irritation, his
pillow should be smoothed with as light a hand,
and his confidence won by as ready an appre-
ciation of his wishes. Unless this is done, or at
least attempted, even in the Infirmaries of Work-
houses, there will b 3 those who prefer to lie down
and die in solitude to the cruel tender mercies
of Poor Law officials. Such an instance is re■
corded in the very same column with the inquest
on Daly, and his sad end can hardly be con-
trasted favourably with that of Mary Hale, who
sank from starvation at home, because she would
I not enter "the house."

HERALD.—The evening ministerial journal of
Tuesday had another of those attacks on Brazil by
which it seeks at once to gratify the individual
vindictiveness of their writer against the empire
and to divert public attention from the question in
which the Cabinet is concerned, Its last attack is
again of an oinnium gaticerum description, and
asserts that " the position of Brazil at Monte Video
is, above all, untenable in the face of England;
and that "the Brazilian Government are postponing
the arrangement of the political dispute with Eng-
land in order to postpone the settlement of the long-
pending British claims." In these assertions the
writer does injustice, in very different ways, both to
the British and the Brazilian Governments. The
former is unjust to the British Government, be-
cause, so far from pretending to assume the role of
the pacificator of the Plate, or to say which of its
Powers shall or shall not make war on the other
when they have cause of war, it has just recognised
an act of war of Brazil against the Republic of
Uruguay by inserting in the London Gazette the
formal notification of the blockade of two of the
Uruguayan ports by the Brazilian squadron—and
by this act it becomes further bound to recognise
any effective blockade of Monte Video itself by the
Brazilian naval force in the Plate if it should be re-
sorted to. In order to avoid the blortkade of a port
in which European commerce is largely interested
the Brazilian admiral had, it is known, sought,the
aid of European diplomacy to prevent the intro-
duction into Monte Video of munitions of war in
neutral v: asels of their respective nations. The
request was, it is obvious, made in order that the
impending hostilities should be carried on with the
least possible inconvenience to or interruption of in-
nocent commerce, and was consequently one with
which the mercantile interest concerned naturally
sympathised. The request was, however, one which,
by the law of natians,the foreign diplomacy at Monte
Video had no power to grant, and was, therefore,
declined in terms more or less characterised by the
habits of courtesy of their respective countries. But
the refusal way precipitate the blockade of Monte
Video which the request was meant to avert, and it
eo it will at all events lessen the moral responsible
lity of any blockade that is established. The quar-

rel of Brazil with Monte Video, though unfortunate
and untimely, is not therefore unjust. It has, on
the contrary, been most unwillingly forced on the
empire. It Government has again and again sought
redress for the ravages of its frontiers on the side
of Uruguay, for the destruction of the property end
the lives of its citizens on the frontiers, and for des
predations that had become inconsistent with the
protection it owed its own people. It is only when
that redress has been denied, and when its own
people placed the alternative of Government or self"
protection before their Sovereign, that the Emperor
of Brazil has resorted to these navel and military
operations. Before doing so the Brazilian Govern"
ment, in unison with the Ministers of France'
Buenos Ayres, and other Powers interested, sought
to bring about by negociations with its Government
the pacification of the republic of Uruguay; but the
Government of Uruguay rejected the suggestions by
all those representatives for pacification. Thereupon
those Ministers left the republic to find a solution
for itself of its quarrel with Brazil, and its rercedy.
has been the adoption of a plan which if successful
may enlarge the war and disturb all the indenen:
dent states of the Plate. For Uruguay has sough'
military assistance against Brazil from Partiguei,
the past policy cf which (under Francis and the
first President Lopez) was rigid abstinence from tLe
disputes of all the other riverine states. The present
President of Paraguay, Lopez fits, is or affects to be
a soldier, and he appears to be disposed to indulge to
military intervention in a dispute with which We
republic is no more concerned than it is with the
punishment of the Bhootan tribes by the British 00'
vernment in India. If any Platina power be really
concerned it is of: coulee Buenos Ayres; but the
Government of the Argentine States, under the
wise direction of Gen, Mitre, sets Paraguay the
example of letting this quarrel alone, assured that
the less strangers to it interfere in the matter the
sooner it will be arranged. But even now, when
war does seem to outsiders to be very imminent, the
Brazilian Government has sent one of its most d!"
tinguished statesmen, Senhor Paranhos, on aspects!
mission to the Plate, in the hope that at the eleventb
hour hostilities may be averted, !he blockade °I
Monte Video avoided, and its subjects on the frone
tiers be indemnified and protected without any 10;
terruption to European commerce in the Plate. And
we are happy to announce that the Government 01,
Monte Video has also sent a special mission to Itlu
de Janeiro, so that the avoidance of war is more
than probable. Such is the simple state of the ques-
tion, and in it our readers will, we think, be at a
loss to know why the Ministerial organ should find
fault with Brazil. The quarrel is in every respect
an unfortunate occurrence; but it is one in which
Brazil has no alternative but to defend its ow.o
people, and it is endeavouring by every means In
its power to protect them viithout hostilities. It 0,,
very true that a Monte Videan loan for £600,00`",
net, not £1,000,000 as the Globe states, has jug'
been raised in London. But if the writer will make
due inquiries in the City he will find that not ono,
dollar of this loan will go into the Treasury 01
Monte Video, or be applied in any way to the Vl!'
poses of this war. The loan is a simple operatO
converting an already existing internal into an el"
ternal debt : it has been raised far more on the
credit of the eminent banking-house which WO'
duced it than on the financial reputation of the Ile'
public of Uruguay, and is devoid of all bearta
on or reference to the queetien into whtell
our contemporary has imported it. As
the other assertion, that the Brazilian Go-
vernment has postponed the arrangement 0'
its political dispute with England in order to
postpone payment of the long pending British
claims, there is not the shadow of truth in
The interruption of the claims Commission, end
non-settlement of the Brazilian as well as British
a
claims, were, as Mr. Seymour Fe zgerald showe
the House of Commons, the acts of the British, net
of the Brazilian Government, Had it not been for
the conduct of the British Foreign Office both those
claims would have been settled under the convey"
tion, and paid two years ago. Their indefinite
postponement lies entirely and exclusively at the
door of the present Cabinet. And to reproach the
Brazilian Government for the delay is to add insult
to the injery done to the claimants. To connect
the delay with the failure of the Portuguese Inedl
ation is to assume an acquaintance with the caus.eo
of that failure, on which no authentic informato.l
has yet transpired, but of which explanations Wl,"
be, no doubt, required as soon as Parliament meets'
Then it will be seen whether the English or 08
Brazilian Government is responsible for the failure
—then it will be ascertained to which Power themediating Government thinks right and justice i 0
the controversy belongs; and until then we recoeni
mend our contemporary to be more careful in 11
assertions as to Brazil, as its recklesencss wee' uc
the Government it supports much more harm thoe
good.