The Sun.
London, England, 1823-10-23 00:00:00

%LAY IS, 10;3,
Men. WOMat. Total.
OS - 48 . 101
4 11
14 S* .11

—its

- 101
3171111 11, 1823.
Men. Womtn.
- 78 33
- 8Q - 38
• 81 - an
34 - .

01••••••••
SO6

- SU

Total.
1 WI
1114
170
62

Notwithstanding this appareatly unfavourable account, all
the medical authorities examined declared the disease to be
abating, and, though spread over a larger surface, to be muck
diminished in the severity of its character (6). Your Coin-
'Muse directed their inquiry to the important fact, whether the
disease could be considered as contagious. All the medical
practitioners whom they examined, with the exception of Mr.
White, considered it to be so in no degree; yet your Com.
mina°, though of course lot inclined, to contest the opinions of
medical men of such science and eminence, cannot :avoid re.
marking, that recently some of the inferior officers of the prison
have been attacked with the prevailing diarrhtea ; and of the
fifty-nine males and four females. who have been received into
the Penitentiary since the 3d of March, twenty males and one
female have been ill of the same complaint. On areview, then,
of all the eireurnsumees which induced the Managing Com-
mittee of the Penitentiary to adopt the new dietary, and to con-
tinue its use during a period of eight months, vie. from July
11112 to the beginning of March 1023, your Committee are of
opinion, thatthey are warranted, upon the advice they received
from the Medical Superintendent, to change tho system of
dietary then in use, for the reasons assigned ; but your Com-
mittee regret that the opinion' of medical persons, conversant
with the management of prisons, and the state of health of pri-
soners, liable es it is to be affected by so many moral causes,
had not been previously taken.
It is in evidence before your Committee, that Dr. Hutchin-
son, while he recommended some alteration, proposed a change
less decisive than the one adopted ; and he accompanied has
recommendation with the advice, that the judgment of some
of the principal physicians in the kingdom should be taken
upon the question. Mr. Morton Pitt has, however, stated,
that Dr. Hutchinson never formally approved of the now
plan ; yet it is equally clear froln the same evidence, that the
Committee were induced, by the above witness, to. believe
he had so done, and that Dr. Hutchinson not only never gave
the least intimation that he considered the sickness of the mi.
eon in any way attritintable to the diminished quantity of
food, but up to the middle of February his opinion remained
the same as that of Sir Jas. APGrigor ; and it was only towards
the end of that month that he became convinced that the real
rause of the disease was the change of the dietary. It is true
that Mr.. Pratt, the resident medical officer, and the matron,
nurses, and officers of the establishment, uniformly opposed
the sew . syeterite yet that very circumstance rendered their
evidence of its effects: liable to suspicion ; and when, accord-
in to the Concurrent testimony of all, no material alteration
took place in the general look of the prisoners, your Cem-
mittee does not feel disposed to blame any of the parties con-
cerned for any inattentiou in the exercise of their respective
duties.
Much conflicting testimony has been given upon the subject
of the Dietary ; and in general the best medical
in opinions ap-
pear to consider the plan adopted as not only deficient in quan-
tity, . but injurious the mode in which At was administered.
'The satire quantity of animal matter, given in a solid form
twice a week, would, however, in the opinion of some, have
been sufficient nutriment; and examples have been cited from
other prison" in England and in France to demonstrate the
truth of this statement.
This is a, question which, in the opinion of your Committee,
is of very difficult solution. There are circumstances in all
the prisons referred to, which altogether unfit diem to be com-
pared to the Penitentiary. In France; except in those cases
where bread and water are the punishment for idleness, the
prisoners almost universally enjoy the practical privilege of
purchasing additional food. In England, the mere fact of
the weight of the prisOners being increased by confinement,
.ie • of itself, no proof that their strength is not diminished :
the body may increase in sin and• bulk, but the fibre may
be reduced, and that which may be taken for health, may
be a proof of real debility. In all these prisons, the moral
causes so peculiarly operative in the Penitentiary, do not exist
in the same force. In France, the general intermixture of all
prisoners; the young with the old, the dissipation and lien-
tiousbess of their lives, the free enjoyment of all amuse-
ment consistent with safe custody, preserve the minds of those
who are confined there from the irksome monotony which a
well-regulated prison is so calculated to produce; and thus the
health of prisoners may be better preserved under a less quan-
tity of food than when, they are subjected to a severe moral dis-
cipline, in these places of confinement, noise and tumultuous
gaiety drive away care and thought; yet while their morals
are vitiated, the Minds of the prisoners May be amused,. anti
thus kept from sinking under the pressure of f'eelinge of sorrow
and remore. A prison so managed, whatever msy belts effects
on the manners said habits of its inmates, is yet calculated to
preserve than from the inroads of the disesteem which arise Irons
the moral causes above refered to. It was evidently under these
impressions that lidr. Howard remarke, ".that persons iii
prison require more food than those who are free;' that is to
say, the ineral causes which excite depression of spirits, and
consequently, when king continued, a decay of health, tan
only be lessened by propping up the strength of the pri-
sonere and enabling him, through a full prison diet, to resist
the effects of the mind ripen the body.
The prisoners in the Penitentiary are, in the opinion of
your Committee, peculiariy liable to the operation of moral
causes : the strict discipline of the place ; the silence anti so.
litude ;levelling there; the Will absence of amesements of
all kinds; the rigorous observance of the rules laid down to
check all demonstration even of natural gaiety ; the fact, that
nearly one half of the prisoners are almest in a state of per-
petual seclusion, except for a short period in the 24 hours,
when they walk with measured steps round a court; the long
and certain confinement to which they are sentenced, varying
from ten to five years; the feelings of remorse, which the ab-
sence of all other thoughts is so calculated to produce the
monotony of their existence; the remembrance al better days,
of their homes, and their families ; and that weariness of life,
which is the result of long imprisonment; alt these cauncii molt
peculiarly diepote the inlothitapte of the Penitentiary to the in-
roads of disease. For three reason'', your Committee consider
it essential to the health of the. prieosers confined there, that
they should he fed upon a full prison, diet, earried according
to the suggestion of sow) of the medical practitioners who
have been examined before them; and
,that some means should
be devised, by which every prisoner in the Establishment
should be employed in active exercise for some portion of the
dax
VOW' Committee have also inquired into, the causes of the
disraimil of the late medical snperintentleele as well la,Lnto,
the accusations! preferred 4p.illistitol in
.May sod June, 10-.43°
Site; pert or the oUbject, your Cominattie think it their
aiILY observe,thet thetiestiniouyot -lathe attnikent of the
Mameging Committee, who have two eatienined,,apeake most
thrown* of the skill, kiniiness,, mud attention 0(414 officer
he has receive& also, pewee oldie highest rank in his
profemiene evtkoonialti of c,liarsieter the mist flattering; yet
to the same tune there dose appeartp futyttirptert,,inoveanikun
and-the Menagerie of the tonifilithment, differences which, for
the good of the Matieution, tendered his continuance in the situ..