The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-23 00:00:00

TnE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY MORNING, MARCH_23, 184

COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL.
THE CITY PRISONS AND THE INSPECTORS APPOINTED BY

GOVERNMENT.
A Special COurt was held on Friday, for the discus-
sion of an important motion relative to the City prisons.
The members did not assemble till two hours after the
usual time of meeting, and the discussion was necessa-
rily protracted to a late.hour in the evening.
Mr. WinE said, in rising to introduce the motion
which stood for di-cussion that day, he thought it was
not necessary for him to go into very minute detail as
to the state of the prisons in the City, in order to lay
the foundation for the appointment of a Committee of
Inquiry. The attention of the public had already been
sufficiently dire cted to the subject by the publication of
the reports of the Prison Inspectors, by the recent dis-
cu-sions in another court, and by a threatened motion
in the House of Commons. These sufficiently indicated
the necessity for inquiry.—(Hear, hear.) If the state-
ments respecting the condition of our prisons were true
in part, or in the whole, it was true that something
should be done to remedy what was defective, to remove
what was evil, and to make the metropolitan prisons not
only a model for this country, but for all other countries.
If the reports were false, it was equally necessary for
the Corporation to inquire, ancl to v sidicate itself from
the charges of inattention or neglect of the important
considerations involved in the construction of prisons,
the treatment of prisoners, and the moral effects result-
ing therefrom. Ile was not going to descant upon the
various subjects involved in these large questions,
nor to examine into the details given to the public by the
prison inspectors. It was sufficient to state tha the
Corporation had five prisons under its jurisdiction :
Bridewell, which vas simply used for confining refrac-
tory apprentices and persons summarily convicted, with
its house of occupation, adjoining. Bethlem Hospital, in
St. George's-fields, a most noble refuge for reforming
young criminals, and receiving destitute youths of both
sexes, and teaching them household work and trades ;
Newgate, which was now used, not as a place of punish-
ment, but of safe custody for the prisoners awaiting their
trials, and who, every month, were removed thither from
the different gaols of Kent, Essex, and Surrey, within
the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, and
who, immediately after trial, were removed again,
ei.her to the different gaols or to the Peniten-
tiary, preparatory to transportation, so that the
average duration of a prisoner's detention in Newgate
was not more than ten days. Then there was Giltspur.
street, used both as a house of correction and a place for
personi remanded for further examination ; Whitecross
street, a prison for debtors, for London and Middlesex ;
and lastly, the Borough Compter, happily untenanted,
except now and then by a few debtors. All these
prisons (except Whitecross-street) were built in the last
century, and were then adapted to carry out the only
ideas which then prevailed, that of being places of safe
custody for criminals, tried and untried. Since then
more correct notions of the object and end of criminal
law had been diffused, both amongst our legislators and
the public, and that not only in this country but in
America and on the continent.—(Hear, hear.) America,
untrammale I by the prejudices of the old world, had
take: the lead in discussing the question, and in the
construction of prisons on a different system. France had
thought of the question—Belgium and Holland had re-
modelled their prisons—all had been anxious to combine
with safe custody, correction for past offences, and the
reformation of the offenders.—(Hear, hear.) Nor had
our own country been indifftrent. In various
counties, in this great metropolis itself, prisons
bad been erected ; and efforts had been made in
all to combine the great end of criminal law—pu-
aishment and reform.—(Hear, hear.) Nor ought that
city to be the last in the race of improvement. Some-
thing had been done already; but, owing to the construc-
tion of our prisons, much that ought to be done could
not be accomplished ; and, although the building of a
new prison or prisons might be attended with great ex-
pense, that expense would be cheerfully sustained if it
were deemed necessary to incur it.—(Hear.) He was
far from thinking that prisons should be made so com-
fortable that parties would be more ready to break into
than cut of them ; or that the diet of prisoners should be
superior to that of the honest industrious poor, whom
necessity, not idleness, had reduced to the workhouse.—
(Cheers.) He would have prisons "a terror to evil
d )ers," but he would not have them places of torture,
where bodily suffering or privation led to morbid disease.
—(Cheers.) It was the dictate alike of humanity and
of religion to seek out the desolate and the neglected—
to reform the vicious—to correct the evil—and,
by all moral and spiritual means, to bring the
depraved, the erring, the tempted, and yielding
natures under the healing influence of Chris-
tianity. Let it be known, that "he which saveth
a soul from death" accomplishes a more meritorious act
than he who builds a palace, and " they that win souls"
will shine brighter in celestial history than the con-
queror of nations. or the mighty in art or science.—
(Hear, hear.) The Court was bound then, by a careful
examination of the whole of this great subject, to master
its details, and apply to the principles of common sense
and common humanity, and it would soon wipe from the
Corporation any reproach, and set an example worthy
of all imitation.—(Cheers.) He concluded by moving
the following resolutions :—" That it be referred to a
special committee, to be appointed by this Court, to view
and examine the prisons belonging to the City, and to
report their opinion as to the accommodation afforded to
prison( rs, the ot,portunity for classification and separate
confinement, and whether there exists any necessity for
t.building a new prison, or enlarging or altering the ex-
isting prisuns, with a view to carrying into effect the im-
provements in prison discipline which modern experience
has suggested on the subject.
" That the committee do also inquire whether any,
and what alterations are necessary to be made for the ac-
commodation of judges, prosecutors, witnesses, and the
public at the Sessions House in the Old Bailey, with a
view to expedite and facilitate the administration of
justice, and to save both time and expense to the public."
Mr. BENNOCH seconded the resolutions.
Alderman COPELAND rose, and said that he had no
intention or desire to impede the investigation, but he
wished the Court to understand that he and his colleague
(Alderman Farneomb) being in the position of visiting
magistrates to the priso s for the next fortnight, they
could not, at the same that they were anxious to do all
in their power to aid those engaged in the investigation,
allow any persons, except those who were duly autho-
rised to visit the gaols, to enter as a right.—(Expres-
sinus of disapprobation.)
Mr. ANDERTON said he had never heard a more ex-
traordinary speech than that which had been just ut-
tered.—(Hear, hear.) What ! was it to be endured that
one of the members of the corporation should refuse the
application of the corporation itself to give aid to the
magistrates in an investigation of so important a nature ?
(Hear, hear.) Was it to be endured that, while the
aldermen were dipping their hands for any purposes
they fancied into the City purse, one of their body
should oppose the offer of co-operation in investigating
the causes of complaint of so serious a description, in-
volvieg as it did the character of a!1 its branches ?
Alderman COPELAND— I refuse no co-operation. I
say, that while no impediment shall be thrown in the way
of the investigation ; still, the gaols being under the
charge of the magistrates of the City, if a committee be
appointed, the viewing of the gaols must be considered
as peimissive, not as a matter of right, and I would
give every facility to the committee to further the inves-

Ligation.
Alderman FARNCOMB coincided with the view taken
by Alderman Copeland. They did not by any means
object to the investigation by a committee, but, as visit-
ing magistrates, they were responsible for any contin-
gency which might turn out disarlvantageously.
Mr. ANDERTON raid that the two visitir g magistrates
who had just delivered their opinions had greatly mis-
taken the extent of their power in that capacity.—
(Hear, hear.) It happened that the Sheriffs had some
power. Those officers had the custody of the pri-
soners and the care of the prisons in their hands,
while the authority of the visiting magistrates merely
extended to the matter of seeing that the rules
and regulations of the gaol were properly carried out.—
(Hear, hear.) He had read some things in the reports of
the inspectors, which he would not say were correct.
He should be sorry to suppose that they were, but if
they were, the fact would reflect no credit upon the
visiting magistrates. Could there be any doubt of the
necessity of inquiring into the merits of these charges ?
—(Hear, hear.) As for the matter of going into the
prix, n, if he wanted at any time to enter, he would apply,
not to the visiting magistrates, but to the Sheriffs it
whom was vested by the law the real authority ; and if
there was any doubt existing, that should now be
s tiled by a reference to the Secretary of State. Mr.
Anderton here alluded to some of the statements made
in the report of the inspectors of prisons, in which cer-
tain females, who had broken the Lord Msyor's windows,
were represented as sitting idly and comfortably by a
good fire in one of the City prisons; and to be put in pos-
session of such a luxury they had committed the offence ;
and he asked how it could be that indulgences of this
kind could be tolerated ?
Alderman COPELAND—They were punished for their
conduct, but it did not suit the inspectors to give that
information.
Mr. ANDERTON believed that the City workhouses
would be found to be much worse places of punishment
than the City prisons, and he wondered that crime was
not more extensive in consequence of the temptation thus
preseated to it.—(Hear, hear.)
Dr. LYNCH could not understand the custom of refer-
ring every subject proposed to the Court to a committee.
It was a custom little in unison with the practices of a
deliberative assembly. It was putting the judgment and
intelligence of the Court into commission, and it was a
practice more honoured in the breach than in the observ-
ance. The committee might be the cream, the subli-
mated essence of wisdom itself, but the duties were too
multifarious, too onerous, to be accomplished satisfacto-
rily and adequately.—(Hear, hear.) He preferred the
alternative of looking a question straight in the face, and,
after discussion, coming to a decision upon it. To refer
a question which the Court was specially summoned to
discuss to others reminded him of the feat of the King of
France who is described as having, with 20,000 men,
gone up the hill and thin come down again. It was
not necessary to have a committee to inquire whether
Newgate and the Ccmpter were unfit for the purposes ( f
prisons, much less for the improved system of prison dis-
cipline, or whether they would not admit of proper clas-
sification? or afford adequate accommodation. Mr. Wire
had endeavoured to make out as good a face as
he could for a bad case. Was it not notoricus that the
City prisons were unfit for the purposes for which pri-
sons were intended ? They had been already condemned
by the, inspectors appointed by the Government, gentle-
men who had no interest or desire to find fault with the
authorities of the City, and who had made the subject
their special study. The new mode of treating criminals,
by improved secondary punishments, had been crowned
with success.—(Hear.) The harsh and savage mode of
irritating punishment, such as the treadmill inflicted,
which, after twenty years' experiment, totally failed,
only tended to confirm criminals in their guilty courser.
--(Hear, hear.) jay persuasion, by education, by a par-

tial use of the separate system, by which habits of self-
reflection were awakened, the most encouraging effects
were produced.—(Hear, hear.) By impressing the pri-
soner with the conviction that the law was not his enemy
but his friend—(Cheers)—that society was desirous to
reform not to punish him, he was to be won back from
his most obdurate condition to the ways of virtue,
through a sure repentance. Man was not a tiger, to
be tamed with bars of iron. The mind was the avenue
through which his better nature was to be reached.—
(Cries of " Hear, hear.") Individuals, like nations,
were not to be subjected, nor were their affections to be
gained by !coercion or cruelty.—(Cheers.) He would
abhor to see the solitary system exclusively carried out.
The intellect, like the muscles of the body, required a
certain degree of exeicise to preserve it in a healthy
state. The body, if denied the faculty of wholesome
labour, dwindled into feebleness and incapability, and the
mind, under corresponding restriction, sunk into idiocy
and " mere oblivion."—(Cheers.) Dr. Lynch hoped the
Court would indignantly resent the childish castigation
which one of the Aldermen had presumed to inflict upon
it, by pretending to dictate the course it was bound to
pursue. He then said he should delay the Court but for a
few moments, in reference to the manner in which the
public health was likely to be affected by not following
up the system of prison improvement. In the centre of
a densely populated city there was not space for a large
gaol. To absorb more of the already pre-occupied and
limited area would be injurious to the health of the
neighbourhood. Men were not now hung by scores.
The number of felonies which a few years ago
were punishable by death, amounted to one hundred
and sixty, but they were now reduced to fourteen, and
that number virtually to one. Public opinion was set-
ting in strong against capital punishments, as they bad
not only utterly failed to deter fi °in crime, but actually
had stimulated and increased it.—(Hear, hear.) Clime
was contagious—out of 167 who had been executed, 164
had been frequently present at executions, and, having
seen the criminal made the hero of the scene, " the ob-
served of all observers," they were seized with a morbid
appetite fear notoriety, and struck with the horrible am-
bition of imitating the example.—(Cheers.) In every
age the same effect was produced. In the bloody reign
of Henry the Stb, 22,000 were put to death—a frightful
emblem of the congenial spirit of that Prince. These
executions tended to nothing but to provoke a taste for
crime. The never-ending, the notorious, the terrible
punishment of perpetual imprisonment was the means of
cure. Education and employment were the only means
of prevention.—(Hear, hear.) Sir James Graham stated
that when poverty was rife, when bread was dear and
wages low, crime increased. The committals proved
that fact. Many of our criminals were the victims of
misfortune and might be reclaimed, but to carry out en
improved system ten times more space would be required
than the Old Bailey could afford. He hoped the Court
would not be precipitate in their, adoption of any plan.
There were better and wiser courses to pursue than any
referred to in the resolutions, by which the purposes of
justice and humanity might be promoted, and the inte-
rests of the City best protected.—(Hear, hear.)
Sic PETER LAURIE said it had been his intention to
state all his views before the committee, but as Dr.
Lynch had gone into the subject, he must follow the
Learned Gentleman. He was surprised that any gentle-
man in the medical profession should not have been
better instructed on the subject. He (Sir Peter Laurie)
was first roused to it several years ago by going over the
Penitentiary at Millbank with Captain Chapman, the
then governor, and he was shocked to find a model-
cell with a water-closet without a lid, lest the unfortu-
nate inmate should violate the system to which he was
doomed by breaking the silence with it. He was
shocked to see their faces covered with hoods or masks,
to hide each from the observation of the other. They
were, in fact, suffering from a refinement of torture, and
verified the description given by Sir Walter Scott—no
mean judge of human nature—who said that forced
solitude was of all punishments the most cruel and in-
tolerable. He did not wish to harrow up the
feelings of those he addressed, but state that there
were at that moment sixteen inmates of Bedlam who
had been sent from Millbank, where the want of mental
health was attributed to damp ; and five from Penton
ville, where no such ground could be assigned, inas-
much as no spot could be more salubrious. Thus, there
had been, in fire years, twenty-one prisoners sent by the
Secretary's warrant, from prisons under the control
of the Government and Government inspectors, into the
madhouse ; while from the prisons under the magistrates
not one had been received into that asylum.—(Hear.)
Dr. LYNCH said he knew that Sir Peter Laurie would
not wish to fight with shadows, and, in the present in-
stance, the worthy Alderman was certainly engaged in
a contest of that kind, for he (Dr. Lynch) had depre-
cated the system of solitary confinement as destructive
of the mental power, just as the want of the exercise of
the muscles of the body enervated the frame.
Sir P. LAURIE said the separate system differed from
the solitary system only in name, and that all experience
proved its awful effects. He then referred to the report
laid before Parliament from Van Diemen's Land, which,
he said, stated that on the embarkation of three hundred
or four hundred convicts from Pentonville, the superin-
tending surgeon described them as having fallen into
strong convulsions on first going on board, and continued
in that state for four days, their seclusion, though not
greater than eighteen months at the maximum, having
so far impaired their faculties that, although docile and
obedient in the highest degree, they could not understand
the plainest directions for settling them in their berths.
—(Hear, hear.) After having, in terms of strong indig-
nation, described the simihr effects of the same sort of
5) stem in other gaols, Sir Peter Laurie hoped that a
House of Commons' Committee would look into this
matter before any other prisons were constructed, and
prevent such cruelties as had been exercised under the
disguise of reformation from being any longer inflicted.
—(Hear, hear.) It was a matter which must be stopped.
There was the League mania, the railroad mania, the
wood pavement mania, and now there was the separte or
solitary mania to be contended with.— (Laughter.) He
had given evidence before Parliament, in which he stated
that he had never seen a reformed convict, and that he
would go twenty miles to see one.--(A laugh.) He had
seen many who pretended to be reformed, but the
mask of hypocisy dropped from them the instant
they were liberated. In that observation, he did not
mean to include transports, yet he found, from a me-
morial from Van Diemen's Land, that in 1844 upwards
of 800 men had been tried, and of that number 700 were
convicts. Sir Peter Laurie concluded by expressing a
fervent hope that, although the London Inspectors said,
" We earnestly submit that nothing short of Newgate's
complete reconstruction on the separate system will
avail, by which prisoner may be separated from prisoner,
by day and by night," if the Government itself should
demand the observance of such a rigorous discipline,
Vie Court would, as they had done in 1837, utterly re-
ject its application.—(Cheers.)
Sir JAMES DUKE said he was sure the Court would
not lend an inattentive ear to the representations of the
Inspectors, if they showed that the prisons were a dis-
grace to the city of London, and the schools of crime,
instead of being places of reformatory tendency.—
(Hear, hear.) Perhaps the Lord Mayor and he knew
as much of the condition of Newgate as any one who
had passed the shrievalty, and it was quite palpable to
them that it was impossible to adapt that prison to the
existing improved notions of discipline. He hoped the
Committee which should be appointed that day would join
cordially with the Aldermen in the investigation, and
that, if they came to the conclusion that a new prison
should be erected, they would, from motives of economy
as well as other cogent reasons, build it out of the city.
The sale of the sites of Newgate and Giltspur•street
prisons would defray the expense incurred by the con-
struction of a prison of adequate dimensions at Hollo-
way, where the city possessed nineteen acres of ground.
Alderman SYDNEY declared that there was no founda-
tion for the statements of Sir Peter Laurie, at any rate
for the inferences deduced from them. It was not taken
into consideration that the very fact of a number of per-
sons, who had before them the certainty of transports
don, was likely to- lead, in several instances, to great
depression arid distress of mind ; neither was it consi-
dered that the Penitentiary at Millbank was the place to
which convicts from all parts were consigned previously
to transportation. The state of that prison was by no
means a criterion of the eff. ct of the separate system, of
the extraordiuory efficacy of which Parliament had the
most indisputable proofs. He agreed with Dr. Lynch as
to the fatal effect of solitary confinement up m the mind,
but the separate system differed as much from the soli-
tary system as night differed from day.--(Hear.)
Mr. H. TAYLOR said that the characters of both
Courts of the Corporation were concerned when such
complaints as had been made by the inspector formed
subjects of conversation. Whether the subjects were
matters of humanity, of policy, of law, or of finance, in-
quiry ought to be instituted ; and as the Court of Com-
mon Council were the keepers of the money of the
City, they had a right to join in an investigation whici,
would, in all probability, have reference to that money.
—(Hear.) He altogether dissented from the position of
Sir Peter Laurie, that there was no hope of reforma-
tion
in the case of a convict. He knew that the instances
were numerous. He had, three weeks ago, shaken
hands with a man who had, thirty-five years ago, been
cHwaesara person at that
m, hear.) The
nbe reformed was ab-
surd—phtroo(esent notion, it would
n were unworthy
OooonttmiV
doi
eCinonntseft
todthlroiaeaftnthedhxe criminalsttgcrrhaeomnu srrepet. os
tproAe
et
wessdeat
afry,
oebrti andhiinspectorsntiehtoyetw.
of credit. The Court must go into the inquiry, and
either decide that the inspectors were in error, or correct
the errors in the existing state of the prisons of the
City.--(Hear.)
Alderman WOOD said that insinuations had been
thrown out that the Alderman had, in the course they
pursued with respect to the regulation of the City pri-
sons, been influenced by selfish motives. There had
tto
been no foundation for any suspicion of the kind. They
were anxious
, consistently with
The whole of the
classifieds
according to the
a mere o
notria
i viehnwe.
power of the magis-
trates to make a different classification. The inspectors
prisonerstthe
ieeiapnle expenditure
io
of
uf s i
Newgate.it o
w of
andmee thti
et thew c publicp
s complained,and it was their interest to complain—(Hear,
hear)—but they were not justified in malting the state-
ments which had appeared in the report. After all, if
the City were to go to an infinite expense, they could
not accomplish a legal classification. He contended that a
gaol out of the City would be atttended with the greatest
possible inconvenience, and observed, that the practice
of the Government itself, in the treatment of prisoners
in the hulks, showed a total disregard of the classification
contended for. The Inspector of the City Prisons never
thought proper to say a word about that.—(Hear, hear.)
Alderman Wood concluded an able speech by expressing
his surprise that such a report should have proceeded
from persons appointed by the Government to enter
upon so grave an inquiry..
Mr. WIRE briefly replied, and the resolutions were
carried by a vast majority, and the committee was ap-
pointed.
Upon the motion of Mr. WIRE, it was also resolved
that John Clark, Esq., de clerk of the peace for the City,
be requested to make a return to the Court of the num-

her of criminals tried at the Central Criminal Court
during the years 1843, 1844, 1845, ending the Septem
her session last year.

MESMERISM.
AMPUTATION (AT CHERB( 'URG, OCTOBER 2,
1845), OF THE LEG OF A YOUNG PERSON,
SEVENTEEN YEARS OF AGE, IN MESMERIC
SLEEP, WHO DID NOT EXPERIENCE THE
SLIGHTEST PAIN.
(From the Zoist.)
Miss Mary D'Albanel, seventeen years of age, had
laboured for many years under disease of the right foot,
occasioned by a sprain. For above three years amputa-
tion had been pronounced inevitable. But, notwith-
standing the progress of the disease, the patient could
never be brought to consent to an operation which the
most courageous man never contemplates without dread.
At length it was determined to have recourse to mes-
merism, in order to render her insensible of pain, and
in order to perform the operation, the necessity for which
was every day becoming more imminent, without her
knowledge. She was mesmerised by M. Durand, who
had no doubt of success ; and the result proved the ac-
curacy of his judgment.
The first elf, ea of mesmerism was the restoration of
Miss D'Albanel' appetite and sleep, of which she had
been very long d, prived. The degree of her insensibi-
lity having been frequently examined, was at length
found to be such as was necessary, and she consented
during her sleep waking, to submit to the operation, or
rather she earnestly entreated to have it performed
The amputation was fixed fer the following Thursday,
the 2d of October, at half-past twelve.
On the day fixed, at eleven o'clock. Miss D'Albanel was
sent to sleep in less than three minutes, and then placed
upon a table. Preparations were immediately made in
her presence ; and, as soon as M. Durand was satisfied
that the insensibility was deep and positive, he informed
the surgeons that they might begin the operation with
perfect certainty. Then, in the midst of a solemn silence,
and while all the assistants were fixing an attentive and
scrutinising eye upon the peaceful countenance of the
patient, Dr. Loysel made a large circular incision
with his knife, which, penetrating deeply into the fle..h
as far as the bones, laid bare the greater part of the tibia
and fibula. The blood flowed abundantly. The two
flaps were cut and dissected, the periosteum cut,
the bones sawn ; the ligature of the arteries, the cleans-
ing and putting up of the wound, the application of
bandages and lint all was done without the patient
giving the slightest symptom of pain. Her countenance
continued calm and undisturbed ; her hands remained
constantly free, and she several times smiled and con-
versed with her mesmeriser, even during the most pain-
ful stages of the operation, which, including the putting
up, lasted above half an hour. The insensibility was
complete ; the patient had no knowledge of what was
doing ; th pulse underwent no change in either strength
or frequency.
Miss D'Albanel was immediately carried to bed, and
allowed to remain still for a short time. In a quarter of
an hour she was awakened, as on former days, by the
mere will of her mesmeriser, in three or four seconds,
and at the distance of two metres. She opened her eyes
suddenly, smiled to those around her, and thus remained
above ten minutes without perceiving what had taken
place, and free from all suffering: then she said, without
too strong an emotion, " Ah, I perceive it is over ; what
a blessing—oh, thanks! thanks! gentlemen."
Being requested to mention what she had felt and ex-
perienced during her sleep, she replied, " I know of no•
thing ; I have felt no pain ; I recollect nothing."
She was then asked, " How then did you know imme-
diately that the operation had been performed ?"
" Without that elevation which is above my knee," (the
cradle to elevate the bed-clothes from the leg), she re-
plied, " I should not have perceived it so soon ; for I
have no pain at this moment."
She was very calm the rest of the day, and slept
quietly the greater part of the night. It was the same
the following days. On Monday, October 6th, the first
bandages were removed at two o'clock, and the wound
dressed during mesmeric sleep. The dressing, which is
generally very painful, gave her no sensation. On being
awakened she had no knowledge of what had been done.
From the moment of the operation (ten days had now
elapsed) she constantly preserved a remarkable serenity
and cheerfulness. She had not one bad symptom ; not
even the nervous excitement which is so common after
painful operations. The wound is now nearly gradually
healed, and there is every reason to hope for a speedy
cure.
It is thus completely proved by experience that mes-
merism, producing the most absolute insensibility in the
organs, may be of valuable assistance and render great
service in surgical operations, and in amputations which
are always so painful, by sparing the unfortunate patient
both terror and anguish. And after an operation, the
agony of which excites an irritation which is sometimes
very dangerous, how happy are we in being able, through
the means of mesmeric sleep, to prevent nervous acci-
dents, lock jaw (tetanus), for example, which often de-
stroys life, and to restore the vital powers which such a
shock has exhausted. This is always the result when
sleep-waking is effected, and was very striking in the
case of amputation which we have Just witnessed at
Cherbourg.
Whet happy, what blessed results, then ! The ter-
rors which usually precede amputation, the agony which
accompanies it, the cruel recollections which follow it,
are all destroyed and annihilated by mesmerism.
What an astonishing phenomenon, and how deserving
of rivetting the attention of the learned ! Unluckily
for the science, mesmerism, this unknown but real power,
this mysterious and imponderable agent, ecapes obser-
vation ; and the men who have devoted themselves with
the most ardour to the study of this most interesting
branch of anthropology, have hitherto been unable to
discover the causes of so prodigious a change, of so
deep an alteration of the laws of life.—Cherbourg,
Oet. 11, 1845.
P.S.—Yesterday, Sunday, the tenth day after the
operation, the patient got up, and sat at the window from
twelve till five o'clock. To-day, Monday, Oct. 13th, she
left her room and took a turn in a neighbouring garden,
and sat there afterwards for above two hours. She is
now perfectly well and goes out every day.—Cherbourg,
Oct. 13th, 1845.
The fourteenth day of the operation the wound was
completely healed, and all dressing left off.
This emputation, performed under such extraordinary
circumstances, and the rapid cure which ensued, have
produced a strong sensation here.
Cherbourg, Oct. 30, 1845.
DELENTE, Directeur des Lits Militaire, de la
Garrison de Cherbourg.
MARIA D'ALBANEL.
LOYSEL, Docteur Melecea, P.
C. GIBON, D.M.P., Docteur Me lecein de la
Faculte de Says.
DURAND, Professeur de Philosophic.
L. DARAGON, Professeur.
The operation performed by Dr. Loysel does the
greatest honour to this young surgeon, and to Dr.
Gibon, who assisted him with the obliging concurrence
of M. Arsene Delente."
With the printed account came the following private
letter :
"Sir—ln the two-fold interest of science and hu-
manity, of which you are one of the most noble supporters,
and to which you have devoted your whole life, I have
the honour to send you three copies of the account of an
amputation of the leg lately performed at Cherbourg, in
circumstances and with success altogether remarkable,
upon a young lady, seventeen years of age, in the mese
manic state. This operation, with those which have taken
place in your country, always at the head of useful inno-
vations, and which is of such importance to medical sci-
ence, is exciting the very highest sympathy in our city, and
producing a great sensation at Paris in the learned world.
It is the first mesmeric amputation of a limb that
has been performed in France. A fact worthy of
remark is that this young person was very insus-
ceptible. The steep-waking state did not appear till
she had been frequently mesmerised : and I
could not induce perfect sensibility, such as I considered
,ndispensable, till I had mesmerised her a hundred and
sixty-two times. Great patience and indefatigable per-
severance were necessary, and you may conceive that,
moreover, I had to struggle with more than one kind of
prejudice and obstacle ; but I was firmly convinced that
I should succeed ; hope and charity gave me courage.
My expectation was not disappointed ; thank God, all
was completed.
" If, Sir, as I doubt not, you are interested in this offi-
cial communication, and judge it, as well as my letter,
worthy of being translated into English and inserted in
the very interesting journal the Zoist, in which you are
one of the most enlightened writers, I shall request you
kindly to receive other accounts, which I will transmit
relative to some successful mesmeric cures of mine, and
of fresh operations which will be performed shortly by
the same means—two amputations of the leg and the re-
moval of a cancerous breast.
" A very remarkable and consolatory circumstance in
the present case was, that the two surgeons who assisted
were but a short time before shockingly incredulous.
But both, being men of feeling, talent, and foresight, at
length did homage to truth; and, after having witnessed
numerous very interesting physical and psychological
phenomena, which I produced expressly for them, they
bent before the undeniable testimony of fact, which is
stronger than all reasoning. Their well-grounded con-
viction of the reality and importance of mesmeric science
will prove a happy circumstance to all of us here, and to
you likewise. It is another triumph of good sense and
experience over prejudice and preconception.
" Persons who, like you, Sir, ate practising mesmerism.
with such praimworthyperseveren :Tend disinterestedness,
ought to take courage more and more. I say it with deep
conviction, the day of ridicule and spite is past. Our
age is one of cool reason ; observing, analising, and dis-
posed to eelectism, it no longer affirms or denies ; it
doubts. This is the most favourable state for the ex-
amination of the important question which agitates and
excites all mines at present. Men at length comprehend
chat it is neither rational nor philosophic to condemn
a priori whatever human reason cannot at the first glance
embrace in all its details—whatever resists the first in-
tuition of intelligence. In truth, all is mystery
around us ; without speaking of the phenomena ot
gravitation, light, and electro• magnetism, the faintest
act of human will is sufficient to confound the proud pre-
ensions of those who still desire to measure the greatnes
of the wonders of creation by the standard of their owl,
intelligence, and to blast with powerless anathemas the
truths which they cannot understand. Contemptuous
silence, prejudice, and obstinacy are now useless befote,
the material facts which any person may produce ane
renew in some measure at will ; and whatever, in short,
be the situation or grandeur of individuals, they must
submit to the admirable and e'er al order established by
turnsthe Sovereign of allthings. The earth, therefore,still
in spite of the chains with which the Inquisition dared
to load the unfortunate Galileo : and the blood still cir-
culates in spite of the implacable enemies of Hervey.
Lord Bacon has said with reason, " Time is a great in-
novator." 7be father of experiment and philosophic
method might have added, when men deny a fact of na-
ture, it is certain that sooner or later she will conquer,

HER MAJESTY'S GAOL OF
NEWGATE.
The following report of the Prison Inspectors has,
Within the last few days, caused a great deal of excite-
ment amongst the City authorities :
" The alterations that have been made in the con-
struction of this ;orison since our last report have been
few, and some of them insignificant. The females'
ward, No. 28, adjoining the matron's office, has been
convertel into a bed-room for that officer. She used to
sleep in a small recess in her office, which was imper-
fectly lighted and ventilated, as well as inconvenient
and unhealthy ; and this led to the present improve-
ment. The dust-bin, which was formerly in the females'
bath-room, is now removed to the adjoining passage, and
the walls of the bath-room are covered over with mastich
cement, and p tinted to prevent the damp from rising.
The alteration is a desirable improvement upon the for-
mer slovenly arrangement of having a dust-bin in the
bath-room of the prison. The chief alteration in the
discipline of the prison since our last report, has been
the nomination of a deputy-keeper, William George
Wright. formerly a master in the navy. lie was ap-
pointed on the 30th January, 1844, with the salary of
3001. per annum, and an allowance of 60/. exrra, for a
residence outside the prison. We have repeatedly no-
ticed the want of a deputy-keeper in this important
prison, and we feel satisfaction in adverting to the pre-
sent appointment, which supplies a deficiency which had
been long and severely felt. In the beginning of June
last, the subordinate officers were put into uniform, con-
sisting of a blue coat and trousers, and a scarlet waist-
coat. This is also an improvement. But, with the ex-
ception of the fore-mention,d alterations, everything
remains in the same defective and objectionable condi-
tion it? before. The routine of duty also of the governor,
chaplain, surgeon, and other officers, is the same as when
last reported.

l'aotu
ournd
pteheet i
owna red,
os 3
eo na
ant dli the se of
euct
thi
vsei di en ov fe
ntthi e_
priWoen
lation, which was in a great measure caused by the de-
fective state of the adjoining water-closets, which are
upon a bad construction; and, although they are said to
be cleansed every morning from a reservoir- on the roof
of the prison, the process would appear to be ineffectual;
besides, the soil pipes sometimes get closed up from the
mischievousness of the prisoners, who are in the habit
of throwing down pieces of their clothing, scrubbing-
brushes, &c., so that when the water is let on from the
reservoir, it overflows the closets, and floods the interior
ward. It would also destroy the ceiling of the apart-
ment below, were it not that the joinings of the floor
are filled with pitch, to make the whole floor water-
tight. The frequency with which the wards
were flooded in this way led to the necessity of pitching
the floors. We noticed, however, one floor that had se-
veral holes in it, through which the prisoners could
communicate with those in the ward below. The plan
adopted for ventilating the dining-room on the master's
side, and that of the middle yard, is very inefficient ; it
consists of several circular perforatons, about two inches
in diameter, slanting down from the top of the walls to
the outside adjoining the slaughter-houses of Newgate-
market : and, occasionally in hot weather, instead of
ventilating the apartments, they only serve to convey the
offensive effluvia arising from the decaying animal
matter into the dining-rooms. Sometimes the stench in
hot weather is said to be very bad. Many rats also
come through these so-called ventilators, as they open
close to the ground at the back of the prison. Surely
a less objectionable method of ventilating these
rooms might be devised. The dining tables
are scrubbed with soap and water every day
after dinner ; and, in those departments of
the gaol where there are no dining-rooms, the prisoners
take their meals in the wards. All the bedsteads were
taken down last year and cleansed, and large quantities
of bugs were destroyed, but those on the male side have
not been similarly cleansed this year ; the females' bed-
steads arc said to be taken down and cleansed once a
year. It would appear that as a general rule, the rugs
were never washed prior to the appointment of the
deputy-keeper. In the beginning of last year, however,
they were washed and fumigated, and this year the same
most necessary process is being performed. The pri-
soners' clothing are only fumigated and cleansed when
there is a suspicion of contagion, or when they are very
foul from filth or vermin. The Newgate clothing of
convicts, when returned to the gaol, is always fumigated
before it is again used.
The washing in this prison is always a laborious ope-
ration, and very often a disgusting one, from the foul
state of the prisoners' linen on admission. The female
prisoners do all the washing, but receive extra rations,
including beer and tea.
The general cleanliness and order of the female side
of the prison appeared to us to be much better than those
of the male side. We think few prisons could exhibit
such a disgraceful list of prison offences, which, however,
furnishes an index to the practices going forward in New-
gate, and which are precisely such as might be expected
to result from the system in force in that prison. If
we analyse the list of offences, the following would ap-
pear to be a fair specimen of those which are the more
common:—•" Laughing anti talking in chapel, stealing
a handkerchief', stealing bread from each other, feur
prisoners conjointly engaged in forcing open the school-
master's desk, eight punished for tearing and defacing
the bible (among the bibles we examined at our last in-
spection we found one defaced with obscene language
written on several leaves), indecent conduct to a fellow-
prisoner, using bad language, spitting through an in-
spection hole into an officer's face ; and, as the result of
idleness c\ith gaol association, numbers are punished for
marking and cutting their names on the bedsteads, win-
dows, and prison walls and floors, gambling, selling
their clothes for bread, throwing potatoes at each other
during dinner ; whilst whole wards, comprising from
three up to sixteen prisoners, have been disorderly,
riotous, insubordinate, playing at leap-frog, and throw-
ing their beds about, &ie., ten have been punished for
striking their fellow-prisoners, and twenty-six for
lighting."
Such is the lamentable summary of the scenes going
forward in this metropolitan prison. They speak for
themselves and need no comment. There is scarcely an
offence mentioned in the return which is not, directly or
indirectly, referable to and consequent upon the associ-
tion of prisoners. We are rather surprised to find only
five cases of gambling recorded ; for we are convinced
that gambling, in some shape or other, is extensively
carried on in Newgate. Amongst the first wards, we
saw, through the inspection opening, about eight pri-
soners busily engaged at some game, with a sentinel
keeping his eye on the inspection hole, but when we en-
tered not a vestage of the gaming was discernible. Doubt-
less the noise of turning the lock was sufficient warning
to the prisoners within, and when we entered, the whole
group deported themselves as if nothing had been
going on—a proof of their being used to conceal their
practices by their dexterity. Before, how ever, we had
ascended half-a-dozen steps on the staircase, we again
looked into the ward through another inspection opening
in the wall, and there we distinctly saw that the game
had been resumed. The Governor then directed the
officer to make search for the implements of their amuse-
ment. Besides, there is scarcely a table or form on the
male side of the prison that is not marked for gaming,
although these marks are generally planed out once a
year. It is said that the prisoners have recourse to many
contrivances to supply the means of gambling ; they
cut off the buttons from their clothes, reserve pieces
of their bread, pick up portions of coal or stone, or
break off pieces of wood, lead, &c., or anything they can
lay their hands on, and these they convert into rude
Implements for gambling; whilst the paper supplied to
them for necessary purposes, together with the leaves
from the prison books, furnish the ready means. for
making substitutes for cards. The return of prison
punishments also attests the fact that many tobacco-
pipes and lucifer matches are occasionally conveyed into
the wards, a circumstance which says little for the strict-
the prisoners undergo
nme, sos
oorf
tthhreee searchers,
ordeals 0
of
although
searching
are ad-
befcre they
mitted. The governor says, that prohibited articles are
very often attempted to be introduced by
the visitors,
and that when they are detected, he sometimes himself
admonishes them; occasionally he takes them before a
magistrate, when they are most frequently admonished
and discharged. We have not been able to find any
notice in the prison journals of their being punished.
In this prison, where communication and intercourse
are the characteristic features of the discipline, we have
often before detailed, at length, the various circum-
stances which facilitate this most demoralising associa-
tion. It would appear that even prisoners under punish-
ment for infringements of the prison regulations, have
occasionally the opportunity of communicating with
their fellow-prisoners, and of obtaining through them
a mitigation of their just punishment. We were in-
formed of the following case in point at our last in-
spection :—Three men were, for a prison offence, sepa-
rated from their companions, and sentenced to a short
confinement alone, with a diminished dietary, in one of
the lower wards adjoining the staircase leading to the
juvenile department of the prison. They easily ob-
tained communication with the boys passing up and
down stairs, and prevailed upon them to give them
daily a portion of their provisions. Under ordinary
circumstances, we think it would have been no
casyyretter to have devised the means of introducing the
fond, especially as it was in a liquid form. But what
might be difficult, or impossible, 41. most prisons, or with
an ordinary class of prisoners, is not so in Newgate. The
men under punishment soon accomplished the feat.
They tore from a Bible several of its leaves, which they
rolled up in the form of a tube ; this they passed through
the inspection opining in the door—and, by the aid of
the boys. they made it funnel-shaped, by means of which
1 soup and gruel were conveyed into the mouls of the
in
adults, each his turn taking the smal!er end of the
paper funnel into his mouth.
We a e unable to ascer-
tain o
reox exactly tnl.)a, s howdetected,
ay had
. been carried on
permitted an'
cto as
what are the inferences to be drawn respecting the results
i
of a discipliee which admits of ouch irregularities-. Is it
calculated to reclaUm a e guilty,or to pr )test the ii a cent?
on the contrary, it will be evident that the guilty limit
become more hardened and expert, that the innocent
will be corrupted, and that the inmates of Newgate,
when they regain their liberty, will be the more dip-
gerous to society from the experience they have ac•
quired in this most defective prison. As an example of
the numbers in confinement in the various wards of this
prison, we have annexed to this report return (B),
being a copy of the ward book for the months of No-
vember and August, 1844. It will be observed that
the numbers in a ward vary from three to nineteen.
There are, indeed, a
.few cells, wherein prisoners
may be separately confined, if they desire it, but
they are the old condemned cells of Newgate, and
are only ordinarily used as refractory cells, and for