The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-09 00:00:00

IMPORTANT DECISION TO RAIL-

WAY PASSENGERS IN SCOTLAND.

In the Small Debt Court, on Thursday last, a case was
tried before Mr. Sheriff Campbell, at the instance of
Elizabeth Caldwell, Kilbarchan, against the Ayrshire
Railway Company, in which points of considerable im-
portance to passengers by railway, and also to railway
directors, were elicited. The pursuer, and several
others, had taken third-class tickets from Paisley to
Cochran Mill station, where they intended to land. On
reaching that station, the passengers endeavoured in
vain to open the carriage door. They then cried for
some one to come and open it, but nobody came until
the train was started, when a man came forward (it was
not proved whether it was the guard or a person uncon-
nected with the company), and opened the door, and
took out the passengers, including a woman and child,
while the train was running. In the hurry, one of the
passengers leaped upon the skirt of the pursuer's
gown and tore it, and it was for the value of the gown so
torn that the action was brought, on the ground that
sufficient time had not been allowed for the passengers
to land before starting the trails. Three witnesses were
examined for the pursuer, who concurred in stating the
case as we have narrated it. Two witnesses, the guard,
and the manager at the station, were offered for the de-
fence, but not examined, an objection having been taken
to the competency of the guard, that he would have to
pay the damages to the Company, in the event of the
pursuer obtaining decree. The Sheriff, after shortly
running over the evidence, pronounced decree, with full
cxpt uses, against the Company. After pronouncing de-
cree, the Sheriff remarked that he was sorry the pre-
sent was not the only complaint that had been made to
him of the short time allowed for passengers to land at
the different railway stations, nor of the difficulties ex-
perienced by passengers at landing. It required the
strength of a man to open the carriage doors, and in the
case of women either travelling by themselves or with
children it was often impossible for them to get out in
the time allowed at the stations, and nobody would say
that they were not proper parties to travel by railway.
Passengers should be allowed to collect their senses,
and be made aware of the stations, and not hurried out.
But, added the Sheriff, I would be even inclined to go
a step further, and say that it is not the duty of railway
passengers to open the carriage doors at all, but that
this should be done by the Company or their servants,
and he strongly impressed upon the railway directors
to attend to this in future, and not expose the lives and
property of the public in the way hitherto done.
The Learned Sheriff's remarks were most attentively
listened to by a crowded Court, and we have no doubt
they will produce the requisite effect in the proper quar-
ter, an object which the pursuer considered of far more
importance than the value of the gown.—Glasgow Sa-
turday Post.

THE BONE-CRUSHING SYSI.EM.
REPORT of the SECRETARY of the POOR-LAW
COMMISSIONERS on BONE-CRUSHING.

There appear to be two sorts of bones used in agri-
culture : Ist, the bones of commerce, from which all
the gelatine fat and animal juices are boiled out—a pro-
cess necessary, it is stated, to prevent decomposition,
and accidents and annoyance during their transport.
In this state the bones consist chiefly of phosphate of
lime, carbonate of lime or common chalk, phosphate of
magnesia, soda, and cartilage ; and in this state are
sold by the manure companies and preparers of ma-
nures, and are stated to be inoffensive, and compara-
tively uninjurious. 2dly, " green bones "—those in
which the gelatinous and other animal matter is re-
tained in the same state in which the bones are collected
by the bone-gatherers and others, from amidst dunghills
and heaps of ashes and refuse.
Inasmuch as the smell is referred to in the paper be-
fore me, it is inferred that the objection is taken to the
process of crushing the green bones, i. e. those bones
which give off putrid emanations; and it is the eligibility
of the process of crushing such green bones, as fitting
work for the inmates of workhouses, that is hereafter
considered.
There does not appear to be any recorded or precise
observations as to the specific effect of putrid emanations
from bones or from bone dust ; but there are no general
facts now more clearly ascertained than that all putrid
emanations from decaying animal matter are noxious,
that " the effects of such miasma are manifested imme-
diately on all surrounding human life (and there is evi-
dence to believe they are manifest in their degree on
animal life generally), in proportion to the relative
strength of the destructive agent, and the relative
strength or weakness of the beings exposed to them.
The effects are seen first on infants, then on children, in
the order of their age and strength, then on females, or
on the sickly, the aged, and feeble ; last of all, on the
robust workmen, and on them it appears on those parts
of the body that have been'previously weakened byexcess
or by illness."—( Vide Supplement to the Sanatory Re-
port for the general character of the evidence to support
this conclusion, paragraphs 5 to 11.) In general, the
work of bone-crushing appears to have been undertaken
by stout able-bodied men, on whom the influence of
noxious effluvia is not commonly immediately manifested,
nor likely to be observed ; but particular instances are
known where it was observed that nausea, inability to
take food, was the result on healthy independent labou
rers, when employed in crushing bones from which the
putrid emanations were strong. The same labourers
sustained no nausea or inconvenience whatever during
prolonged employment in loading, unloading, and spread-
ing dung.
The conclusion would be, from all such information as
appears to be applicable to the subject, that the process
is ono which if it were carried on by independent la-
bourers, as a matter of private speculation, that would
come, a fortiori, under consideration with other processes
in manufactories where deleterious processes are carried
on, and on which it has been submitted to the Legisla-
ture for decision, whether they ought not to be placed
under authoritative regulations, with a view not only to:the
protection of the public from the emanation as common
nuisances, but for the protection of workmen engaged in
conducting them (vide Sanatory Report, page 256 to page
261, on the empleyers' influence on the health of workpeo-
ple, by regulation of their places of work), and whether
this process of crushing green bones is not one which,
from its peculiar offensiveness to the smell (and the
smell is in respect to emanations from decaying
animal as well as vegetable substances, the faithful
monitor of causes injurious to the health), ought to
be required to be conducted under chimneys, or with
appropriate appliances to carry away effluvia, and to pro-
tect the workmen from inhaling the dust, which will be
more injurious than the effluvia ? If protective legisla-
tive provisions on this principle were adopted for the
protection of independent workmen, there could be little
doubt that the process in question will be comprehended
within them as being at least as injurious and offensive
as several processes which the Building Bill before Par-
liament proposes to exclude for the future from the me-
tropolis. It would seem to follow, that the remedy which
it were desirable to apply by legislation for the abate-
ment of tEe nuisance arising from the process when car-
ried on as a private trade, should be applied to the pro-
cess now that it is brought within the cognisance of a
public authority. The question then arises, whether it
is practicable to conduct the process with proper care,
and with the requisite protective appliances, when that
process is carried on as an incident to the ordinary
workhouse management ?
It is assumed that it is not practicable to do so, except
at an expense of labour that will outweigh its advantages.
Mr. Tufnell states, " that the boxes used for crush-
ing tho bones should always be perfectly dry, and broken
under an open shed, when the smell or effluvia is next to
nothing."
If these conditions be obtained, and if the effluvia be
reduced to " next to nothing," then undoubtedly the
"injurious effects will be reduced to next to nothing,
and there would be nothing to object to in r.,quiring this
labour to be performed by young able-bodied men.
This statement cannot, however, be taken to the letter,
as it is obvious that bones enclosed only in a box, with
an open top, in a shed, without any contrivance of a
chimney, or funnel, to create a draught and carry away
the effluvia which the box will freely give off, could not
be inoffensive. The air contained in them being, how-
ever, more diluted, will, to sonic extent, be less noxious
than if the process were carried on in a closed chamber;
but the process would still, pro twit°, be an injurious
one, even to 3 oung labourers, if kept to such labour for
any great length of time.
But it is to be borne in mind, that " able-bodied
paupers" will not, in general, be of the most robust
class. Those whom the guardians may often be the
most disposed to set to work will be those whom they
consider to be the worthless class, the idle and the dis-
sipated. Now the dissipated will be pre-disposed to all
such deleterious influence by their dissipation ; they
may be deserving of punishment, but punishment cannot
legally be mixed up with relief, nor would exposure to
nausea and a fit of illness, be a mode of punishment re-
cognised. Mr. Tufnell considers bone-crushing to be a
sort of employment " peculiarly suitable to the semi-
able-bodied, a class very difficult to deal with, and who
may be very easily set to work in this way." Now, on
the principle above cited, as conclusions from medical
evidence as to the increased effect of putrid emanations
in proportion to the weakness of the persons exposed to
them, the semi-able-bodied is a class on whom, as being
doubly susceptible, such exposure must at least be
doubly injurious.
It is, moreover, to be considered that the workhouse,
besides being a place of work, according to the ability
of the parties received, is also to be viewed and dealt
with as a hospital, and a place of reception for the sick

and convalescent, and very young _ Children, and

. .
weakly and susceptible per sons ; it is therefore a place
from which all deleterious effluvia should be excluded,

a place for which such a process and traffic as that in

question is peculiarly unfitted; for though decaying bones

. . . ,
may be placed in the outhouses, yet it"may be presumed
that it will be an object of difficult attainment so to con-

fine the fumes as to prevent them being carried into the
house, and amidst the susceptible classes of inmates.
It may b 3 that with the very little attention that has
hitherto been paid to the effect of such influences on
health, the deleterious effect of the putrid emanations
from decaying bones will not be greater than those to
which the inmates of most workhouses are still exposed
(the effluvia from cesspools, and bogholes and drains,
for example) ; but on that very account additions should
not be made to the existing depressing agencies. But
now that the operation, and causes of disease, of such
agencies is better understood, the whole should be re-
moved.

The process of bone-crushing is recommended as
being advantageous to agriculture. Preparations of
chemical substances, phosphates, sulphates, and carbo-
nates, treated with the various acids, are valuable as fer-
tilisers, and are well prepared by the manufacturers, but
would not, on account of their importance to agricul-
ture, be the less unfitted and dangerous for manipulations
in the workhouse. On these several grounds, then,
That the process of crushing bones, when in a state in
which they give off putrid effluvia, is one which, when
unguarded, is deleterious :
That the protective precautions requisite, even when
the employment is given to robust, Able•b9died men, bal.