The Sun. — 1848-09-05 (London, England)

POTATO DISEASE IN IRELAND A CENTURY AGO.— Lord Chancellor Jocelyn, writing from Ireland in 1741, to his brother Chancellor (llardwicke) in England, "mentions the distressed state of the country at that period, owing to the entire failure of the potato crop which had occurred, and which was followed by famine and disease to a frightful went.'  expatriation being now aggravated by the anxiety and doubt which the convicts felt with respect to their ultimate destination. The sickness and mortality were further increased by the fever and influenza which during the autumn and winter were epidemic in the metropolis and in other parts of the country. Prisoners generally, owing to the de • pressed state of their minds and bodily powers, are especially liable to. suffer severely from fever ; and the convicts in Milbank Prison were in the late epidemic attacked by it in large numbers, in several instances with a fatal result. The influenza, did not affect a disproportionate number of the prisoners. Only thirty-six, out of a population of 1,243, required infirmary treatment on account of it; and in no instance did it alone cause death, although it hastened the fatal termination of two cases of consumption. The total mortality in. the year was thirty-three deaths, or 28.648 per 1,000 prisoners (see Appendix I), Table 1); in the previous year, the mortality was only 13'026 per 1,000 prisoners. On referring to the causes of death (Table 2), the excess in the rate of mortality during the year 1847 is seen to be due to the great number of deaths caused by consumption and fever. Of the thirty-three deaths, eighteen were caused by the former, and seven by the latter disease. The remaining eight deaths were severally due to the following causes:— epilepsy, chronic bronchitis with gangrene of the lung, diseased heart, dysentery, cholera, diseased cervical vertebrae, childbed, and suicide by hanging. Fifteen prisoners were pardoned on medical grounds in the year 1847 (see Table 2). Four of these laboured under consumption, and eight under other chronic bodily diseases or infirmities, rendering them unfit for transportation. Two were the subjects of mental delusions ; and one had recently been afflicted with insanity, and his pardon was recommended from the fear that continued imprisonment might induce a return of his mental disorder. Amongst the deaths and pardons there were twentyone instances in which the prisoners at the time of their reception were evidently affected with the diseases which caused their deaths, or formed the grounds of their pardons. These twenty-one prisoners, together with an infirm old man who sank under a slight attack of fever, would in former years have been immediately transferred to the invalid hulk. Of these, too, who died of consumptive disease developed in Milbank prison, several would likewise have been sent to the hulk ; and the result of this would have been, not merely to transfer mortality from one place of imprisonment to another, but really to prolong and even save lives; fOr undoubtedly many .instances have occurred where disease, tending progressively to the destruction of life, has been wholly arrested, and health been restored, on the patients being transferred to the hulks, where they have had the advantage of a purer and freer atmosphere, and where their minds have been in some measure relieved from the depression and anxiety which had before exerted so injurious an influence on their bodily health. The urgent necessity that exists for a healthily-situated and well-ordered criminal invalid establishment is shown by the fact that, since the commencement of the present year, 18 deaths have already been caused by pulmonary consumption, or other forms of internal scrofulous diseases, and that pardons have been granted to eight other prisoners who, in all probability, would have died of the same disease had they remained in prison.