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tion of abuses, and as the information in the parochial returns is not sufficiently detailed respecting the state of education generally, a commission should also be issued, either under an act of Parliament, or by means of an address to the Crown, for the purpose of supplying this defect.

In the course of their inquiries, your Committee have incidentally observed, that charitable funds, connected with education, are not alone liable to great abuses. Equal negligence and malversation appears to have prevailed in all other charities; and although your Committee have no authority, by their instruction, to investigate the matter, and to report upon it, yet they should deem themselves wanting in their duty, were they not to give this notice of so important a subject, accidentally forced upon their attention.

REPORT

the Appendix, that such deficiencies have been supplied by the assiduity of Mr Rickman, one of the clerks assistant, in a way that will probably be thought to render them sufficiently accurate for the purpose of comparison with those of subsequent years. Nor is this the only advantage to be derived from those documents; for it has suggested a more summary method of obtaining similar information, if it should be required by the House, through the prompt and effectual means of the Post-office.

The House have now also, at length, in their possession, the returns made under the Act 55 Geo. III. of the assessments for the years ending 25th March 1813, 1814, and 1815, embracing an abundant and valuable mass of information. From these it will ap. pear, that the abstract of the assessment for the year ending 25th March 1815, which was returned to the Com. mittee in the last session, and printed in the Appendix to their Report, was materially incorrect, in consequence of

From the Select Committee of the Poor mistakes made in preparing it, and de

Laws.

THE Committee appointed by the House in the last Session of Parliament, having in their Report presented to the House such a comparative view of the assessments for the relief of the poor at different periods, as the materials which they then possessed enabled them to form, are now to make some important additions and corrections to such statement. For they have been furnished with some returns, made in pursuance of the orders of the House, of the assessments in the years 1748, 1740, and 1750, which were not known to exist, till they were discovered by the researches of Mr Speaker into the records of the House during the recess. And though those accounts, from all the counties except four, appear to have been more or less deficient, yet it will be found, by a reference to

ficiencies existing at that time in the returns, which were wholly unnoticed. The whole sum raised by assessment in that year was stated to amount to 7,068,999.; whereas it was really 7,457,6751.; the sum expended on the poor was stated to be 5,072,0281. instead of 5,418,845/.

The result of the whole of these additions and corrections, will afford the following comparative view of the sums raised by assessment, and the sums expended on the poor at the different periods to which those authentic documents relate :

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contained in these returns, they feel it unnecessary to refer, except to express their apprehension, that the 8th column, which states the number of persons relieved from the poor rate permanently, not including the children of such persons, must be, in a considerable degree, calculated to lead to an erroneous conclusion, from the prevalence of the practice of affording relief nominally to parents, though it be really on account of their children.

Your Committee, upon their appointment in this session, proceeded to consider which of their former sug. gestions it might be expedient to submit to the House, for the adoption of Parliament, without further delay. No time has been lost in putting such measures into the form of legislative enactments, and they have instructed their chairman to move for leave to bring in a bill or bills, on those suggestions (in the first instance) which, as far as they can judge, are most generally approved, and tend to amend the administration of the existing laws; while they are proceeding to reconsider other parts of the subject, in which more doubt and difficulty may naturally be expected to rise.

The Appendix gives the assessment for the relief of the poor in 1748, 1749, and 1750, by which it appears, that on the average of these three years about 690,000l. per annum was applied to the relief of the poor; in the year 1776, the sum of 1,531,000l. was expended on account of the poor; in 1783, 4, and 5, the sum of 2,000,000l. per annum; in 1803, 4,268,000l. ; and in 1813, 14, and 15, the average sum of about 6,130,000l. per annum was expended for the maintenance of the poor. But the sums raised by poor's rates, and any other rate or rates in these years, was, in 1813, 8,651,438.; in 1814, 3,392,7281. ; in 1815, 7,460,8551. The number

of paupers relieved in 1813, was 971,913; in 1814, 953,995; in 1815, 895,973.

The Appendix closes with some important

OBSERVATIONS.

2. The number of persons relieved permanently, both in and out of any workhouse, on the average of the last three years, appears to be 516,968; ditto, occasionally, being parishioners, 423,663; total, 940,620, exclusive of any children of those permanently relieved out of the house.

3. Four thousand and ninety-four parishes or places maintain the greater part of their poor in the workhouses, averaging, for the last three years, 93,142 persons.

4. The population of England and Wales, as taken from the abstract laid before parliament in the year 1811, appears to have been 10,150,615; so that the number of persons relieved from the poor's rates appear to have been 94 in each 100 of the population.

5. The total of the money raised by poor rates, or other rates, appears to have averaged, for the last three years, the sum of 8,168,340. 13s. 9 d. being at the rate of 16s. 1d. per head on the population, or 3s. 14d. in the pound, of the total amount of the sum of 51,898,4231. 12s. 6d. as assessed on the property-tax in the year 1815.

7. The amount of money expended in suits of law, removals, and expenses of parish officers, for militia purposes, and for all other purposes, is, independent of the maintenance of the poor, 2,162,799l.

8. The number of persons belonging to friendly societies appears to be, for the last three years, nearly 8% in the 100 of the resident population.

9. The area of England and Wales, according to the latest authorities, appears to be 57,960 square statute miles, or 37,094,4000 statue acres ; whereore, the number of inhabitants in each

square mile containing 640 acres, averages 175 persons.

10. The greater proportion of the population of England and Wales appears to be employed in trade and manufactures, there being 770,199 families returned employed in agriculture, and 959,632, in trade, manufactures, and handicraft; besides 413,316 other families.

REPORT

From the Select Committee on the
State of Contagious Fever.

Your Committee having summoned before them physicians from the principal hospitals in the metropolis, proceeded in the first place to inquire into the progress and extent of that contagious fever which during the last 12 months has been so prevalent. In order to obtain correct information upon this subject, they called for a return of the number of patients who have been admitted into a fever hospital constructed in Pancras-road, and entitled a "House of Recovery." This establishment had its origin in the year 1802, a period of great sickness among the poorer classes of society, it having been preceded by a scarcity of food for two years. In the year 1803, 164 patients, and in that of 1804, 185 were admitted into this hospital. The return inserted in the evidence of Dr Bateman, physician to the Institution for the last 15 years, shews that the minimum of sickness was in 1810, when 30 patients only were admitted; and that the average of the three years, preceding 1817, when the present epidemic may be considered to have commenced, was somewhat more than 76 per annum ; in the year 1817, 126; and from April in that year to same period in 1818, no less than 797 persons were patients in this Infirmary.

Your Committee then proceeded to inquire as to the prevalence of this contagious fever in the different hospi tals of the metropolis.

Dr Marcet, who is one of the phy. sicians at Guy's, informed them that in the year 1817 about 50 patients were admitted with cases of fever, and in that ending April 1818, 253.

In the London Hospital, Dr Yelloly states, that the average number of fever-patients may be taken at about 30 for the last five years; that in 1817, 97 cases were admitted; and in the first three months of this year, no less

than 35.

Your Committee have no regular return from St Thomas's; but Dr Currey, physician to that hospital, says, that the number of fever-cases was considerably greater than in the preceding years.

At St Bartholomew's, the increase is also stated to be great; but your Committee have no return of the num bers; for Dr Roberts informed them that no register is kept in the hospital to distinguish the different varieties of disease.

At St George's, the same statement is made by Dr Young; and there alsɔ no register is kept.

In the Westminster Hospital, D Tuthill informed your Committee, tha the ordinary average of fever-cases may be taken at 25; while, from Ladyday 1817 to 1818, 38 patients labour ing under this disease have been admitted.

In the Middlesex Hospital, the ave rage number of contagious-fever cases is about 60 per annum; and last year the number amounted to 120.

Your Committee having thus ascer tained the alarming increase of conta gious fevers in the hospitals of the metropolis, proceeded to examine the phy sicians of some of the principal dispen

saries.

Dr Laird, physician at the Public Dispensary of Carey-street, informed them, that in the year 1815, 84 cases of fever were entered in their books; in 1816, 76 cases; and in 1817, 147; and in the four months of the present year, 59 cases of fever have been so registered.

Dr Clutterbuck also states, that for many years past not above 12 cases of typhus have been admitted on their books; but, in the last year, there have been above 200.

Your Committee thought fit to transmit a series of questions to the different physicians belonging to some of the dispensaries of London, and to the answers of which they beg leave to refer. Dr Davies, physician to the London Dispensary, averages the number of cases of fever in the establishment to which he belongs, for a period of eight years, to be about 100 annually; while in the last year they amounted to 309. In the Finsbury Dispensary, the mean number of fevercases is 66; but from the 1st of May, 1817, to the same day, 1818, 168 cases were registered. Mr Burgess, apothecary to St Luke's Work-house, stated, that he attends, on an average of common years, about 150 cases of fever; in the last year the number rose to 600.

Dr Lincoln states, that his parochial patients have increased from the ordinary average of 48 and 50, to 250 and 300.

Your Committee, having thus been informed of the extent of this epidemic, and the severity with which it has fallen on the poorer classes of society, proceeded to inquire into the nature and extent of the means afforded, in the way of medical relief, to those afflicted with this calamity.

The benevolence of some individuals, aided by a considerable grant of money on the part of the public, has constructed a Fever Infirmary, called

VOL. XI. PART II.

"The House of Recovery," which is capable of containing about 69 patients.

This establishment has risen to its extent and consequence by slow degrees; it began in a small house in Gray's-Inn-lane, which was capable of containing only a very limited number of patients; and its augmented size is a convincing proof of its acknowledged value, no less than its being necessary to the increasing wants of the metropolis. It is supported by voluntary contributions, the amount of which may be taken at 450l. per annum. This institution possesses besides, a fund of 2000l. in Exchequer Bills, 26821. in the 3 per cent consols; the annual income bring thus somewhat above 540l. per annum. expences of the three years preceding 1816 amounted annually to 5731. while those of the year ending April, 1818, reached the enormous sum of 1700.; to meet this increase of expenditure above income, the generosi ty of the public was appealed to, and the sum taken as part of the capital stock of the Hospital, and which is now held in Exchequer Bills, was subscribed at a public meeting, summoned for that purpose; to this fund must be added a further grant of 1000%. which has recently been made by the Treasurer to this Hospital.

The

Your Committee have learned, with great satisfaction, the nature of the excellent arrangements which have been adopted in this institution. The zeal and assiduity of its medical attendants entitle them to the praise and gratitude of all who can estimate the fortitude, the risk, and the active benevolence which characterize the profession to which they belong. But the objects of this institution are not limited to attendance on the sick, and to the removing persons from the sphere of contagion; a portion of its funds is expended in cleansing the apartments Ꭲ .

of the poor, who, crowded in close courts and unventilated rooms, are assailed by fever; this practice is peculiar to this establishment, and in the last year no fewer than 151 rooms were thus whitewashed. Your Committee refer generally to the evidence of Dr Bateman, to establish the necessity of a speedy removal of the poor from their own dwellings when attacked with contagious fever, as well as to demonstrate the benefits derived in the last year, by the existence of this institution, when, from the crowded state of the hospitals, and their known unwillingness to receive fever cases at all, the greatest danger would have been incurred, of the spreading into a larger focus the sphere of this contagious disorder. In one house, the disease continued seventeen weeks-part of the family were attacked with it three different times and it was only arrested by the destruction of all the furniture in the apartment. Thus, it may be said, the sufferers became diseased through their own contagion; and your Committee cannot contemplate, without serious apprehension, what might have been the result of this epidemic daily gaining strength, if it had not been checked in its malignant growth by the efforts of the Fever Institution. Your Committee wish also to remark, that this establishment is open to all applicants, at all days and hours. A medical certificate of disease is stated to be required; but the practice is to admit all who are attacked by the complaint upon the first application; and the only impediment thrown in the way has been one which it is the aim of your Committee to remove-a want of sufficient room for the admission of patients.

Your Committee wish to observe, that a more salutary system is adopted here, viz. the transport of the patients in a litter belonging to the establishment, thereby preventing the use of

coaches or sedan chairs; one of the means by which the contagion is cir culated is thus checked, and they hope the other hospitals will see the neces sity of adopting some such arrangement. Indeed, from the indifference to contagion which seems to exist in some of these establishments, it is a matter of surprise to your Committee that more fatal results do not occur.

Your Committee have learned with great pain, that in all the hospitals of London a great proportion of patients are weekly refused admission, in most of them for want of room; in one of them (the Middlesex Hospital) from a deficiency of funds. Any plan, therefore, that would lighten the burthen which would now lay down these establishments, would, to the minds of your Committee, be of great public usefulness. But if the entire removal of cases of fever from all the hospitals may be considered injurious to them as schools of medicine, the diminution of the number of such admissions might ease the finances of some establishments, and leave room in others for patients suffering under diseases of a different character. Your Committee have been informed, that it is the practice in all the hospitals to mix cases of contagious fever indiscriminately with other patients; it has, however, been stated to them by some medical authorities, that, practically speaking, no evil has arisen from their intermixture; but with due deference to such opinions, the acknowledged fact, that in some hospitals the fever has been generated; that patients admitted under one disease have caught in the hospital another; that the medical practitioners and attendants have been attacked themselves by the disease; and that most fatal effects have been therefrom produced; all these facts fully satisfy your Committee that the practice above alluded to, if not altogether abandoned, ought to be resort

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