SURREY PRISON--DAILY ROUTINE OF HOSPITAL LIFE--SET A THIEF TO CATCH
A THIEF--MY LEG GETS WORSE--AMPUTATION--LIFE DESPAIRED OF--PRISON
DOCTORS--WANT OF PERIODICAL HOSPITAL INSPECTION.
The Surrey prison in which I was doomed to spend nearly five years of
my life is a somewhat spacious looking building, situated in a healthy
locality, and fitted up for the accommodation of about 660 prisoners.
It is built in the shape of the letter =E=. The centre abutments are
occupied as a chapel and work-room; the end wings are divided into
cells, with an underground flat fitted up as a school and a Roman
Catholic chapel. The upper story of the main portion of the building is
divided into cells, which are the best specimens of the human cage yet
constructed. The under flat is divided into eighteen rooms of various
dimensions, some containing seven, others eight and twelve, and the
largest twenty-four beds. The middle flat is in constant use as an
hospital, and is divided into four wards, containing accommodation for
150 patients. Very frequently, however, while I was here that number
was exceeded, and other portions of the prison were often appropriated
to hospital use.
As I was for upwards of two years after my arrival an inmate of one of
these hospital wards, I may here give an outline of the routine of our
daily life there.
At half-past five every morning the great bell rang, and the nurses and
convalescent patients started out of bed, washed and dressed, made
their beds, rubbed their metal chamber-service as bright as silver--a
remarkable contrast in that respect to the metal dinner dishes--dusted
and cleaned the ward, which was usually kept remarkably tidy and clean.
About half-past six breakfast was on the table. This meal consisted of
very weak tea and dry bread for the majority, with an egg, or
half-an-ounce of butter for the few who were supposed to be dangerously
ill or dying. In the interval between the breakfast time and nine
o'clock the patients' wounds were dressed by the nurses, and medicines
served out by the officers of the ward; those patients not immediately
under treatment having liberty to read or chat with each other. Before
I left, however, the attempt was being made to prohibit this reading
and talking, and to combine more punishment with the cure of disease.
The two medical officers generally began their rounds of examination
about nine o'clock. As they entered the room "Attention!" was called,
when all the prisoners out of bed stood up, and as the doctors passed,
noting down on a ticket the date and remarks on each man's complaint,
they were saluted by the patients in the military fashion. The doctors'
visit over, the patients were assembled for prayers; after which, and
until the dinner-hour--a quarter to twelve--the time was spent in
out-door exercise. From twelve till two the patients sat on their
stools reading or gossiping. At two they went out again to exercise. At
half-past three they were again assembled for prayers. About five they
got tea and dry bread, as at breakfast; and at eight o'clock they were
all in bed.
The dinner of the patients varied according to the nature of their
disease. The majority were served with the regular hospital dinner,
which consisted of soup, potatoes, and what the dietary boards called
"Ten ounces of mutton." With respect to the latter item, however, I
fancy there must have been some mistake, although I have heard the
prisoners characterize it in different and much stronger terms. Whether
there be any mistake or not, _five_ ounces, or it might occasionally
be six ounces with the bone, is all the prisoners receive, and if
complaint was made the invariable answer was, that it "Lost four ounces
in the cooking." I am not sufficiently skilled in the culinary art to
be able to say whether or not ten ounces of mutton loses four ounces in
cooking, but the great majority of prisoners did not believe it; and
the evil effects of placing ten ounces on a board for the public to
see, and five or six ounces in the dish for the prisoner to eat, are
very great.
The old maxim, "Set a thief to catch a thief," was based on a shrewd
acquaintance with human nature, and convicts are usually very quick in
discovering discrepancies of the kind to which I have alluded; and it
is not to be wondered at if they put the very worst construction upon
them. In any case, if it forms any part of our prison discipline to
inculcate moral principles, or to instil into the convict mind a regard
for truth and honesty, it is surely of the utmost importance, indeed
absolutely necessary, that the prison authorities, their only
instructors, should be beyond suspicion. As entertaining books and
newspapers are not allowed him, the convict has nothing else to talk
about but the conduct of his jailers, and foolish prison gossip; and
any subject of the kind I have mentioned is eagerly discussed with very
injurious results to all concerned.
To return to my own case: after being carried upstairs to the hospital,
I was inspected by the medical officer, and ordered into one of the
largest wards, containing thirty-six beds, on one of which I was
destined to pass many long and painful months. On the following morning
my knee was examined by both the prison surgeons. Unfortunately they
seemed to differ in opinion as to the treatment it should receive. The
senior officer, who took charge of my case, wished to make a stiff
joint, whilst his junior thought it should be lanced and poulticed, to
take out the matter, which by this time was creating an abscess in the
joint. Had I been allowed to express my opinion on the subject I would
have supported the latter mode of treatment; but a convict dare not
utter a word with respect to medical treatment. I was accordingly
obliged to lie in one position for three months with my leg strapped to
a long slab, and to use a lotion which proved very injurious to it.
During these three months I suffered the most intense pain. I not only
could not get out of bed, but I could not change my position in it;
and, to add to the wretchedness of my situation, I could not read; and
finally I could not even sleep. My food, however, was better and more
abundant than it had been hitherto. At first I was allowed a little
porter and some very inferior beef-tea, in addition to the ordinary
second-class hospital diet.
Some time after, when my knee was being frequently leeched, I said to
the doctor that, if he thought it necessary to take more blood from me
I would feel very grateful for a mutton chop in lieu of the beef-tea.
This he at the time very snappishly refused, but next morning he
appeared to have seen the reasonableness of my request, and allowed me
the chop. Being always truly grateful when I obtained any concession of
this kind, and always civil and polite to those with whom I was brought
into contact, whether officers or prisoners, I received more favourable
consideration than the generality of my neighbours; and I had nothing
to complain of, so far as regarded diet, during my subsequent stay in
the hospital.
After a few weeks of great suffering to me, it became quite evident
that my leg was not to get better under the treatment prescribed for
it, but was rapidly getting worse. The knee was now so sensitive that
the tread of any person's foot passing near the bed caused me excessive
pain. I was afraid to sneeze for the same reason, and at last so
excruciating did the pain become that I begged and prayed to have my
leg cut off. The idea of losing it, so horrible to me a few months
previous, was altogether overpowered by the frightful torture, which
night and day it now entailed upon me. I was again inspected about this
time by a stranger doctor, and immediately after he left, my leg was
lanced and poulticed. But the remedy came too late, for the time had
come when I must either sacrifice my life, or give life a chance by the
sacrifice of my leg. My readers can imagine for themselves what it must
be to have the flesh cut, and the bone sawn through at the thickest
part of the thigh. I fear I cannot give a more lucid description of the
surgical operation. I was put under the influence of chloroform, which
had to be administered a second time before the surgeons had completed
their work, and with the exception of a momentary pang in the interval
between the doses, I felt no pain whatever. The operation was skilfully
performed, and occupied altogether about half-an-hour.
I was removed from the large ward, and placed in a small room by
myself, with a prisoner to wait upon me, and for three or four days
after the operation my life was despaired of by the medical officers.
Strangely enough I did not feel so hopeless about my case. I felt a
whispering within that seemed to tell me I should not die then. With
the exception of the pain caused by the first few dressings of the
wound, and a sharp violent twinge that seized the stump on my going to
sleep, causing it to start some inches from the pillow on which it
rested, I did not now experience anything to compare with my previous,
sufferings. The head surgeon also relaxed from his customary silent,
stingy, and cold hearted manner, and became generous, and even kind to
me. I had been in the habit of writing to my friends that I felt
comfortable enough under the circumstances, in order to keep up their
spirits about me, but now I could and did express genuine feelings of
gratitude, and until I wrote a letter to the late Mr. Cobden, more than
a year afterwards, I believe I remained a favourite with the chiefs of
the establishment. I had now become a cripple for life, and as I
reflected upon all that these words involved in relation to my future
history, and the circumstances which had entailed upon me a loss so
irretrievable, I thought, amongst other things how easily, and still
how fatally a little carelessness, negligence, or ill-temper on the
part of our convict surgeons, may influence the future life and conduct
of their convict patients. They are, without doubt, subjected to many
vexations, and much annoyance, and their temper receives daily
provocations. They have to deal professionally with a class of men who,
as a rule, cannot be believed or trusted; who are as likely as not to
give a false description of their complaint, and in many instances to
do all in their power to frustrate the efforts made to relieve it. They
have to discover not only what the disease is in real patients, but
also frequently to detect well planned and well sustained imposture in
those who are not diseased at all. The latter is a much more difficult
task in many cases than the former, as I will subsequently show, and it
has a tendency to sour the temper and harden the heart, which the
former does not. I do not imagine that the medical men in our convict
establishments are naturally less warm-hearted, less nobly devoted to
their profession than their brethren outside, but it will not be
disputed that the peculiar nature of their practice has a tendency to
make them so. Were one hundred doctors each to have a patient for whom
they had daily, for weeks, and even for months, been doing all that
humanity and professional skill could suggest in order to relieve him,
let us suppose of great suffering, and one fine morning to see the
patient leap out of bed, laugh, and snap his fingers in their faces,
and tell them that there had been nothing the matter with him all the
while!--ninety-nine of them would probably look upon the next patient
with some suspicion, and if deception was at all frequent, the really
diseased would come in time to suffer even at the hands of the most
tender and humane amongst them. I blame these "schemers" and
"impostors" therefore for much of the apparent sourness, indifference
to, and sometimes cruel neglect, if not positive aggravation of
suffering, which I have noticed in the manner and treatment of most of
the convict surgeons I have met with. I have seen the imperative
necessity that exists for periodical inspection of our convict
hospitals by competent medical men, not otherwise connected with them,
in order to protect the "innocent patients," if I may use the term,
from the indifference, mismanagement, and even punishment they are
often compelled to undergo, because of the prejudices contracted by the
prison officials, the result of a long experience perhaps of imposture
and deception. Under the present system the resident medical
superintendent has the lives of his patients at his sole disposal, and
it is a very dangerous thing for a convict patient to offend the
medical officers in any way, and of course the more so if they happen
to be of a cruel or vindictive disposition. My own case was in some
respects an instance of this. The experience I gained in the Yorkshire
prison, after I had ventured to insinuate to the doctor there that he
had not quite understood the nature of my complaint, kept my mouth
hermetically closed during the ill-concealed disagreement between the
two doctors here as to the method of my cure. The chief medical officer
at this prison was very much disliked by the majority of the patients,
particularly by the young prisoners in the early stages of consumption.
The cause of this, was supposed to be the desire to keep the hospital
well filled with patients, and to have the greater proportion of them
of the class who were content to be idle without craving for "extras."
He could thus keep the cost per head lower than the medical officers at
other prisons, and obtain the greater credit at head-quarters. Young
consumptive patients he found to be too expensive, and they were
accordingly made uncomfortable. His junior, on the other hand, although
blunt in his manner and speech, was held in general esteem. He seemed
to have his heart in the profession, and endeavoured to cure complaints
deemed curable without reference to the expense of the diet, if it
contributed to the end he had in view.
In another chapter I shall again allude to this subject, and give a
number of cases which came within the range of my own observation, to
prove the justice of some of the reflections I have made on the want of
periodical inspection of our prison hospitals. In the meantime my stump
continued to discharge matter. An abscess formed and retarded the
healing of the wounds and it was not till I discovered a cure myself
that it showed any symptoms of healing. The cure was to hold the stump
under a tap of cold water, using friction afterwards. This I continued
to do long after the wound had finally closed.