THE STRAND.
In the latter part of the summer of 1854 I was living in Soho, where I
had been engaged in general practice for some ten years, and where, by
dint of laborious attention to my profession, I had secured a
sufficiency on which to live, when I became aware that an outbreak of
Asiatic cholera might be looked for. Some suspicious cases had appeared,
when, towards the end of the month of August, there was suddenly
developed an epidemic outbreak of such virulence and extent that it
became necessary for immediate action to be taken, if this fell disease
was to be effectually dealt with. Having taken an active part for some
years previously in sundry sanitary measures, I was requested by the
parochial authorities of St. Anne's, Soho, to take charge of one of the
districts into which the parish was at once divided. During the busiest
of those very busy days, a medical friend and neighbour called on me,
and in answer to my remark that I was too busy to talk to him, replied,
"You are busy now, but you will live to regret this outbreak in Soho. It
will ruin the neighbourhood and your practice for many years to come,
for the public will believe that it is too unhealthy to live in, and ere
long you will have nothing to do."
This casual prediction was amply verified in the following year by the
death of many inhabitants, and by the removal of others. As was the case
with others in other callings, I had to commence the world afresh. When
casting about for the best course to follow, the medical officership of
the Strand Workhouse, Cleveland Street, and of the parish of St. Anne's,
Soho, fell vacant. The person who held the appointment proposed to
resign in favour of his son, and I was strongly urged to compete for it.
I elected to try my chance, and, after a severe contest, was selected.
Here I began my experiences of the sick poor, which lasted, with a very
brief interval, for thirty years. My first impressions were not very
exhilarating, and could I have foreseen all that was in store for me, I
question whether I should have applied for the appointment at all, but,
having been appointed, I resolved to try it for a time at least. The
Strand Workhouse in the year 1856 was a square four-storied building
fronting the street, with two wings of similar elevation projecting
eastwards from each corner. Across the irregularly-paved yard in the
rear was a two-storied lean-to building, with windows in the front only,
used as a day and night ward for infirm women. There were sheds on each
side for the reception of so-called male and female able-bodied people,
whilst in the yard, on each side of the entrance gate, was a two-storied
building, with an underground apartment lighted by a single window, and
with a door for the reception of male and female casual paupers; the
wards above being for those of both sexes admitted to the house.
The necessary laundry work of the establishment, which never in my time
fell below five hundred inmates, was carried on in the cellar beneath
the entrance hall and the general dining-room, whence it came to pass
that the said hall, &c., was for four days in each week filled with
steam and the odours from washing the paupers' linen. A chapel was
contrived out of one of the male infirm wards on the ground floor on
the Sunday, and utilized on that occasion for both sexes. On the left of
the entrance hall was the Board-room; the corresponding apartment on the
right, and the room above on the first floor, being the apartments of
the master and matron. On the right side of the main building was a
badly paved yard, which led down to the back entrance from Charlotte
Street; on each side of this back entrance there was--first, a
carpenter's shop and a dead-house, and secondly, opposite to it, a
tinker's shop with a forge and unceiled roof. This latter communicated
with a ward with two beds in it, used for fever and foul cases, only a
lath and plaster partition about eight feet high separating it from the
tinker's shop.
There were no paid nurses. Such nursing as we had, and continued to have
for the first nine years I was there, was performed by more or less
infirm paupers, with the occasional aid of some strong young woman who
had been admitted temporarily and was on pass. Unfortunately it
frequently happened that just as she was becoming useful she left, and
there was nothing for it but to fall back upon the ordinary broken-down
inmates, the selection of whom did not rest with me, but with the master
or the matron, or both.
Just outside the male wards of the House, at the upper end of the yard,
there were two upright posts and a cross-bar. On this bar were suspended
the carpets taken in to beat by the so-called able-bodied inmates, from
whose labour the Guardians derived a clear income of £400 a year. In
despite of the continued noise and dust caused by this beating, the
Guardians persisted in carrying it on for ten of the twelve years that I
was there. The noise was so great that it effectually deprived the sick
of all chance of sleep, whilst the dust was so thick that to open the
windows was entirely out of the question until the day's work was over.
I attempted repeatedly to get this nuisance done away with, but so
fierce was the antagonism of the majority of the Board that I had to
abandon it.
The male insane ward, used also for epileptics and imbeciles, was on the
right wing above the male casual and reception ward. To reach it you had
to go up some four steps; it was absurdly unsuitable for such cases, and
when I had lunatic and imbecile there together I was always in dread
lest some horrid catastrophe might happen. One case of an epileptic was
to me the cause of much anxiety, for he was wholly unaware when his fits
were coming on. When a seizure occurred he always sprang up and then
dashed himself to the ground on his forehead and face. He contrived by
these means to smash his nose, make dreadfully disfiguring wounds on his
forehead and face, and from a good-looking, became a perfectly
repulsive-looking person. Poor fellow! I tried all sorts of expedients
to prevent his doing himself any further injury, but though he
constantly wore a stuffed helmet, he sometimes managed to injure
himself. I got him away at last, but I had two or three years of him,
during which time I had a very extensive surgical experience from his
case alone. I was constantly stitching up his wounds.
The female insane ward was a rather large room, and was situated over
the Board-room. As we always had the place full the space was desirable
or necessary. It was immediately beneath the lying-in ward. When we had
a troublesome or noisy lunatic in the ward, it must have been anything
but a comfort to the lying-in women above, but then neither their
interests, nor the feelings of any of the other inmates, were at that
time officially considered by the Guardians, by the Poor Law Inspectors,
nor by any one else. To be allowed to remain in the House and get waited
on somehow was all that was looked for by these truly wretched women.
The master of the House, a certain George Catch, since deceased, had
been a common policeman in Clare Market, where he had made himself
useful to the Chairman of the Board, who was the proprietor of an
_à-la-mode_ beef shop in that locality. Through this Chairman's
influence he became the porter of the Workhouse, and the master falling
sick, he had performed his duty for him. The illness ending fatally,
through the same influence Catch was promoted to the vacant office,
though, at the time I first knew him, he was so ignorant that he could
only write his name with difficulty. He was single on his appointment,
but an alliance with the late master's niece, who had acted as matron
for some time, was talked about on my taking office. As this official,
Mr. G. Catch, appointed with the sanction of Mr. H. Fleming, some time
Permanent Secretary of the Poor Law Board, played an important part in
bringing the Department into deserved contempt, I must hereafter again
refer to him.
On the morning of my entering on my duties I went over the sick ward
with the son of my predecessor. My curiosity was excited by sundry
ill-shaped bottles, all of which contained the same description of
so-called medicine. The salary did not admit of an extensive variety of
medical necessaries, as it was only fifty pounds a year, out of which
all drugs were to be found. It is true that this stipend was
supplemented by an occasional fee from attendance on parturient women,
in cases where difficulty or danger arose, or in any illness which took
place prior to the ninth day after the confinement. That fee was limited
to twenty shillings only. The decision as to the necessity for such
attendance was vested in the midwife or matron, and until that was given
the medical officer was interdicted from entering the lying-in wards.
This regulation was in direct contravention of the Poor Law Regulations,
but then the Department were very unwilling at that time to interfere
with the so-called discretion of the Guardians, however much their
regulations were disregarded.
I have stated that the Chairman of the Board was the proprietor of an
_à-la-mode_ beef shop. During my first year of office this dignitary
would often come to the House on Sunday morning dressed in the dirty,
greasy jacket in which he had been serving _à-la-mode_ beef the night
before, and unshaven and unshorn, he would go into the chapel with the
pauper inmates, and afterwards go to the Board-room, and have breakfast
with the master and matron. Of course, between the three, there was an
excellent understanding, and during this Chairman's reign all
alterations for the better were resisted.
I have before stated that all my nurses were pauper inmates. The
responsible duties they had to perform were remunerated by an amended
dietary and a pint of beer. Occasionally for laying out the dead, and
for other specially repulsive duties, they had a glass of gin. This was
given by the master or matron, but I was expected to sanction the
supply.
I have referred to the ward used for foul cases, which was in immediate
proximity to the tinker's shop. It was altogether unsuitable for the
reception of any human being, however degraded he might be; but it had
to be used. I remember a poor wretch being admitted with frost-bitten
feet, which speedily mortified, rendering the atmosphere of the ward and
shop frightfully offensive. At first I was at a loss to know whom to get
to go through the offensive duty of waiting on him. At last a little
fellow, called Wiseman, undertook the task, the bribe being two pints of
beer and some gin daily, with steaks or chops for dinner. Presently the
patient was seized with tetanus, and after the most fearful sufferings
died. He was followed almost immediately afterwards by poor Wiseman, who
had contracted from his patient one of the most malignant forms of blood
poisoning that I ever saw.
These two successive deaths took place whilst the tinker was plying his
business on the other side of the partition which separated this ward
from his smithy. This place was an utter disgrace to the Board, but they
never attempted to alter it whilst I was there.
I have referred also to the nursery ward. This place was situated on the
third floor, opposite to the lying-in ward. It was a wretchedly damp and
miserable room, nearly always overcrowded with young mothers and their
infant children. That death relieved these young women of their
illegitimate offspring was only what was to be expected, and that
frequently the mothers followed in the same direction was only too true.
I used to dread to go into this ward, it was so depressing. Scores and
scores of distinctly preventible deaths of both mothers and children
took place during my continuance in office through their being located
in this horrible den.
It frequently happened that some casual was admitted with her child, or
children, to the room below the female receiving ward. On my visiting
the House next day I would find that her child had got an attack of
measles and could not go out; and in spite of my sending the mother and
child to the children's infectious ward above, measles always broke out
in the nursery some eleven days after, and I have had as many as twenty
down with it at a time. I will not horrify my readers by stating the
proportion of deaths to recoveries, but content myself with stating that
the latter were very few.
What made these continuous outbreaks so vexatious was this, that I had
laid down the most stringent regulations as regards isolation and
disinfection; but unfortunately my orders could only be given to pauper
women. I had no other persons to act with, and with that habitual
carelessness which had led to their becoming paupers, they only in
exceptional instances paid any attention to what I said.
Now and then a decent widow with an infant came in, and became an inmate
of the nursery ward, there being no other place for her to go to. What
her feelings must have been when forced into day and night companionship
with some of the most abandoned of her own sex in this miserable
Gehenna, I will not attempt to portray, and yet the majority of the
Board looked upon this den as a perfect paradise, and looked on me as an
irreconcilable fellow for troubling them with my complaints respecting
it.
I had not been the medical officer for many months before I found that
my pauper nurses were frequently under the influence of drink, and that,
too, in the forenoon. On inquiring, I heard to my surprise that the
master was in the habit of giving out the stimulants at 7 a.m., and, as
many of the inmates sold their allowance, the nurses had become partly
or wholly intoxicated when I reached the House in the morning.
My first request to the master was that some other time should be
selected for the issue of stimulants. Such request was angrily refused,
and it was not until I had appealed to the Board that I succeeded in
effecting an alteration, but my success made the master, henceforward,
my determined foe.
As I have stated, the medical officer's salary was intended to cover the
provision of medicine. The Guardians, however, had supplied my
predecessor with linseed-meal and mustard, but finding that I had a
great many consumptive and bronchitic patients, I was induced to apply
to the Guardians for some linseed, to enable me to give the patients
some linseed tea. Now there was one nurse in the female sick ward, by
name Charlotte Massingham, who had been in supreme authority there some
years. She was nearly always muddled; to work with her was impossible;
Charlotte invariably treated me with supreme indifference, not
unmingled with undisguised contempt. I had introduced new-fangled
notions, would have my medicines correctly given, and the patients well
attended to. On hearing that my application for the linseed had met with
success, I went up to the Workhouse. On going into the female sick ward
I told Charlotte of my having gained the assent of the Board, when,
suddenly springing up at least a foot, she came down slapping both
sides, with her arms on to the ground, with the startling observation,
"My God! linseed tea in a workhouse!" Charlotte's reign, however, was
not of long continuance after this; she died, worn out by the effects of
habitual intemperance. I heard, after she was dead, and the inmates were
free to speak, that she systematically stole the wine and brandy from
the sick.
It was obvious that one of the first points to secure was the removal of
the laundry before referred to, situated in the cellar beneath the
dining hall. The Guardians having assented to my suggestions, a contract
was entered into with the builder to put up a laundry in the back yard.
The structure was to cost some £400. On proceeding to dig out the
foundation, the workmen came on a number of skeletons, the yard having
been originally the poor burial ground of St. Paul's, Covent Garden,
for which parish the Workhouse, &c., had been built, and had been rented
by the Guardians from that parish when the Strand Union was formed. So
full was this yard of human remains, that the contractor was compelled
to go down twenty feet all round, before a foundation for the laundry
could be obtained. In making this huge trench, they disinterred the
remains of the poor Italian boy, murdered by Bishop and Williams, whose
murder was discovered by the late Mr. Partridge of King's College
Hospital, to whom Bishop and Williams had sold their victim for
anatomical purposes. Similar murders of the same kind in Edinburgh, led
to the passing of the Anatomy Act, and to the suppression of the
practice of body-snatching by the abandoned wretches who formerly
supplied Schools of Anatomy with subjects.
My next endeavour was an enlargement of the cellar at each wing so as to
secure better accommodation for the reception of casual poor, and
increased space for sick children and others. This was accomplished by
nearly re-building the wings. Unfortunately these suggestions rendered
me extremely unpopular with many of the Guardians, and delayed for some
two years any increase of my wretched stipend, which would otherwise
have been granted, if I could have remained a passive observer of that
which I saw around me. But worse was in store.
My first serious quarrel with the Board happened thus. Many of the young
women who came in to be confined, came under treatment afterwards,
suffering from extreme exhaustion, and some were hopelessly consumptive.
On making inquiry, I found that the practice in the lying-in ward was to
keep the single women on a dietary of gruel for nine days, and then, at
the end of a fortnight, to dismiss them to the nursery ward on House
diet, with their children. Assuming, as I had a perfect right to do,
that this dietary had emanated from an order of the Poor Law Board, I
wrote to the Department telling what I had observed, and asking that
Board's permission to introduce a more generous system. My communication
was sent to the Guardians, and I was informed in a letter from the Board
at Whitehall that it rested with me exclusively to order whatever form
of dietary I chose, a power which I did not hesitate to use. The Board
of Guardians condemned my conduct in writing to the Poor Law Board, in
the strongest possible terms, and the use I had made of the power vested
in me. The course taken by me was held to be in the highest degree
reprehensible, as it traversed the deliberate action of the Guardians,
who had established the starvation dietary for single parturient women,
as a deterrent against the use of the Workhouse as a place in which to
be confined. As the number of fresh admissions went on increasing, and I
had not sufficient accommodation, I recommended that the side wings
should be enlarged by carrying the building up a storey higher. This was
done, and the pressure put on the accommodation was met for a time, but
all these suggestions increased my unpopularity with certain of the
Board, who condemned me for the expense I was putting them to. About
this time the annoyance and obstruction I met with from the master and
matron compelled me to apply to the Inspector for support. He came to
the House to make inquiry, but so large a number of the Guardians
attended to support the master, that after a few questions had been put,
he closed the inquiry. Some years after he expressed to me his regret
that at that time he could not see his way to aid me.
At the end of the first year some business took me to Scotland. The
Board sanctioned my absence, and gave their approval of the gentleman
who was to act as my substitute. On my return journey by the night
train, on getting out at Peterborough at 6 a.m. to get some coffee, I
was surprised to see the master of the Workhouse and the clerk of the
Board standing on the platform. On reaching King's Cross I remained in
the carriage till all the passengers had alighted and had passed me. I
was in doubt whether I had been deceived, but I had not been, for
presently the pair passed the carriage, each carrying a small bag. About
ten days after, a letter was sent from the Board, asking for an
explanation of an alleged neglect of a sick person in the House. I
forthwith called on my substitute and showed him the letter. He denied
in the most positive terms the allegation of neglect. On visiting the
House, no information could be gained from any one, but it occurred to
me on leaving to ask the porter whether he could throw any light on the
matter. After reading the clerk's letter he made the remark, "Why, Catch
was not in the House at the time he alleges the neglect took place, for
he and the clerk went down to Peterborough from the Thursday to the
Monday morning, to be entertained by the contractor who put up the
laundry boiler." In my defence, I stated this to the Board, when great
was the indignation expressed by some of the Guardians; first, at his
false charge of neglect, and secondly, that he and the clerk should have
gone away without leave, and for their being entertained by the
contractor.
The exposure of course intensified this master's hostility, in which his
friend the clerk cordially cooperated. The consequence to me was that I
was continually sent for on most frivolous pretences. The messenger
would come to my house and say, "You are wanted at Cleveland Street;" if
I asked for what, he was studiously ignorant. If I went, or if I sent my
assistant, Catch would keep us waiting in the hall until it suited his
humour to come out to me, when in a loud voice he would say, "You are
wanted in such and such a ward." Hard as this was to bear with from this
ignorant and incompetent official, I put up with it for a time, but at
last I again called on the Poor Law Inspector, and asked him his advice,
when he informed me that the master was bound to send a written order,
stating the name of the sick person, &c. On my having intimated to him
that I should not again notice his calls unless this requirement was
complied with, the annoyance was stopped--nearly all of these second
visits having been wholly unnecessary, and arranged with the view of
wearing me out.
I have stated that, unless called on, either by the midwife, matron, or
master, to visit a woman recently confined, I was debarred from
attendance on her, and could not claim any fee. The master and clerk
arranged that no order should be given until nine days had elapsed, when
it was held that I was bound to take charge of the woman as in an
ordinary case of illness. This calling one in on the morning of the
tenth day was so frequently done that I saw that the thing was arranged,
especially as I learned on inquiry that the woman had been ill for some
days, and had asked that I should be sent for. I thereupon took on
myself to visit the ward daily, and to judge for myself as to the
necessity for my attendance. Some half-dozen of these cases occurred
within three months. On sending notice to the clerk that I had visited
such and such a case, I received the reply: "I have made inquiries and
find that you attended without getting the necessary authority." This I
afterwards learned was done without any authority from the Board. I
therefore decided that I would give up going into this ward for the
future.
Some time after, and in pursuance of this man's policy of annoyance, a
case occurred just as I expected, which enabled me to get rid of him. On
going to the House one morning, the porter told me there was a woman ill
in the lying-in ward. On going into my room the pauper attendant came
and asked me to go to this ward. To the inquiry, "Who sent you?" "No
one," she replied. I then said, "Go to the matron, or if you cannot find
her, to the master, state that the woman is very ill, and bring me the
authority to visit her." She went away. Some half-hour after, I went by
the ward door, and heard this poor wretch's cries for assistance, but I
did not visit her. Again the attendant came to me and implored me to go
up. I asked, "Have you seen the master or matron?" "Yes," she said.
"What did they say to you?" "Why, they only laughed." I again declined
to visit the ward. Shortly after I left the House. I had hardly passed
the gate when the master rushed into the hall and inquired whether I had
left; on hearing I had done so, he said in a loud voice, "I have caught
that damned doctor at last," and directed the porter to go for the
nearest medical man. Some gentleman came and attended to her, and the
bill, and a garbled statement of the facts, was sent by Catch to the
Board. I was ordered to attend their next meeting and explain my
conduct. I requested the attendance of the porter and of the pauper
nurse at the Board's meeting. Catch gave his version of the story. When
called on for my explanation, I narrated the course adopted by the
master, the matron, and the clerk, and pointed out to the Guardians the
evident intention of all three to prevent me being paid any fee; that in
the case in question I had asked for an authority to visit the woman;
that, although both of these officers knew of the poor woman's
condition, they had maliciously allowed her to remain without proper
attendance, and would not give any order, so that I should not be paid a
fee. The defence was so complete, and so completely turned the tables on
all three, that a severe censure was passed on the master and matron for
their inhumanity, and a hint was given that they had better look out for
some other appointment. This they did, and a vacancy for a master and
matron having taken place at Newington Workhouse, Mr. and Mrs. Catch
applied for the post, and, to the delight of all the inmates and
officers of the Strand Workhouse, were selected. So intensely tyrannical
and cruel had been the rule of this man, that the day he resigned the
keys, and was leaving the House, the whole establishment--at least, all
those who could leave their beds--rose in open rebellion, and with old
kettles, shovels, penny trumpets, celebrated their departure from the
premises. The incoming master subsequently told me that he had never
witnessed anything like it in his life, and that the row was so general
and spontaneous, that he was powerless to check it. Mr. Catch's
subsequent career did not disappoint the expectations of those who were
cognizant of his utter unfitness for so responsible a post. I shall
refer to him again in a subsequent part of this narrative.
Before I had been long in office, I became aware that there was a
benevolent agency at work, conducted by some Christian ladies, whose
mission it was to visit the wards, read to the sick and infirm, and
generally to help them in the effort they might make in re-establishing
themselves. At the head of this movement was Miss Louisa Twining, who
has devoted years of her busy life to the amelioration of the lot of the
workhouse sick; Lady Alderson, the widow of the late judge, her
daughter, Miss Louisa; and, though last, by no means the least, Miss
Augusta Clifford, were associated in this good work. It was to Miss
Twining's initiative that the abolition of the system of entrusting the
care of the sick poor to the numberless Sairey Gamps and Betsy Prigs was
mainly due; but she did not succeed in her laudable efforts until after
several years of incessant appeal to the Guardians of the Poor and the
Poor Law Board. Ultimately her demand was conceded in deference to
outraged public opinion.
The efforts of Miss Clifford demand a special reference here. Very
early in my official life she called on me and volunteered to help any
deserving case brought to her notice. Over and over again did she put
her hand in her pocket, and give money to inmates of her own sex, whose
cases I called attention to. At last her good doing attracted the notice
of the Board, who passed a very eulogistic resolution, in which they
thanked her for her great kindness to their sick.
Here let me remark that, although the majority of the Strand Board were
wholly unfitted for any administrative duties, yet it would be
ungrateful not to state that there were several kindly-disposed persons
among them. They were generally, however, outvoted, though occasionally
their suggestions for a milder and more generous _régime_ prevailed.
Catch had hardly left the house when it was proposed to increase my
stipend, at first to £75, ultimately to £100 a year; and I was also
entrusted by the Board with the duty of certifying as to the lunacy of
the inmates who were admittedly insane.
This office had been filled for many years by a Dr. Beaman, of Henrietta
Street, Covent Garden, in deference to a view recently revived by the
present Lord Chancellor, in his hitherto abortive attempts to amend the
Lunacy Laws, and was to the effect that it would be hazardous to entrust
such a duty to the Workhouse medical officer, as he might be tempted to
eke out his salary by certifying that healthy persons were mentally
affected, so as to secure a fee. The injustice implied in this
gratuitous imputation, having been brought before one of the Presidents
of the Poor Law Board, he was induced to get the prohibition removed,
and one of the results was that my friends at the Board carried a
resolution that in future I should be the examining official, as I had
all the trouble of the case, whilst a stranger pocketed the fee. Dr.
Beaman was much annoyed at this; and as the relieving officer, who was a
friend of Beaman's, persisted in sending all cases to Dr. Beaman, a
collision was inevitable. A short while after, a lad was brought by the
police, found wandering at large. I diagnosed that he was a homicidal
lunatic, and that it was necessary that he should be sent away. The
relieving officer having called in Dr. Beaman, he visited the House,
examined the lad, and took him down to Bow Street, and deposed before
the magistrate that he was of sound mind. He would have been discharged,
but the police having testified to the very questionable condition in
which he was on coming into their hands, the presiding magistrate
directed that he should go back to the House for further observation.
This was done, and I again saw and examined him, and gave a fresh
certificate of his insanity. Dr. Beaman was again requested to attend;
he, however, sent his partner, who also decided that the lad was not
insane. He was again taken before a magistrate, with the result that he
was ordered to be discharged. Thereupon Dr. Beaman wrote to the Poor Law
Board complaining of the action of the Guardians in appointing an
inexperienced young man as the examining medical officer, and stating
that neither he nor his partner could discover any evidence of insanity
in the case in question. A copy of this letter was sent to the
Guardians, who directed the clerk to write to me for an explanation of
my conduct. I was satisfied that I was right, but I had a great deal of
trouble in tracing what had become of the boy. Ultimately I found his
father, who informed me that the day he was discharged he came home and
sat down to his dinner; after the meal was over, the father resumed his
work, that of shoe mending, when his son, without saying a word, struck
him a severe blow on the head with a hammer. The aid of the neighbours
and of the police was invoked, and after a desperate struggle he was
overpowered, handcuffed, taken before a magistrate, who sent him to
Marylebone Workhouse, from which establishment he had been sent to
Hanwell, where he had been some days.
I sent a copy of my reply to the Guardians to the Poor Law Board. My
judgment was never again called in question in cases of lunacy. I found
this part of my duty an agreeable episode in my daily routine of all but
thankless work. I also made the acquaintance of Sir Thomas Henry, Mr.
Flowers, and Mr. Vaughan, and from all these magistrates received the
greatest courtesy.
Before I had long held office my attention was drawn to the marvellous
zeal displayed by the Catholic priests, who, although unpaid, were
untiring in their attendance on the sick poor of their persuasion, a
large number of whom were always in the House. A somewhat ludicrous
incident occurred about this time. There was a very old woman in the
infirm ward, across the yard. She was stated to be ninety-five; she had
been blind from childhood, and the balls of both eyes were gone, leaving
nearly empty sockets. Although life under such circumstances was not
very attractive, I never met with any one who so strongly objected to
dying. She was constantly sending for me to prescribe for her imaginary
ailments. One very cold night, when the snow was on the ground, and it
was blowing strongly from the north-east, at about 11.30 my night-bell
was rung violently. I had not gone to bed, and therefore answered the
door, when I found a young Irishwoman, cowering in the recess of the
doorway. On asking what she wanted, she replied, "Oh, if you please,
sir, the Father has sent me over to ask whether Bridget Gaines is dying,
as a messenger has just come from the House saying Bridget is going, and
requesting the Father to go there at once. Now the Father has a bad
cold, and his feet are in hot water, and he has a poultice on his chest,
and he is afraid to go out as the night is so cold." I laughingly told
her to go back and tell the Father that I thought Bridget was not near
her end yet. On the following morning the priest called on me. He was
very anxious about Bridget, and earnestly asked whether I had heard from
the House. I told him there was no need for anxiety, when, in a
deprecatory tone of voice, he said, "I should have gone after all, but
Bridget has been very tiresome. Do you know," he said, "Bridget has had
extreme unction administered nineteen times." I saw Bridget that
morning, she was much in her usual condition; she lived a long time
afterwards, and probably was anointed on a great many subsequent
occasions.
I was constantly encountering odd stories and odd people--many of them
profligates who had seen better days. One person in particular attracted
my attention, as he had evidently been a gentleman; indeed, he assured
me that he had once a large estate in Yorkshire, and was Master of the
Hounds. I had no reason to doubt him. He did not live very long after
his admission to the sick ward. After his death I received from five
different solicitors written requests for a copy of my death
certificate. It was accompanied in each case by a fee of a guinea. This
poor fellow had insured his life in five different offices, and had sold
the policies. It will be seen that I shared in the pecuniary advantages
that sprang from his death.
The immediate successor of Mr. and Mrs. Catch did not stay very long.
The matron's health broke down, and she had to resign. They were
followed by Mr. and Mrs. Thorne, who remained master and matron until
the death of the former some years afterwards. Mr. Thorne was a
kind-hearted person, who had filled a position of responsibility in the
parish of Marylebone; whilst Mrs. Thorne was a well-educated, ladylike
woman. They managed the House well, and treated the inmates with
kindness and consideration, but do as they would they could not alter
the structural deficiencies of the building, make it larger, nor prevent
the fearful over-crowding with its disastrous results, nor improve upon
the wretched system of pauper nursing, which was the curse of that and
all similar institutions, and which the powers that were in those days
at Whitehall made no genuine effort to change.
Shortly after the collapse of his friend Catch, the proprietor of the
_à-la-mode_ beef shop ceased to be a Guardian, and a wholesale
fruit-dealer in Covent Garden reigned in his stead. He was a far less
satisfactory Chairman than his predecessor, as all thoughts, words, and
deeds were actuated by the consideration of his personal and private
interests, as will be shown by the following, among other instances that
could be related. One of the earliest things very properly done by the
new master was to find out the previous occupation of those who had come
in sick, and to utilize them, when recovered, in the trade they had
followed, for the improvement of the House. One day a middle-aged man
came in very ill. He had evidently seen better days; in fact, he turned
out to have been a highly-skilled decorator, especially in the
representation of marble and in graining. As soon as he was well enough
the master set him to work to decorate the entrance hall. This he did
most admirably, and his work was much admired by the Guardians, and by
visitors to the House. This employment coming to an end he was allowed,
as a reward for his industry, to go in and out, ostensibly to look for
work. I used frequently to meet this man on my daily visits. As he
continued to go out in this manner, I one day stopped him and asked
whether he had been successful in finding a job. His reply, in the
negative, was accompanied by a look so significant, that I was induced
to push my inquiries, when he told me that he was occupied in decorating
the Chairman's house, and he had been engaged at it for some three
weeks. To the further inquiry, "What have you got there?" pointing to a
bag he was carrying, he replied, "That is my dinner, which I always take
with me, from the House." "Oh, then," I said, "the Chairman does not
find you your dinner even; does he give you any beer or any money?" He
replied, "I have been working there all day long for the last three
weeks, and he has never given me anything." As he shortly after
disappeared, I made an inquiry as to what had become of him, when I
learned that he had suddenly left the work he was doing for the
Chairman, and gone off and drowned himself. This Chairman did not long
continue to act as such, as some months after this he died suddenly of
heart disease, the only evidence he had ever afforded that he possessed
one. Having occasion just at that time to go to the Poor Law Board, I
was waiting in an office for the gentleman I went to see, when one of
the junior officials said to me, "You have lost your Chairman." "Yes," I
replied, "but I do not feel his loss very acutely;" on which he said,
"It is customary for the clerk of the Board to write and apprise us of
the death of the Chairman, and we always send a sympathetic letter in
reply. On the clerk's letter being read the question was asked, 'Should
the usual reply be sent?' The official reply was grim enough: 'Write and
say that we are delighted to hear it.'"
The successor in the Chair was very friendly disposed towards me, and
remained so until after the official inquiry in 1866, when, having
attended to hear the evidence that was given, and having made himself
conspicuous by some irrelevant interruptions, he brought down on himself
the criticism of the Press, which he most absurdly attributed to me, and
resented by becoming a most determined opponent ever afterwards.
About this time a Select Committee of the House of Commons was
appointed to take into consideration the administration of the Poor
Laws, and to decide as to the desirability or otherwise of the
maintenance of the Central Department. In conjunction with my friend,
the late R. Griffin, of Weymouth, who distinguished himself so much by
an advocacy of an amended system of medical relief, and the late Dr. R.
Fowler, of Bishopsgate Street, I volunteered to give evidence before the
Committee. Some time after, being asked by the late Metropolitan
Inspector, H. B. Farnall, Esq., C.B., to call upon him at the Poor Law
Board, I did so. "I hear," said he, "that you have asked to give
evidence before the Select Committee; pray, what are you going to
state?" "Nothing," I replied, "that bears on my personal position as a
Poor Law medical officer, except so far as I may support my views by
reference to my personal knowledge. I shall give evidence for the
purpose of urging on the Committee the desirability of abolishing the
system, whereby Boards of Guardians for a stipulated sum, often wholly
inadequate, bargain with medical men to find all medicines and
appliances, because the inevitable outcome of the system is this--that
the poor do not get the medicines they require. I feel that the sick of
the Strand Union got very little in the way of medicine before I was
appointed, and the provision of such medicines was to me in every sense
a pecuniary loss, until the Guardians quite recently increased my
stipend so as to make the strain less felt."
He at once assured me that he would do his best to put my views before
the Chairman, C. P. Villiers, M.P. for Wolverhampton. I did not at that
time know Mr. Villiers personally, except by repute, but I came to know
him some years later. Mr. Farnall then proposed to put some questions to
me and take down the answers. This he did, and as each question was put
I replied briefly, giving my reasons for my suggestion. I had to be
guarded in my answers, as I was not desirous of bringing the charge
against my medical brethren that they systematically failed to supply
medicines for the sick, though very many have with more or less
questionable candour said to me, "Why do you bother about the supply of
medicines? Go in and get for us an increase of our pay."
After Mr. Farnall had put me to the question, he shook me very warmly by
the hand, promising that as far as I was concerned the views I held
should be brought prominently forward.
Some time after I received a notice to attend, when I found Mr. Richard
Griffin and Dr. Fowler in the room. Griffin had come there with evidence
that would have taken a month to take down. Fowler was not so diffuse, a
couple of days would have got through what he had to say. Appalled by
the vast body of evidence offered by these two, the Committee ordered
the room to be cleared; on our re-admission we learned that the
Committee had decided that Mr. Griffin and Dr. Fowler should put in
their evidence, which should be taken as if delivered. I was then called
on. I had neither note nor paper, as I relied on Mr. Farnall's promise.
The questions were mainly put by Mr. Villiers. I amplified briefly the
views I had expressed to Mr. Farnall. This led to my being asked for
some additional explanations, which I supplied. Ultimately I was
dismissed, but not before I had convinced myself that my day's work had
not been thrown away. Poor Richard Griffin had worked for many years
with wonderful industry to call attention to the grievances of Poor Law
medical officers, and thought he should succeed. But he was destined to
fail, for although the Committee had allowed him to put in his evidence,
yet the facts he had collected with so much pains were successfully
traversed by Mr. R. B. Caine, Poor Law Inspector, who by certain
statistics made out to the Committee's satisfaction that medical men had
no great cause for complaint. Poor Fowler's evidence was similarly
snuffed out; as regards mine, the Committee reported in its favour, but
not as to the whole of it. They probably dreaded the cost to the various
Union Boards of the provision of all medicines, but they suggested a
compromise, to wit, that Boards of Guardians should be required to
supply expensive medicines, such as cod liver oil, quinine, opium, &c.
Small as the concession was, Mr. H. Fleming delayed the issue of the
Committee's recommendation for fifteen months after it had been made,
and then sent out a letter couched in such official language that a
great many Boards contented themselves with ordering the letter to lie
on the table. Some years after, I asked Dr. Lush, M.P. for Salisbury, to
move for a copy of the Board's letter and a return of what had been
done. I found from that return that about half of those bodies had not
noticed the letter at all. Subsequently, twenty years after the issue of
the letter, my brother, Thorold Rogers, moved for a similar return, only
to show that there were still several Boards where nothing whatever was
supplied.
When the letter was read at the Strand Board, a suggestion was made
that I should be offered an increase of my stipend and be required to
purchase the medicines myself. This I declined. Ultimately it was
arranged that I should be allowed to order drugs of a wholesale chemist,
but only to the extent of £27 a year: anything beyond that I was
expected to pay for myself.
About this time (1862) the matron informed me that on the previous day a
very aged woman had been admitted, and that she had sent her to the
infirm ward across the yard. On looking at the order I found it was
stated that she was 104. I went to see her. She was undeniably of great
age, but she still retained her faculties and conversed with me for some
time. She told me that she had lived in Chancery Lane between fifty and
sixty years, and was forty-five years old when she went there to live.
She also told me that she went down the Lane to see Nelson's funeral
procession go by, that her children and her grandchildren were dead, and
that she had been looked after lately by her great grandchildren, who
had grown tired of waiting on her, and that was why she had come into
the House. Her eyes were blue and complexion fair. She did not live long
after her admission, the change from her own airy room to the close and
at times fetid atmosphere of this overcrowded ward was too much for her
aged frame. She passed away quietly, and I remember filling up a death
certificate for 105 years.
One day, I was informed that a very distressing case had been passed
from Canterbury. It was a young woman about twenty-four. She had one
child, and was about to be confined again. It would appear that she had
married a coach-builder, who was born in St. Paul's, Covent Garden. She
told me that he was a very good, quiet man, when sober, and had been
very kind and good to her, but that when he took anything to drink he
became as one insane, and in one of his drunken fits he had knocked a
man down and killed him; that he had been tried and found guilty of
murder, and was then lying under sentence of death. I also learned that
the Guardians of Canterbury had passed her on to us, away from all her
friends. The poor creature was simply broken-hearted. She had a very bad
confinement, and remained long sick and ill. When she got better she
made an application to the Strand Board for outdoor relief. She was told
to come before the Board at the next meeting in Bow Street. It was
unfortunately a very wet night, and being thinly clad, she got wet
through, and sat in her wet clothes two hours. She also got wet on her
return journey. That night she was seized with inflammation of the
lungs, and remained for many weeks in the greatest jeopardy. Ultimately,
she got better, when I sent her to a Convalescent Home in Hertfordshire.
She was so patient and grateful that I wrote an account of her sad
story, which was published in _The Morning Star_. It evoked donations
amounting to £25. After buying her some additional clothing, I paid her
journey for self and child to Canterbury (the baby had died), handing
her as she went away some £20. The Board, at my request, allowed her
outdoor relief for a twelvemonth. Some years after, I happened to be in
Canterbury, when I found her out. She had been in the same situation
some seven years. She had supported herself and child, and had no
occasion to spend the money I had collected for her; altogether she
fully bore out the opinion I had formed of her. The reason why the
Guardian Board had acted so harshly to this young woman was this: If
they had allowed her to remain in their workhouse until after the
execution of her husband, as a widow they could not have removed her for
a twelvemonth; they therefore sent her away at once to avoid this
dilemma.
About two years after Mr. Catch's departure, I was surprised by a visit
from the medical officer of the Newington Workhouse. He told me that he
had called to ask me whether I could advise him what he was to do; that
Catch obstructed him in his duty, swore at him, and refused to obey his
orders. I told him to go down to the Poor Law Board, but that they might
or might not assist him. Unfortunately, at that time, Mr. Farnall was
away in Manchester, superintending the special relief arrangements in
Lancashire with regard to the Cotton Famine, and there was no one at the
Board who could or would advise him. He called on me on several
occasions subsequently to tell me of the misery he daily underwent. On
one occasion I told him to write down in a journal all instances of
obstruction, and if possible get every case verified by a witness.
Sooner or later you will catch him, I said. He followed my advice. One
day he came to me and told me he thought he had got together sufficient
evidence, and should now ask for an official inquiry. Mr. Farnall, one
of the most honourable Poor Law Inspectors the Board ever had, had just
then come back to town. I got some influence to bear on the Board, and
an inquiry was granted. It lasted some time, and Mr. Simmonds proved the
obstruction, &c., so completely, that on the last day, and when it was
evident how the case would go, Catch followed the doctor and paid nurse
out of the Board-room. They stopped in one of the day wards to discuss
the case and its probable results, when Catch went to his office and
wrote in his journal that he had surprised the pair holding improper
relations. This charge coming to the knowledge of the nurse, who was a
respectable young woman, she went at once to the physician accoucheur of
Guy's Hospital and requested that he would examine her. This he did,
when he gave her a certificate that Catch's allegation was untrue. A
special meeting of the Board having been called to investigate this
charge, it was made absolutely clear that Catch had hatched this foul
accusation. The Board immediately suspended him. The circumstances were
reported to the Poor Law Board, who called on him to resign. It will
hardly be believed that after this, Catch, mainly through the influence
of his friends at the Strand Board and the aid of the clerk, got
appointed to the Lambeth Workhouse, where for some time he tyrannized
over the subordinate officers and inmates, until at last, his cup being
full, he lost that appointment also. Hereafter I will give the
particulars of this episode, and of the notable trial in the Court of
Queen's Bench, where he attempted to clear his character and to get
reinstated.
For five or six years after the departure of Mr. Catch my life was a
fairly pleasant one. There was no obstruction from the master or the
matron, and as there was nothing to ask of the Board things went on
quietly, and therefore the daily duty ceased to be onerous added to
which I had several pupils whose instruction in the wards was to me a
very agreeable pastime. Here let me remark how melancholy it is that the
vast field for clinical observation and study which the sick, nursery,
and lying-in wards of large urban workhouses afford, should be utterly
thrown away. There are certain diseases which can hardly be seen
anywhere else, such as of those of young children and of aged persons,
and yet they are completely ignored.
I have said that for a time everything went on peacefully, but a rude
awakening was in store, for about the years 1862-1865, in consequence of
widespread distress in the metropolis, persons were admitted beyond the
capacity of the House to hold them. This necessitated a representation
to the Board, and, as a consequence, a revival of the antagonism from
the so-called economical members of the Board, who charged me with being
too squeamish, and with having brought the influx on myself by being
too indulgent to the sick. The hostility went so far with one Guardian
who considered me so very troublesome that he put a notice on the agenda
to reduce my salary. This was renewed by him from time to time, indeed,
whenever I made a representation to the Board on this subject.
That there was abundant cause for such representations will be
understood when it is stated that, in consequence of the overcrowding
and the heated and vitiated atmosphere caused thereby, cases of fever
induced therefrom were constantly cropping up, and it was one of my
perplexities how to deal with them. In those days there were no such
facilities as now exist for sending fever cases away to separate
asylums, and we had to do the best we could.
Having, in 1863, had a succession of boys affected with fever sent in
from St. Anne's, Soho, I inquired of the relieving officer from where
they came, whereupon he informed me that a Mr. Williams, a clergyman in
Porter Street, Soho, had opened a home for friendless boys. On
interviewing this clergyman, I told him that I had called to protest
against his sending these fever cases to the Workhouse, there being no
room for them. He replied by asking me what he was to do with them, as
at that time he had some four or five boys down with fever; and then he
took me into an old, disused slaughter-house, where, on some straw, I
saw these lads lying ill. Before leaving him I arranged that he should
go over the House and see for himself that there were no vacant beds. On
the morning appointed he came, bringing with him a person whom he
represented to be his secretary, and who he asked to be allowed to take
with him. No objection being made, he accompanied us. I was somewhat
surprised at the bearing of this so-called secretary, and still more so
at his conduct in the House, when we went through the wards. I thought
he was a very intelligent gentleman, and wondered at him occupying the
position of secretary to Mr. Williams, at say, £1 a week. I satisfied
Mr. Williams that I could not continue to take in his numerous waifs and
strays, and on leaving, his companion parted from me with many
expressions of thanks for my courtesy in allowing him to accompany me. I
had not the least idea who he was, or his name, but I felt pretty sure
that he must be a gentleman. It transpired subsequently that he was no
other than Mr. J. Alexander Shaw Stewart, and my chance acquaintance
became in after years one of my kindest and truest friends. As a result
of this interview with Mr. Williams a school was opened, called
afterwards the Newport Market Refuge Industrial School, and for several
years it was under my medical charge. During the years I was connected
with that establishment I never had a case of fever of any kind,
although the school was located in a densely crowded and repulsively
degraded neighbourhood. It was a striking instance of what could be done
in keeping schools free from epidemic disease, if only the persons
having control of them adopt, and strictly carry out, judicious sanitary
arrangements. During my period of office I made the acquaintance of the
Duke of Westminster, Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone, the latter of whom was a
frequent visitor there, as well as many ladies of rank, &c.
About this time there came an urgent request to go to the House. On my
arrival I found a young German woman near her confinement who was in a
state of great mental distress. On asking for an explanation, I was
informed that the day before a gentlemanly-looking person had called at
the house and asked to see the matron. To her he stated that he was a
medical man, and had been commissioned by the friends of one of his
patients to look out for some healthy young woman near her confinement
who might be engaged as a wet nurse by a lady under his care. The master
brought down to him this girl, when he instructed her to send her next
day to his consulting-room, where the lady's friends might see her. She
accordingly went. Shortly after her arrival there she rushed out of the
house, stating that she had been insulted by the doctor. Police aid
coming to her assistance, the doctor's residence was visited, with the
result that he was taken into custody, and brought before the
magistrate, who remanded him without bail for inquiries to be made. The
publicity of the case led to the bringing of other charges of a similar
character, and he was ultimately committed for trial. Having been called
upon to attend the German girl, I was naturally called as a witness, and
was subsequently subpoenaed to attend at the Old Bailey. I found four
other young women there in a similar predicament, all in charge of a
police constable, and for three days I spent my whole time in their
company, for whenever I got up to walk anywhere the women and the
constable got up also and followed me. The situation was suggestive, but
by no means pleasant. On the Thursday morning I was informed by the
prosecution that I might go away, as the prisoner, who turned out to be
a man of good family and an officer in the army, had pleaded guilty to a
common assault, &c., &c. As the girl's history was somewhat interesting
I sent an account of it to _The Times_ newspaper. It was as follows:
She had been living at Chicago with her two brothers, when they received
a letter stating that their mother in Germany was very ill, and begged
that her daughter would come home. She started immediately, but on
arriving at her native town found that her mother was dead. She
thereupon sold all the effects, and with upwards of £100 started back
again for Chicago. She passed through London to Liverpool to take
passage for New York, but the machinery of the steamer breaking down
when two days out, the captain returned for repairs. She had made the
acquaintance of a young Frenchman on board, who finding she had money,
made love to her, and induced her to go back to London and become his
wife. After living with her until all the money was gone, he deserted
her, and being without friends, she had to come into the House. My
letter appearing in _The Times_, some £45 was sent me, which sufficed to
enable me to send her and her child to her brother in Chicago. I
provided her with an outfit, and arranged with the captain of the
steamer to take charge of her, and send one of his trustworthy officers
to see her to the station in New York for Chicago, and parting with her
to put into her hands the balance remaining. Some months afterwards I
had a letter from the captain, stating that he had carried out my
request, and had finally given her the £25 or thereabouts. There was
every reason to believe that one of the subscribers was Her Majesty the
Queen, though it was not so distinctly stated in a letter I received
from a gentleman connected with the Court.
In the early part of 1865 the Guardians appointed a superintendent
nurse. She was a young, and very respectable-looking woman. The
Guardians had been moved to do this by the evidence of Miss Twining
before the Select Committee, and by the general feeling excited by the
revelations made in Gibson's case in St. Giles's, and that of Timothy
Daley in the Holborn, Union. In the winter of 1863 and 1864, and again
in 1864 and 1865, as also in 1865 and 1866 the admissions had been so
many, and the crowding so great, as to tax the resources of the
establishment to the utmost, notwithstanding that I had moved the sick
ward to the top of the building, and gained additional cubic space by
removing the ceiling and re-ceiling the rafters; but I could not by any
contrivance increase the area. The beds therefore were placed so close
together that the patients had to get out at the end of their beds,
there being no possibility of getting out at the side. It was a task
beyond this young woman's strength to effectually supervise the numerous
patients, but she could check some of the graver abuses connected with
pauper nursing. This she did to the best of her ability. In the same
spring that she was appointed--that of 1865--the late Dr. Francis Anstie
called on me. He said he was deputed by the late Dr. Wakley to call and
state that he had decided to appoint a commission for the purpose of
investigating the state of London workhouses, and he thought I could
suggest the best course to follow to obtain admission to them. I told
him I would introduce him to the Chairman of the Board, who alone had
the power to grant permission to a stranger to enter the Workhouse,
unless special application had been made to Board, and leave given. He
called on the Chairman, who gave him a letter to the master, authorizing
his admission. Before he left, I told Dr. Anstie that when he went over
the House I would accompany him. Some short time after, he wrote, making
an appointment. I showed him through the whole House, pointing out the
defects and shortcomings, and told him of my continued efforts to get
the place improved, and of the determined hostility of the majority of
the Board to any efforts I had made. I also showed him a list of the
fever cases I had attended, and how constantly fever was developed when
the numbers increased and the overcrowding was greatest. Dr. Anstie took
careful notes of what I showed him, as the sequel proved. Some month or
so after, I had a note from him, asking me to look in that week's
_Lancet_ for the report of his visit. I did so; when I found that he had
exposed the rotten condition of things with marvellous clearness and
fidelity, but as he had referred to me and my efforts to clear out this
Augean stable, I was perfectly convinced that the least intelligent
element of the Board would be incited by their clerk to charge me with
having written the article in question. As I anticipated, this came to
pass, for I heard that so it had been said at the Board meeting, and in
consequence, a most insulting resolution was adopted, in which I was
directly charged with trying to bring the Guardians--'who were my
masters'--into contempt. So angry was their language and so bitter their
hostility, that Dr. Anstie wrote to the Board, stating that he had been
permitted by their Chairman to go over the House, and that the
observations he had made were his own, and that I had not seen a line of
his manuscript, or knew of his report, until it appeared in print; he
further challenged the Board to show where, in his description, he had
departed from the truth. The storm he had raised was, after a while,
allayed. Dr. Anstie continued to visit other workhouses, the condition
of which he similarly described. These reports, which appeared in _The
Lancet_, were copied into, and commented upon, in sundry daily and
weekly journals, and gradually produced a feeling of intense public
indignation. Dr. Anstie had acted so generously towards me in screening
me from the hostility of the worst elements of the Board, that I
arranged a dinner-party, to meet and discuss workhouse abuses. Among the
guests was Mr. John Storr, of King Street, Covent Garden, who was one of
the wealthiest, as he was one of the most respectable, members of the
Strand Board, and who, since his election two years before this, had
proved to be my most able advocate and friend. When Dr. Anstie arrived,
he brought with him Mr. Ernest Hart, whom he introduced as one of the
staff of _The Lancet_, and as one interested in the question of
workhouse administration. After dinner a discussion took place as
regards the general condition of these establishments.
Ultimately it was arranged that a conference should be held at Mr.
Storr's offices, King Street, Covent Garden, at a time hereafter to be
named. Our dinner-party was held in December, 1865. In the early part of
January, Dr. Anstie, Mr. Hart, and I, met by appointment at Mr.
Storr's, when our discussion was resumed. At first it was proposed that
we should call a public meeting and denounce the system, when I pointed
out that if we only did that the agitation would soon come to an end,
and therefore it would be better to form an Association for the purpose
of more thoroughly enlightening the public. My suggestion was adopted.
Mr. John Storr generously offered to put down £100 to float the
Association. He also offered to become its treasurer, and to give us the
free use of one of his offices, in which the meetings of the Association
could be held. This meeting took place on a Thursday evening, and as
_The Lancet_ came out next day, Mr. Hart left us and went down to _The
Lancet_ office, to announce in the paper the formation of the society.
At our meeting it was also arranged that we should respectively write to
those we knew and ask them to join our Association. I wrote, among
others, to Mr. Shaw Stewart, who at once joined us, and to Miss Twining,
and to many other ladies and gentlemen who had been engaged in works of
benevolence. The Association prospered beyond our wildest anticipations,
and we were speedily joined by Earl Carnarvon, Earl Grosvenor, the
Archbishop of York, &c.; whilst money came in freely. Shortly after the
formation of the Association, of which, in conjunction with Dr. Anstie
and Mr. Hart, I was one of the honorary secretaries; Mr. Farnall, the
Metropolitan Poor Law Inspector, wrote to me, stating that he had been
deputed by Mr. Charles P. Villiers, the President of the Poor Law Board,
to offer his services in giving information to the youthful Association,
and that he had written to me, as I was the only honorary secretary he
knew. Mr. Farnall subsequently attended the meetings of the committee,
and afforded us much valuable information. No use was ever made of Mr.
John Storr's office, as all subsequent meetings of the Association were
held in Mr. Hart's house, in Wimpole Street.