THE ENGLISH LOCAL PRISON
1
191 arise. If this hardship is due to heavy charges in respect of loans raised for the purchase of the practice, the claimant must forward particulars. of the amount of the loan outstanding, the interest charges, the rate of repayment of principal, and the cost of insurance premiums (if any) taken as condition of loan. All such information will be treated as confidential, as will also be particulars submitted of practice earnings and partnership shares. Claims for advance payment on grounds of hardship may be submitted at any time. Interest will be payable at the rate of 23/4% per annum, less income-tax, as from July 5, 1948. The first pay- ment will be made on July 5, 1949, but thereafter the payments will be made half-yearly, on Jan. 5 and July 5. The regulations recognise and allow for modifi- cations that may have to be made by amending legisla- tion after the report is received from the legal committee at present investigating the special position of partner- ships. Nevertheless it remains necessary for partners, equally with single-handed practitioners, to submit before Oct. 31 certified particulars of their gross annual receipts. This they are’advised to do without undue delay, as soon as they receive the appropriate claim form from their executive councils. MOTHER OF ORTHOPÆDIC NURSING How often great pioneers must find that their success has taken them by surprise. It can hardly have occurred to Agnes Hunt, when she opened a.small convalescent home for children in the Shropshire village of Baschurch, that she was about to become the founder of ortho- paedic nursing. Indeed, the whole scheme was started almost at random. Daughter of a positive and eccentric mother, she was one of a family of eleven. As a child she developed joint disease, but recovered sufficiently to train as a nurse in the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Rhyl, and at Salop Infirmary, and to become a district nurse-no sinecure at any time, but in those days a genuine trial of strength. " One day," she wrote in her memoir, " mother broke it to me that she was becoming too old and deaf to do her work in London, and that she intended to live with me. This was rather a blow." A new plan had to be made : and the con- valescent home was opened on the joint income of mother and daughter, plus subscriptions amounting to E132 2s. 3!d. In his book, Doctors Differ,1 Dr. Harley Williams describes the vitality of this ramshackle little place. When space ran short the children were housed in a shed in the garden, and did astonishingly well; forthwith the open-air regime became a principle of treatment at Baschurch. When the advice of an orthopaedic surgeon was needed, Agnes Hunt, crippled again by a recurrence of her old disease, shepherded a noisy crew of splinted children by train to Liverpool, where railway porters wheeled them to the Southern Hospital; and there she met Robert Jones. After a few such visits she tentatively suggested that he should become visiting surgeon to her odd hospital ; he accepted, and then began one of the most fertile partnerships in medicine. " Robert Jones performed the operations while Miss Hunt performed the rest." She was naturally equipped for the task ; she had fun, and saw to it that the children had fun ; and she had experienced what she,called " the great education of pain." She needed no talk of reablement to teach her that crippled people need arming for a struggle ; the children in her hospital acted plays, learned football, and were taught the elements of trades. Mr. G. R. Girdlestone 2 has written of those early years : " We who walked with Robert Jones and Sister Hunt in the original Baschurch Hospital were very fortunate-those were golden days ! The Tradition was in the foundry, white hot and spilling 1. London : Jonathan Cape, 1946. 2. The Robert Jones Tradition. A lecture given to the staff of the Wingfield-Morris Orthopædic Hospital, Oxford, 1947. over ! " The hospital with the old shed in the garden grew, during the 1914-18 war, into the Auxiliary Ortho- ’ paedic Hospital at Baschurch, with Agnes Hunt as commandant ; and later into the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital near Oswestry. In 1924 she thought her work was to be permanently interrupted by illness ; but not a bit of it : she was at the beginning of a long career in organising aftercare for cripples, in the course of which she founded the Dervven Cripples Training College. Dame Agnes lost her surgical collaborator in 1933 but herself survived to the age of 81, dying last week at her home in Baschurch. THE ENGLISH LOCAL PRISON "THE truth is that our prisons have beaten the Prison Commissioners. They were built for punishment in solitary confinement ; and the hopeless congestion within the con- fining walls makes any real modification well-nigh impossible. A prison is little more than a disciplined slum, with most of the disadvantages of slum life." These words come from a foreword, by Mr. George Benson, M.P., to a new pamphlet 1 from the penal reform committee of the Society of Friends. There is not a prison in England that is not overcrowded, even by 19th century standards ; and the remedy, he suggests, is only by real reTorm—a rapid increase in the number of minimum security camps. The accounts here given by Quaker prisoners, imprisoned for refusal to fight in the war, are sufficiently vivid and disquieting. During the war advances made in earlier years were swept away, staff was scarce, and the hours spent by prisoners in workshops were greatly reduced, until some 18 or 19 hours in the 24 were spent alone in the cells. Though some of the lost ground has been regained, and the educational and library services have been improved, no extra services can make up for lack of staff and. crowded quarters. The standard of hygiene is evidently shockingly . low. Twenty-men queue to empty their chamber-pots in a closet which is often stopped up ; toilet paper, toothbrushes, combs, and even handkerchiefs are hard to come by ; a prisoner has known what it is to go five weeks without any change of socks or shirt, or even a towel; Wandsworth prison was infested with bugs in the bed boards ; baths are dirty, cleaning materials not provided. Apart from the mental effects of living for long terms in such surroundings, prisoners are not well supervised physically. The medical inspection on admission is often quite trivial and the examination on discharge even more perfunctory. Sometimes the newly admitted prisoner is not even required to undress. " The examination for venereal disease," writes one prisoner, " consisted in the question, Have you any discharge ? ’." Though occasionally a prisoner speaks well of the diet, food is often poor and badly prepared, with too little in the way of fresh fruit or green vegetables ; and none is served between 4 P.M. and breakfast. ’ These are not conditions of life under which anyone could profit by measures for his reform ; and many prisoners suffer deterioration rather than improvement in their outlook. Some indeed become mentally ill. Mr. C. F. Carter, who edits the pamphlet, urges that it is time for Britain to catch up with the best standards in other countries. " She will not do so at the snail’s progress of the last thirty years." Sir WILLIAM GILLIATT has been re-elected- president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Surgeon Rear-Admiral C. E. GREESON has been appointed medical director-general of the Navy in succession to Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Colson who retires at the end of this year. 1. Snail’s Progress. Edited from the Experiences of Quaker Prisoners, 1939-48, by Charles F. Carter. London : Society of Friends, Friends House, Euston Road, N.W.1. 1948. Pp. 28. 1s.
Transcript of THE ENGLISH LOCAL PRISON
191
arise. If this hardship is due to heavy charges in respectof loans raised for the purchase of the practice, theclaimant must forward particulars. of the amount ofthe loan outstanding, the interest charges, the rate of
repayment of principal, and the cost of insurance
premiums (if any) taken as condition of loan. All suchinformation will be treated as confidential, as will alsobe particulars submitted of practice earnings and
partnership shares. Claims for advance payment ongrounds of hardship may be submitted at any time.
Interest will be payable at the rate of 23/4% per annum,less income-tax, as from July 5, 1948. The first pay-ment will be made on July 5, 1949, but thereafterthe payments will be made half-yearly, on Jan. 5 andJuly 5. The regulations recognise and allow for modifi-cations that may have to be made by amending legisla-tion after the report is received from the legal committeeat present investigating the special position of partner-ships. Nevertheless it remains necessary for partners,equally with single-handed practitioners, to submitbefore Oct. 31 certified particulars of their gross annualreceipts. This they are’advised to do without unduedelay, as soon as they receive the appropriate claim formfrom their executive councils.
MOTHER OF ORTHOPÆDIC NURSING
How often great pioneers must find that their successhas taken them by surprise. It can hardly have occurredto Agnes Hunt, when she opened a.small convalescenthome for children in the Shropshire village of Baschurch,that she was about to become the founder of ortho-
paedic nursing. Indeed, the whole scheme was startedalmost at random. Daughter of a positive and eccentricmother, she was one of a family of eleven. As a childshe developed joint disease, but recovered sufficientlyto train as a nurse in the Royal Alexandra Hospital,Rhyl, and at Salop Infirmary, and to become a districtnurse-no sinecure at any time, but in those days agenuine trial of strength. " One day," she wrote inher memoir, " mother broke it to me that she was
becoming too old and deaf to do her work in London,and that she intended to live with me. This was rathera blow." A new plan had to be made : and the con-valescent home was opened on the joint income ofmother and daughter, plus subscriptions amounting toE132 2s. 3!d. In his book, Doctors Differ,1 Dr. HarleyWilliams describes the vitality of this ramshacklelittle place. When space ran short the children werehoused in a shed in the garden, and did astonishinglywell; forthwith the open-air regime became a principleof treatment at Baschurch. When the advice of an
orthopaedic surgeon was needed, Agnes Hunt, crippledagain by a recurrence of her old disease, shepherded anoisy crew of splinted children by train to Liverpool,where railway porters wheeled them to the SouthernHospital; and there she met Robert Jones. After afew such visits she tentatively suggested that he shouldbecome visiting surgeon to her odd hospital ; he accepted,and then began one of the most fertile partnerships inmedicine. " Robert Jones performed the operationswhile Miss Hunt performed the rest." She was naturallyequipped for the task ; she had fun, and saw to it thatthe children had fun ; and she had experienced whatshe,called " the great education of pain." She neededno talk of reablement to teach her that crippled peopleneed arming for a struggle ; the children in her hospitalacted plays, learned football, and were taught theelements of trades. Mr. G. R. Girdlestone 2 has writtenof those early years :
" We who walked with RobertJones and Sister Hunt in the original Baschurch Hospitalwere very fortunate-those were golden days ! TheTradition was in the foundry, white hot and spilling1. London : Jonathan Cape, 1946.2. The Robert Jones Tradition. A lecture given to the staff of
the Wingfield-Morris Orthopædic Hospital, Oxford, 1947.
over ! " The hospital with the old shed in the gardengrew, during the 1914-18 war, into the Auxiliary Ortho- ’paedic Hospital at Baschurch, with Agnes Hunt as
commandant ; and later into the Robert Jones and
Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital near Oswestry.In 1924 she thought her work was to be permanently
interrupted by illness ; but not a bit of it : she was atthe beginning of a long career in organising aftercare forcripples, in the course of which she founded the DervvenCripples Training College. Dame Agnes lost her surgicalcollaborator in 1933 but herself survived to the age of81, dying last week at her home in Baschurch.
THE ENGLISH LOCAL PRISON
"THE truth is that our prisons have beaten the PrisonCommissioners. They were built for punishment in solitaryconfinement ; and the hopeless congestion within the con-
fining walls makes any real modification well-nigh impossible.A prison is little more than a disciplined slum, with most ofthe disadvantages of slum life."These words come from a foreword, by Mr. GeorgeBenson, M.P., to a new pamphlet 1 from the penal reformcommittee of the Society of Friends. There is not a
prison in England that is not overcrowded, even by19th century standards ; and the remedy, he suggests,is only by real reTorm—a rapid increase in the numberof minimum security camps. The accounts here givenby Quaker prisoners, imprisoned for refusal to fight inthe war, are sufficiently vivid and disquieting. Duringthe war advances made in earlier years were sweptaway, staff was scarce, and the hours spent by prisonersin workshops were greatly reduced, until some 18 or19 hours in the 24 were spent alone in the cells. Thoughsome of the lost ground has been regained, and theeducational and library services have been improved, noextra services can make up for lack of staff and. crowdedquarters. The standard of hygiene is evidently shockingly .
low. Twenty-men queue to empty their chamber-potsin a closet which is often stopped up ; toilet paper,toothbrushes, combs, and even handkerchiefs are hardto come by ; a prisoner has known what it is to gofive weeks without any change of socks or shirt, or evena towel; Wandsworth prison was infested with bugs inthe bed boards ; baths are dirty, cleaning materialsnot provided. Apart from the mental effects of livingfor long terms in such surroundings, prisoners are notwell supervised physically. The medical inspection onadmission is often quite trivial and the examination ondischarge even more perfunctory. Sometimes the newlyadmitted prisoner is not even required to undress." The examination for venereal disease," writes one
prisoner, " consisted in the question, Have you anydischarge ? ’." Though occasionally a prisoner speakswell of the diet, food is often poor and badly prepared,with too little in the way of fresh fruit or green vegetables ;and none is served between 4 P.M. and breakfast.
’
These are not conditions of life under which anyonecould profit by measures for his reform ; and manyprisoners suffer deterioration rather than improvementin their outlook. Some indeed become mentally ill.Mr. C. F. Carter, who edits the pamphlet, urges that itis time for Britain to catch up with the best standardsin other countries. " She will not do so at the snail’sprogress of the last thirty years."
Sir WILLIAM GILLIATT has been re-elected- president ofthe Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
Surgeon Rear-Admiral C. E. GREESON has beenappointed medical director-general of the Navy insuccession to Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Colson who retiresat the end of this year.
1. Snail’s Progress. Edited from the Experiences of QuakerPrisoners, 1939-48, by Charles F. Carter. London : Society ofFriends, Friends House, Euston Road, N.W.1. 1948. Pp. 28. 1s.
