Second report of the Departmental Committee appointed to inquire into the law relating to coroners and coroners' inquests, and into the practice in coroners' courts.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Coroners.
Date:
1909
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second report of the Departmental Committee appointed to inquire into the law relating to coroners and coroners' inquests, and into the practice in coroners' courts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    1 July 1909.] would not have occurred. There are some you cannot prevent, such as those caused by the upsetting of a lamp. 7396. (Chairman.) Or a small boy lighting a match and setting fire to his brother’s or sister’s clothes P— That is so, but 85 per cent. were proved before coroners to be due to want of a fireguard. 7397. (Dr. Willcox.) Do you suggest a fine mesh network fireguard ?—Yes, it is no new invention. You can see them any time, The very ones I suggest fixed by staples are in use now. 7398. (Sir Malcolm Morris.) What is the height ? —They can be fixed any height. The ideal one would cover the whole fire. 7399. You do not propose it should be above the level of a child’s head?—I am not suggesting those three-sided fireguards you put in front of a fire, but a sort of semi-circular thing which you fix by staples over the fire. [ Continued. 7400. (Chairman.) That prevents a good deal of heat getting into the room does it not ?—No, I do not think so. 7401. You do not think it diminishes the effect of the fire ?—No. 7402. (Dr. Willeow.) Is it your opinion that if it was an ordinary open fire the heat that is emitted is radiant heat >—Yes, I have no doubt about that. 7403. And therefore the fireguard would only remove a very small proportion of heat >—Yes, hardly worth considering. 7404. (Sir Malcolm Morris.) You know those that are fixed inside and then drag down ?—No, I have never seen such a one; somebody wrote to me suggesting a drag-aside one, but I think the least expensive would be the ordinary one which fixes on with staples. That only goes into shillings; the others are more expensive. The one fixed by staples is the best. A builder has offered to fix them in my house at 5s. each. 7405. (Chairman.) That is very interésting evidence we have had from Dr. Parry. He agrees with you that pure water destroys the protection ?—Yes, it diminishes it. There was very great difference in the burning shown by the experiments. 7406. Yes, but a great deal of protection was destroyed in one instance ?—Yes, if you put it through ordinary water without any soap you can get rid of a very large proportion of the protection. I am very much astonished to hear that the ordinary washer- women ever puts it through water sufficiently long to get out all the soap from any flannel or flannelette. I should be very much astonished if that is the ordinary practice. 7407. It is not like washing sheets or anything of that kind?—No. They look upon it as part of the process to rinse it, but not to soak it in clear water. 7408. (Stir Malcolm Morris.) You mean an ordinary washerwoman ?—I mean the ordinary woman washing, whether professional or not. Mr. Whipp told me some time ago that he was in correspondence with a gentle- man in Brighton, and, I think, has given this gentleman all the information he could, and, so far as I under- stand, Mr. Bradbury went down to see him and talk matters over with him. 7409. (Chairman.) Have you anything to say with regard to Dr. Parry’s evidence ?—Dr. Parry has been writing articles on textile goods. We saw this in one of the provincial papers, and we wrote offering to send him samples of Dr. Perkins’ ‘ Non-flam.” We sent them, and, I think, he acknowledged the receipt of them. We wrote saying if he would investigate the samples and write to us we would be very glad to put him in possession of our process and would supply him fully with information. We got nothing definite from him, but we wrote a letter on Dr. Perkin’s process to Dr. Parry, and gave him all the information in con- nection with the process. 7410. He seems to have got these things washed in the ordinary way, and you see the result P—Yes; with regard to the cloth produced by Dr. Parry this after- noon, I may say that I myself sent the sample from Manchester, and he said that it had not been washed. Of course I cannot say whether the other which he produced, and which he said had been washed, was or was not our cloth. If it had been submitted to me, I could have told whether it was or not. 7411. It might be advisable to try these experiments again with flannelette belonging to poor people and see what results P—Yes. 7412. (Sir Horatio Shephard.) Is it correct to say you cannot get it under 63d. ?—If it costs 2d. untreated it can be sold for 23d. treated. 7413. (Sir Malcolm Morris.) Is 63d. the retail price as a rule?—The cloth has been sold at 43d. a yard— lots of it—retail. 7414. What is the cheapest that is being done by your process >—The cheapest we at present send out is 3$d. a yard to the wholesale trade. 7415. What is the retail price ?—43d., but that is not the fault of the process at all. Our process can be applied to the very cheapest makes of flannelette, if required. 7416. (Chatirman.) I understand it can be treated at a maximum price of a penny a yard; but what we wanted to find out was what the ordinary poor person can get your flannelette for in various parts of the country ?—(Professor Sims Woodhead.) Apparently they cannot get this special form under 4$d. at present. We have a number of people in Cambridge who will help us. We will distribute some garments and then get them in afterwards in exchange for some new ones. That will probably be the best course. They will simply be sent out as garments and, after they have had time to wash them three or four times, they shall be brought in again. I think that will be the best plan. I will let you know the results. 7416a. (Chairman.) What is the particular appoint- ment that you hold ?—I am Director of the Physio- logical Laboratory at the tpt il of London. 7417. For a long time you have paid attention to the question of anesthetics generally, and chloroform in particular ?—Yes. 7418. Originally, you studied in Edinburgh ?—Yes. 7419. You were assistant to the late Dr.’G. W. Balfour ?—Yes. 7420. I believe, in Edinburgh, chloroform is mainly relied on to the exclusion of other anesthetics P—Yes, Edinburgh is a chloroform place, just as Boston is an ether place. 7421. Possibly, chloroform is used in Edinburgh, because it has been the habitual practice in the town of Simpson?’—That is a matter of opinion. The custom arose in Edinburgh and remained there, and the other custom arose in Boston and remained in Boston. 7422. And in England we wobble between ether and chloroform ?—Yes, I think the two are used in England. In France and Germany chloroform has