A letter to the Right Hon. Sir Henry Hardinge, on the effects of solitary confinement, on the health of soldiers, in warm climates / by John Grant Malcolmson.
- Date:
- 1837
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A letter to the Right Hon. Sir Henry Hardinge, on the effects of solitary confinement, on the health of soldiers, in warm climates / by John Grant Malcolmson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![injure the health, and shorten the life of the soldier; or which produces any effects that can- not be estimated by the judges when they assign a punishment for an offence. And being satisfied that long continued solitary confinement, especially when conjoined with restricted diet, has a direct tendency, and frequently does produce impaired health, and intractable forms of disease, I think it my duty to call public attention to it; more particularly, as in consequence of the strong feeling against corpora] punishment rapidly gainingground, the tendency seems to be, to overlook the evils attending those which may be substituted, and which are not of a kind to force themselves on the observation. Those who recollect, how reluctantly the existence of that destructive form of scurvy, which prevailed in the Millbank Penitentiary w7as admitted, and the ridicule with which its existence was spoken of in the House of Commons, will see how likely it is, that similar diseased actions should escape the notice of the public, when occurring in the insulated cases of soldiers serving abroad; more especially in hot climates, where the tendency to disease, of the character referred to, is so much greater than in Britain. Yet, as great part of the English army are serving in warm climates, it will not, on that account, be thought undeserving of attention.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21928733_0009.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
