A treatise on the public health, climate, hygeine [sic], and prevailing diseases, of Bengal and the North-West Provinces / By Kenneth Mackinnon.
- MacKinnon, Kenneth
- Date:
- 1848
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A treatise on the public health, climate, hygeine [sic], and prevailing diseases, of Bengal and the North-West Provinces / By Kenneth Mackinnon. Source: Wellcome Collection.
48/438 page 10
![ITealtb of pii soncrs. Rate of mor- tality. Prison disci' v)liue. be happy, while their lires and property are unsafe. Such to a great extent was the state of things under the best of Uie IVIahomedan Governors, and even with regard to health, a movement has been made in the proper direction, by the iu- stitution of Dispensaries in the large towns. The subject of health and mortalitj' among prisoners, is in- teresting in many points of view. This unfortunate class amounts to upwards of forty thousand—they are treated me- dically after the European system ; their diet, clothing, labor and accommodation, are under our control. I find in Mr. Hutchinson’s work on jails, that the mortality stood thus in 1843: Lower Provinces, including Dinapore Division, 9.28 Llpper Provinces, .. .. 6.84 and in another table for nine years, from 1835 to 1843, the deaths are greater in the Lower Provinces in all years but two ; one of these, 1838, the year of a great famine in the North West, while tlie average of both is 7.67* Turning to'the hate report of Mr. AVoodcock, the Inspector'of prisons in the Upjter Provinces, I am struck with the fact, that in the jails subject to his con- trol tliere died during 1845, at the rate of 9.89 per cent, in all 1862 men ; from which we may warrantably infer that the praiseworthy desire of the Government to lower the rate of mortalitj’ in the 1 udian jails, has not yet been successful.* It is true, that to such desire there was added the wish to improve prison discipline, and thereby to check the commission of crime. The true system of prison discipline, as r^;ards the moral improvement of prisoners, and the prevention of crime in others, does not seem yet fully understood, if we may judge by the discussion and experiment j'et going on in Eumjie and America; and as regards health my own o]>inion is, and I have had some experience, having been for fourteen j'carsa Civil * In English i)risons the deaths may be stated at 2 per cent; in France 4^. Not more than 14 years ago the deaths were one in 14. The Americans have the advantage of the nations of Europe in this branch of political medicine.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2870874x_0048.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
