A letter on the nature and effects of the tread-wheel, as an instrument of prison labour and punishment : addressed to the Right Hon. Robert Peel, M.P., His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, &c. &c. / with an appendix of notes and cases ; by one of his constituents, and a magistrate of the county of Surrey.
- John Ivatt Briscoe
- Date:
- 1824
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A letter on the nature and effects of the tread-wheel, as an instrument of prison labour and punishment : addressed to the Right Hon. Robert Peel, M.P., His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, &c. &c. / with an appendix of notes and cases ; by one of his constituents, and a magistrate of the county of Surrey. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![the tug and toil of the whole day, the man, at night, is only where he was in the morning ] and not an inch of acclivity has been really gained. Hence, the exertion of ascending a hill, however steep, and Avhatever the effort required, can never be regarded as a due scale for mea- suring the task of Avorking on the Tread-Avheel, (I use the epithet alike in its Greek and in its English sense,) and cannot justly be put in comparison Avith it. Hence, too (Avhich it is otherAvise impossible to explain) the solution of that enigma of the present day—the Auolent heat, thirst, perspiration, rapidity of pidse, pain in the loins and legs, and all the other symptoms of a morbid excitement, and a morbid exhaustion, prodiiced in our neAvly-regulated prisons by slowly walking over two miles, or txoo miles and a half of an apparent up-hill foot^Avay, in the course of eight or ten hours, Avith the allowance of a respite at the close of every quarter of an hour. I should not, perhaps, omit, that it is stated to be possible for prisoners to place nearly the Avhole of the foot upon the Wheel. It can never be done for more than a very short time, and for myself, / have never seen , prisoners attempt it. The gain in position is accompanied by so painful a strain of the tendons about the knees, that it cannot be persevered in by any one. And the Governor of Brixton Prison has declared that such a change of position is never effected there. D. page 10. Sir William Blizard expresses himself thus; “ On the Tread-machine, the abdominal muscles are kept in constant action, and the extensor muscles of the back ahvays on a stretch. Noav for full respiration, the abdominal muscles and diaphragm should act alternately.” Correspondence on Prison Labour, p. 105.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22390662_0111.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
