The terror of the tents, or, Quarantine restrictions as imposed and enforced in Jamaica during the prevalence of small-pox, under so-called paternal government.

Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The terror of the tents, or, Quarantine restrictions as imposed and enforced in Jamaica during the prevalence of small-pox, under so-called paternal government. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    88/122 (page 78)
    Dr. Bowerhanh lo the Acting Colonial Secretary. Kingston, 23rd August, 1872. Sir, It was with great regret and surprise I heard, on Wed- nesday last, of the intention of his Excellency Sir John Pe- ter Grant, K.C.B., to take his departure from the island. I had hoped to receive answers to my letters of the re- spective dates of the ISth and 17th inst. As regards the first, in which, under the peculiar circum- stances of the case, I requested to know whether his Excel- lency would adopt the suggestion of Sir E. B. Lytton, then H.M. Secretary of State tor the Colonics, to Governor Dar- ling, under precisely similar circumstances, namely, not to appoint a commission, but himselt to preside and examine into alleged abuses. The departure of his Excellency Sir John Peter Grant in the American packet yesterday, leaves no doubt that his Ex- cellency declines to do so. I was in hopes by this time to have received a reply to my second letter, in which I urged his Excellency to call upon the Central Board of Health to carry out the 3rd sec- tion of the Law No. 6 of 1SG7—a Law passed by his Ex- cellency himself, and which provides a court of enquiry, with full powers, to examine in a summar}'^ manner into all questions aifecting the public health. What more proper subject for enquiry for a Central Board of Health to un- dertake than to ascertain if rumours of mismanagement and ill-treatment of Small-pox patients are true or false ? If the disease was being kept up and extended by improper prac- tices ] Why a monstrous death-rate, five out of nine, occur- red among those treated in bell tents in a particular loca- lity ? Why a hospital erected at a heavy expense by the Government for poor persons suffering from Small-pox has never been made use of ? Why not a single person has gone into it, although the disease still lingers in the dis- trict? Why the poor are not attended by the Medical OtFicers appointed for that purpose ? Why no trustworthy records of the progress of the disease are made public? Why vaccination is delayed in ■ a district till Small pox breaks out ? Sio certain was I that his Excellency Sir John P. Grant