The Black Assizes in the west / by Frederick Allcocks.
- Willcocks, Frederick.
- Date:
- [1884]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The Black Assizes in the west / by Frederick Allcocks. 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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![drawn from the gaols spread it through the Army and Navy, and transported convicts carried it even to the American colonies. The gaol fever thus became, as Howard forcibly pointed out, “ a national concern of no small importance.” As a consequence of his visits and representations he was examined before the House of Commons in March, 1774, and received the thanks of the House. Shortly afterwards a Bill for the better regulation of prisons and the prevention of gaol fever was introduced by Mr. Popham, the member for Taunton, a' town in which a very serious outbreak of gaol fever had occurred at the Lent Assizes in 1730. This par- ticular epidemic, to which reference will be made again later in the present paper, proved fatal to the Lord Chief Baron Pengelly, to the High Sheriff’ for Somersetshire, John Pigot, and to many others who were present in the court at the time.* By Popham’s Bill, which was passed in due course, provision was made for the more efficient cleansing and ventilation of the prison wards, isolation wards for infectious fever cases were instituted, and medical officers appointed to the prisons to report on the health of the prisoners at each quarter sessions. Howard found, on his subsequent visits, that these regulations had produced a most marked improvement in the health of English gaols, and though occasional out- breaks of gaol fever occurred again later in the century, the danger of any further “Black Astizes” was completely removed. Of the better known “Black Assizes” we have distinct re- cords of six, which occurred respectively at f Cambridge in 1522, at J Oxford in 1577, at § Exeter in i586, at |j Taunton in 1730, at IT Launceston in 1742, and at the **01d Bailey in 1750. ♦ {a) Gentleman’s Magazine, 1750, vol. xx. p. 235. (h) Stale of Prisons, <0c., John Howard, 2nd ed. 1780, p. 12. (c) Observationes de Acre et Morbis Epidemicis, JohnHuxham, m.d., f.r.s., 1752, vol. ii. p. 83. t (a) Hall’s Chronicle, 1548, fol. Ixxxxii. {b) History and Antiquities of Oxford, Anthony a Wood, 1796, vol. ii. p. 19i. (c) The Hauen of Health, Thomas Cogan, M.A., m.b., 1596, p. 318. {d) Philosophical Transactions, Ward, vol. 1. 1758, p. 699. t (a) History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, 1796, vol. ii. p. 188, Anthony k Wood, {b) Stow’s Annals, 1615, p. 68l, Howes edit, (c) Baker’s Chronicle, 1730, p. 353. {d) Holinshed’s Chronicle, Hooker, 1587, p. 1270. § \a) Holinshed’s Chronicle, 1587, Hooker, p. 1547. (b) Stove’s Annals, 16i5, Howes edit. p. 718. II Gentleman's Magazine, 1750, vol. xx. p. 235. State of Prisons, John Howard, 2nd ed. 1780, p. 12. Observationes de Acre et Morbis Epidemicis, John Huxham, vol. ii. ]>. 83. IT Observationes de Aere et Morbis Epidemicis, Hnxhain, vol. ii. p. 82. ** (a) Gentleman’s Magazine, May, 1750, ]ip. 233, 235. (b) Philosophval Transactions, vol. xlviii. ]>. 42, Sir John Pringle, m.d., r.R.s. (c) Observations on Diseases of the Army, 5th ed., 1765, p. 330, &c., Sir John Pringle.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22369612_0004.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
