On famine and fever as cause and effect in Ireland : with observations on hospital location, and the dispensation in outdoor relief of food and medicine / by D.J. Corrigan.

  • Corrigan, Dominic John, 1802-1880.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On famine and fever as cause and effect in Ireland : with observations on hospital location, and the dispensation in outdoor relief of food and medicine / by D.J. Corrigan. 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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    who were unable to purchase food, were equally unable to obtain fuel to cook it. Moreover, raw food was readily dis- posed of. Impostors who did not stand in need of food contrived to obtain it and found a ready sale for it in huxters’ shops; and even the poor, themselves in need of food were not always able to resist the temptation of money, but often were tempted to sell for a few pence the raw provisions that were intended for their support for days to come. Even the tickets on which the raw provisions were obtained, were made an article of sale by the impostors who procured them, to unprincipled persons who purchased them and who thus managed to obtain provisions at a cheaper rate than market price. Such abuses should be guarded against. Food when sold at a cheaper rate than market price, or when distributed gratis, should be always given out cooked, so as to prevent its sale and to make its immediate use necessary. In this way the poor who really stand in need of it will pro- cure wholesome nutriment, and the traffic in it by impostors will be effectually checked. A plan was adopted in St. Catherine’s parish Dublin, for the distribution of food during the epidemic of 1826, which will be found, 1 believe, applicable on all similar occasions in towns. I can speak from personal knowledge of its efficiency. Tickets were issued to persons or families ascertained to be fit objects for relief. No ticket was given unless at the residence of the applicant, whose real circumstances thus came directly under the eye of the inspector. Those tickets re- mained in force for fourteen days, and were renewed or not at the end of that time according to the discretion of the in- spector. There were two classes of tickets, paij tickets and gratis tickets. The holder of a gratis ticket received, each day during its term, a roll of bread with one quart of hot soup. The holder of a pay ticket received the same, but was obliged to pay for it one penny, about one-third of its original cost. It frequently happened that those who during one fortnight were in the greatest distress, were often able during the next fortnight to become holders of pay tickets, and
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