Bristol Fever Hospital

Bristol Fever Hospital

Bristol -want of a Fever Hospital in
Last week Mr. Alderman Proctor attended before the sitting magistrates, o ask their advice on an important matter, with which he felt himself unable to deal. A very respectable man, whom he had known for some time, kept a lodging-house; and about a fortnight ago a man, named Paul, who came from Cheltenham, took up his lodgings there. This man, it appeared, was now ill of masculated typhus fever, and he was in such a state that it was exceedingly dangerous for the owner of the lodging-house to remain there. He had called the attention of the officer of health, Mr. Davies, to the case, and Mr. Davies had written a letter, in which he showed that Paul, although he said he came from Cheltenham, lived in Picton Lane, Bristol, next door but one to Millett, now lying dead of fever there, where he had reported fever for three months. A fortnight last Saturday, he (Thomas Paul) left Picton Lane for Cheltenham, and lodged there. After being there three days, he sickened of his present complaint. He came back last Monday, and travelled in a railway carriage, in the middle of an attack of typhus fever. If White and his family remain, White's life is not worth two months' purchase. Typhus has a great predilection for the life of the bread-winner. If we could get a separate house we might get Paul removed, but he will not go to the workhouse.
He (Alderman Proctor) thus felt a difficulty in the case. It appeared that there was an Act of Parliament in force to the effect that if there was a place to send the patients to, the magistrates would be able to order his removal. Unfortunately there was no such place in existence in Bristol, and it was such an important matter that he felt it necessary to place the responsibility with the magistrates. Mr. Brice, the magistrates' clerk, said an order for the removal of the patient himself to the workhouse had been obtained, but the patient would not avail himself of it because, he said he was not a pauper. Then the only course for the officer of health to take was to fall ack upon the Act of Parliament, authorising Local Boards in different localities to provide hospitals for sick persons; and where such a hospital had been provided, there was power under the statute, 29/30 Vict c.90 sec.26 as follows :-
Any justice may, with the consent of the superintending body of such hospital or place, order the removal to such hospital or place of such sick person. The short answer to that enactment was, that the Local Board of Health in Bristol, who were the nuisance authority under this Act, had not provided such hospital or place; consequently, the application to the magistrates to remove a patient to a place not in existence would be simply ludicrous. It was not for him, nor probably for the bench, to say what was the duty of the Local Board; suffice it to say the necessary machinery did not exist, and let the consequences be what they might, the responsibility could not rest with the magistrates. It is to be hoped the people of Bristol will watch this case; and will, moreover, immediately insist on the provision of a proper place to which such cases may be sent. An epidemic of typhus would be costly.
Source: The Builder 1868 Vol XXVI 25th April 1868 p.296
Submitted by Alan Longbottom