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The Scurvy Scandal at Millbank Penitentiary: A Reassessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2012

Peter McRorie Higgins
Peter McRorie Higgins
Affiliation:
41 Frenchay Road, Oxford, OX2 6TF, UK
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Historical myths die hard: one such is of a supposed outbreak of scurvy—said by some to be the result of medical insouciance—at Millbank penitentiary in 1823. Thus, Sean McConville in his masterly account of prisons in the reform period writes: “The decision [to reduce the diet] was a major factor in the scurvy epidemic which followed shortly afterwards, causing at least thirty deaths”. Other authors take a similar line: “Fifteen months later, after 30 had died, and after the whole convict population had been evacuated from the prison, Holford was convinced that the disease had been sea-scurvy”; “there was a serious outbreak of scurvy not long after the new diet was adopted”; “In the winter of 1823, the inmates began to succumb to typhus, dysentery, and scurvy. Thirty-one died and four hundred others were incapacitated”; “The scurvy was the prevailing disease, and was seen in over half of the 860 inmates”. Joe Sim in his generally condemnatory evaluation of medical staff working in prisons states: “Millbank was at the centre of a major controversy when an outbreak of scurvy occurred and thirty-one prisoners died. The [Prison Medical Service] was deeply implicated”, and he goes on to associate the physician in charge with “experiments” on the bodies and minds of the confined.

Type
Articles
Information
Medical History , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , 01 October 2006 , pp. 513 - 534
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2006. Published by Cambridge University Press

References

1 Sean McConville, A history of English prison administration, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981, pp. 144–5.

2 Robin Evans, The fabrication of virtue: English prison architecture, 1750–1840, Cambridge University Press, 1982, p. 249.

3 Charles Campbell, The intolerable hulks: British shipboard confinement 1776–1857, Bowie, MD, Heritage, 1994, p. 99.

4 Michael Ignatieff, A just measure of pain: the penitentiary in the industrial revolution, 1750–1850, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1989, p. 176.

5 Kenneth J Carpenter, The history of scurvy and vitamin C, Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 99.

6 Joe Sim, Medical power in prisons: the prison medical service in England, 1774–1989, Milton Keynes, Open University Press, 1990, pp. 17–18.

7 Later to become Physician Extraordinary to Queen Victoria.

8 Of Thesaurus fame. See D L Emblen, Peter Mark Roget: the word and the man, London, Longman, 1970, pp. 255–85.

9Report of the physicians on the state of the General Penitentiary at Milbank [sic], PP, 1823 (256), V, 379, p. 2.

10 Ibid., pp. 3–5.

11Report from the Select Committee on the state of the General Penitentiary at Milbank, PP, 1823 (533), V, 403.

12Report from the Select Committee appointed to inquire into the General Penitentiary at Milbank, PP, 1824 (408), IV, 407.

13 Peter Mere Latham, An account of the disease lately prevalent at the General Penitentiary, London, Underwood, 1825, p. 22.

14 John Mason Good, A dissertation on the diseases of prisons and poor-houses, London, Dilly, 1795, pp. 21–2.

15 John Howard, The state of the prisons in England and Wales, Warrington, Eyres, 1777, pp. 147–452.

16 McConville, op. cit, note 1 above, pp. 86–7.

17 Ibid., pp. 89–104.

18 Ibid., pp. 107–8.

19 George Holford, An account of the General Penitentiary at Millbank, London, Rivington and Hatchard and Son, 1828, p. 2 (quoting Sir William Blackstone).

20 Panopticon: a building all of whose occupants could be seen from a single vantage point.

21 Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb, English prisons under local government, London, Longmans, Green, 1922, p. 49.

22Third report of the Inspector of Prisons, Home District, PP 1837–38 (141), XXX, 1, pp. 49–50.

23 Holford, An account, op. cit., note 19 above, pp. 278–9.

24 George Holford (1767–1839), an MP from 1803 to 1826, was keenly interested in prison management and reform. He became chairman of a committee formed in 1810 which recommended the abandonment of Bentham's panopticon, later the most active member of the management committee of Millbank penitentiary, of which he was a member from 1816 until his death, and visitor to the penitentiary in the 1822–23 period. In this last capacity he exercised considerable power in the day-to-day running of the prisons. McConville, op. cit., note 1 above, pp. 146–7.

25 George Holford, The convict's complaint in 1815, and The thanks of the Convict in 1825, London, Rivington, 1825, p. xiii.

26 Later, and to Holford's annoyance, it became government policy to accelerate the transportation of women as wives or “in some other relation to the inhabitants of those distant colonies”. The result was that by 1828 three-quarters of the space available for women at Millbank was empty. (Holford, An account, op. cit., note 19 above, pp. lv, 293.

27The Times, 27 June 1816.

28 Evans, op. cit., note 2 above, p. 247, and McConville, op. cit., note 1 above, p. 160.

29 Holford, An account, op. cit., note 19 above, pp. 68–73. For a comprehensive account of the regime at the relevant time, see Report of the Committee of the General Penitentiary at Milbank, PP, 1823 (150), V, 365, pp. 1–13.

30Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 76.

31 Ibid., p. 75.

32 Ibid., pp. 57–8.

33 Ibid., p. 75. Cockle: a stove with gills.

34 Holford, An account, op. cit., note 19 above, p. 66.

35 Ignatieff, op. cit., note 4 above, p. 171.

36Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 112.

37 Ibid., p. 79.

38 Holford Committee, quoted in McConville, op. cit., note 1 above, pp. 133–4.

39Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 79.

40 McConville, op. cit., note 1 above, p. 149.

41Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 79.

42 Holford, An account, op. cit., note 19 above, pp. 56, 94.

43 Ibid., p. 94.

44 Ibid., p. 93.

45 McConville, op. cit., note 1 above, p. 149.

46 Holford, An account, op. cit., note 19 above, pp. 331–2.

47Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 114.

48 Ibid., p. 29.

49 Ibid., p. 114.

50 Holford, An account, op. cit., note 19 above, pp. xxxiv–xxxv.

51Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 5.

52 Holford, An account, op. cit., note 19 above, p. xxxvi.

53Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 143. One of the objects of removing meat as such from the diet was to avoid the use of knives and forks. Bread knives were fixed to the tables. Ibid., pp. 114–15.

54 Ibid., pp. 106–9.

55Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 143; Felons' Register, Gloucester County Gaol 1815–1818, Gloucestershire Record Office, Q/Gc/5/1.

56Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 114.

57Further papers relating to the Penitentiary at Milbank, PP 1823 (309), V, 387, p. 1.

58 James McGrigor (1771–1858), army surgeon. Inspector-general of hospitals in 1809, chief of medical staff in the Peninsula 1811, director-general army medical department 1815–1851. Knighted 1814, baronet 1830. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, vol. 35, pp. 447–9.

59Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 333.

60 Ibid., p. 73, and Further papers, note 57 above, pp. 12–13. The figures in different parts of the reports are not totally consistent.

61Further papers, op. cit., note 57 above, pp. 6–7.

62Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 100.

63Report, op. cit., note 12 above, p. 53.

64Report, op. cit, note 11 above, p. 102.

65 Ibid., p. 103.

66Further papers, op. cit., note 57 above, p. 2. He must have been speaking of the week before: there were in fact 85 on 10 January (Table 1).

67Further papers, op. cit., note 57 above, p. 4.

68Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 116.

69 Ibid., p. 100.

70 Ibid., pp. 49–50.

71 Ibid., pp. 34, 36, 100.

72 Ibid., p. 7.

73 The distinction between flux and diarrhoea is not always clear. In general, flux seems to have been worse than diarrhoea with dysentery worse than either.

74Further papers, op. cit., note 57 above, p. 6.

75 Ibid., p. 7.

76Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 100.

77 Latham, note 13 above, p. xiv.

78Further Papers, op. cit., note 57 above, p. 7.

79Report, op. cit., note 11 above, pp. 117, 134–5.

80Further papers, note 57 above, pp. 1–14.

81 Ibid., p. 8.

82Report, note 11 above, pp. 8–14.

83 Ibid., pp. 113, 147. See also The Times, 29 May 1823.

84 Ibid., p. 28.

85Report, op. cit, note 9 above, p. 7.

86 As distinct from “land-scurvy” (which seems to have been a form of atopic dermatitis). Sir Gilbert Blane (1749–1834) had promoted the consumption of lemon juice in the navy forty years earlier. He claimed the word scurvy derives from the Saxon for sore mouth.

87Report, op. cit., note 9 above, pp. 4–6.

88 George Holford, Third vindication of the General Penitentiary, London, Rivington, 1825, p. 70. Presumably the initial price was one penny per orange, rising with the increased demand.

89Report, op. cit., note 11 above, pp. 135, 137.

90 Ibid., p. 103.

91 Ibid., p. 237.

92 William Baly, ‘On the prevention of scurvy in prisons, pauper lunatic asylums, etc.’, Lond. med. Gaz., 1842–43, 1 (n.s.): 699–703, p. 701.

93Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 206.

94 Ibid., pp. 150–65.

95 Ibid., pp. 311–13.

96 Ibid., p. 176.

97 Ibid., p. 392. There were 531 males and 327 females.

98 Ibid., note 11, p. 399. The deaths in 1821 and 1822 had been “mostly visceral and a few cases of continued fever” (ibid., p. 362).

99 Latham, op. cit., note 13 above, pp. 154–5

100 Ibid., pp. 203–4; Report, note 11 above, pp. 150–65, 176, 311–13.

101Report, op. cit., note 11 above, pp. 312–13.

102 Peter McRorie Higgins, ‘Medical care in English prisons 1770–1850’, PhD thesis, Open University, 2004, pp. 111–14.

103Report, op. cit., note 12 above, p. 53.

104 Ibid., pp. 52 and 102.

105 Ibid., p. 81.

106 Latham, op. cit., note 13 above, pp. 255–9.

107 Ibid., pp. 256. Mr Pratt gave different figures: 2 deaths in 1820, 2 in 1821 and 3 in 1822 (Report, note 12 above, p. 24).

108Report, op. cit, note 12 above, p. 97.

109 Ibid., p. 23.

110 Ibid., pp. 82–3.

111 Ibid., p. 109. Assuming that this figure is correct and assuming that, as a result of discharges, the number of prisoners had fallen to around 600, this gives an annual mortality rate of only 1.7 per cent.

112Report, op. cit., note 12 above, p. 23.

113 Latham, op. cit., note 13 above, pp. 191–3.

114 Holford, Third vindication, op. cit., note 88 above, pp. 151–2.

115 Ibid., p. 136.

116 Latham, op. cit., note 13 above, pp. 195–7.

117 Holford, An account, op. cit., note 19 above, pp. 34–5.

118 Ibid., p. 331.

119 Holford, Third vindication, op. cit., note 88 above, p. 71.

120Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 200. For modern descriptions of scurvy see Jay H Steen (ed.), Internal medicine, St Louis, Mosby, 1998, p. 2107; and P J Rees and D G Williams, Principles of clinical medicine, London, Arnold, 1995, p. 417.

121Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 205.

122 Ibid., p. 9.

123 Ibid., p. 175.

124 Ibid., p. 394.

125 Latham, op. cit., note 13 above, p. 236.

126 Ibid., pp. 28–9.

127 Carpenter, op. cit., note 5 above, pp. 204–8.

128Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 97.

129 Ibid., p. 104.

130 Roy Porter, The greatest benefit to mankind: a medical history of humanity from Antiquity to the present, London, HarperCollins, 1997, p. 295.

131First report of Inspector of Prisons, Northern District, PP 1836 (117), XXXV, 161, p. 39.

132Surgeon's journal, Littledean House of Correction, Gloucestershire Record Office, Q/Gli 18/3.

133First report, op. cit., note 131 above, p. 49.

134Second report of Inspector of Prisons, Home District, PP 1837 (89), XXXII, 1, p. 81.

135 Ibid., p. 304.

136Ninth report of Inspector of Prisons, Northern and Eastern District, PP 1844 (595), XXIX, 227, p. 15.

137Tenth report of Inspector of Prisons, Northern and Eastern District, PP 1845 (675), XXIV, 1, p. 197.

138Seventh report of Inspector of Prisons, Northern and Eastern District, PP 1842 (420), XXI, 1, pp. 141–2.

139 Ley: obsolete form of lye. Lye is alkalinized water used for washing cloth, OED.

140Fifteenth report of Inspector of Prisons, Southern and Western District, PP 1850 (1236), XXVIII, 579, p. 31.

141 Robert Christison, ‘Account of an epidemic of scurvy which prevailed at the General Prison at Perth in 1846’, The Monthly Journal of Medical Science, 1847, 78: 873–91, passim.

142 Carpenter, op. cit., note 5 above, pp. 103–9, 127.

143 Baly, op. cit., note 92 above, passim.

144Twelfth report of Inspector of Prisons, Southern and Western District, PP 1847–48 (908), XXXV, 1, pp. v–vi.

145Thirteenth report of Inspector of Prisons, Northern District, PP 1847–48 (997), XXXVI, 361, pp. 24, 20.

146Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 57.

147 Ibid., p. 60.

148Report, op. cit., note 9 above, p. 2. The value of autopsy evidence is, in any event, of doubtful value. The examinations could not be carried out until the coroner's inquest was complete: usually three or four days after death.

149Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 242.

150 Ibid., p. 69.

151 Ibid., p. 91.

152Report, op. cit., note 9 above, p 2.

153 Ibid., p. 3.

154 Ibid., p. 4.

155Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 69.

156 Latham, op. cit., note 13 above, pp. 146–51.

157 Ibid., p. 203.

158Report, op. cit., note 12 above, p. 22.

159 Ibid., p. 53.

160 Ibid., p. 46.

161 Carpenter, op. cit., note 5 above, p. 203.

162Further papers, op. cit., note 57 above, p. 10.

163Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 283.

164 Ibid., pp. 255–86. The patient in question was Mary Turner, aged fourteen, sentenced to death. She probably died of tuberculosis, and according to the chaplain, “I have seldom been with so young a person who bore a severe affliction with so much resignation and patience” (ibid., p. 206).

165 Arthur Griffiths, Memorials of Millbank and Chapters in prison history, vol. 1, London, King, 1875, pp. 69–70.

166Report, op. cit., note 11 above, pp. 255–86.

167The Times, 4 March 1823.

168Report, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 117.

169 Ibid., p 119.

170 Ibid., p. 117.

171 Baly, op. cit., note 92 above, p. 701.

172 William Baly, ‘On the mortality in prisons and the diseases most frequently fatal to prisoners’, Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, 1845, 28: 113–272, p. 116.

173 Higgins, op. cit., note 102 above, p. 236.

174Fifth report of Inspector of Prisons, Home District, PP 1840 (283), XXV, 1, pp. 211–12.

175 Latham, op. cit., note 13 above, p. 221.