The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1890. TIMARU HOSPITAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1991, 7 January 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1890. TIMARU HOSPITAL.

We did not think when we published our article on the Timaru Hospital last Saturday morning that we would find ourselves called upon to return to the subject so soon. Little did we imagine that at the very hour we ware penning that article last Friday afternoon the inhuman rules of that institution were being enforced, in all their brutal vigor, against a poor woman, whose helplessness was so deplorable that it might very well have awakened sympathy in the heart of the unmentionable Turk. Yet such was the case, as will be seen by referring to a letter signed Thomas Eo-an, which appears in another column.

Prom that it will be seen that the terrible drama enacted in the case of the girl Warne was being reproduced in all its revolting details while we were writing on the subject. It is difficult to write in the language of moderation on a subject so well calculated to awken feelings of indignation. There was a poor woman, with, literally speaking, the death rattle in her throat, at the door of a public hos-

pital, begging to be allowed to enter, and the barbarous rules forbidding her to do so. We have not one word to say against the staff. Perhaps New Zealand might be travelled from Auckland to the Bluff before a more kind-hearted or a better steward and stewardess could be found than Mr

and Mrs Jowsey. They are not to blame, and probably Dr Hogg is not to blame either, although it is our opinion that if he had been made of the stuff of which true men are made he would have broken a thousand rules, aud faced the consequences sooner than lend himself to the per-

petration ot such an inhuman transaction. His action contrasted strangely with the heroic promptitude with which Dr Maclntyre jumped into the breach. Blood will tell. The man of generous impulses did not study con-

sequences when duty called on him. All other considerations were sunk in the desire to ameliorate the sufferings of a fellow creature. In this Dr MacIntyre has not only done honor to himself, but also to his profession. He redeemed his profession from the odium which the affair would have attached to it.

However, our object is not to praise or dispraise persons. Our quarrel is wjth the rules, or by-laws, and their makers. The girl Warne was not admitted, because, forsooth, she had not an order or certificate from someone or somebody. Mrs Egan suffered under no such disability • she had an order but it did not avail. Her medical adviser stated the nature of her ailment, and the barbarous rules said : ‘‘ Persons suffering from such a complaint cannot enter,” Only very recently thousands upon thousands of pounds of the people’s money were spent on enlarging that institution, yet such is the story we have to tell now : “ Certain patients cannot enter it more especially if there appears any doubt as to their ability to pay 3fis

per week. In the name of common sense, what is an hospital for, if it is not to treat disease in all its forms, and more especially the ailment objected to in this case ? It is not a generally contagious disease; it is only

contagious with regard to persons in a similar state of health, and such persons do not frequent the hospital, It is not a lying-in hospital; its medical superintendent has not to attend to the class to whom the disease would be contagious; and in the name of

sanity what is the barrier placed in the way of the ailment referred to tor ? Is there a legitimate reason that can suggest itself to any sane mind ? But, putting that particular question aside, Are we to understand that our hospital, after all we have spent on it, is only fit to receive certain classes of patients? And, if so, what is to become of the others ?

Are such as are not admissible by the rules to rot on roadsides if they have I no other home to go to ? We want to know, for instance, what would have become of the girl Warne if her sad plight had not appealed to the humanity of Mrs Werry, who took her into her house ? And what must have been Mrs Worry’s feelings when next day she found she had harbored amongst her boarders a patient suffer-

ing trom malignant diphtheria ? Was it any wonder when Mrs Egan was taken to her house a few days afterwards she refused to accommodate her ? Can anyone blame Mrs Werry for refusing to take into her boarding-house a case

of sickness which was refused admittance to the hospital ? To the lay mind a case that is too bad to be let into the hospital is too dangerous to admit anywhere else. What is to be done ? Must the onus of providing accommodation for certain classes of

patients be thrown on the boardinghouse keepers of Timaru ? Can we ask them to undertake such duties ? It is evident that if homeless persons happen to become afflicted by diseases which are not admissible into the hospital the boarding-house keepers must take them in, or the patients must die in the ditches. There is apparently no other alter-

native. Is this to go on? Are the people of bouth Canterbury going to allow these brutal things to be done in their name ? Are they going to allow it to spread abroad that they are so inhuman as to look with complacency on such callous-hearted deeds as last week witnessed ? These reflect discredit on us all, and the sooner we wipe away the stain the better. Let it be remembered, too, that in all probability many others have suffered

in a similar manner. The ease of the girl Warne would never have come to light only for the prosecution which arose out of it, and probably Mrs Egan’s case would not have been heard of either, only that the article in our

last issue suggested to her husband to make his complaint known to us. Thus it was by accident that these eases came to light, and very probably a great many others have received equally cruel treatment without anyone knowing it. These things are so astoundingly inhuman, uncharitable,

and so unchristian that they ought to be sufficient to cause people to rise in rebellion against them. We call the attention of ministers of religion to them. It is their duty to direct the moral feelings of their flocks, and these are eases in which they may legitimately appeal to them." We think it would be well within the sphere of their functions to denounce such heartlessness from their pulpits. The people ought to see at once that the hospital is open at all hours to all classes. If by chance undeserving cases enter they can be expelled again.

The poor ought not to be called upon to pay, and sleuth-hounds ought not to be put on their track the moment they leave the hospital to watch them until they get a few days’ work, so as to make them pay. The poor working man loses his earnings while in the hospital, and that is enough without calling on him to pay 35s per week. People who can afford it may legitimately be called upon to pay, but it is a disgrace to our civilisation that poor working men are watched tor years afterwards so as to make them pay. We hope the people will take

these matters in hand, and see them put right. THE TIMARU HERALD. Ihe Timaru Herald came out yester-

day morning with an article defending the hospital. It is very easy to read between the lines of this article. The hospital authorities felt ashamed of themselves when they saw the article

we published with regard to the girl j Warne, and concluded very naturally that we would return to the subject in the case of Mrs Egan. They thought to forestall us, and publish their own version of the story before ours could possibly see the light. Only for this the public would never

have hea rd of it. We are glad to have been able to force them to this, and now what is the result ? Mrs Egan is to have every attention shown her, and a doctor is to be brought specially from Dunedin to attend her. This is the first fruit of our article, and we

are proud of it. Uontrast this with the “ how dare you bring her here ” of last Friday. And now let anyone contrast Mr Egan’s statement of the case with the way it has been glossed

over in the Timaru Herald. The Herald says “ that the Mayor and Dr Hogg took immediate steps to secure private lodgings for the patient.” It *•

Was the secretary and Mr Jowsey did ) i it, when they found her husband It

would not leave the precincts of the hospital. Her husband forced them to it, after keeping her in the broiling sun over 2 hours. If her husband had been weak enough to leave when ordered to do so, the hospital authorities would have done nothing in the matter. And did they not warn Mrs South they would only be responsible for one week!. Mr Egan deserves credit for the way he fought them. Then all the blame is thrown on the shoulders of Dr Blunden for having sent her in at all, but the fact is Dr Blunden did not send her in. He merely gave a certificate as to her ailment when asked to do so. Then with an amount of medical knowledge, which denotes that there was a doctor at the elbow of the writer, we are treated to a tremendous discourse on the dangers of allowing such cases into a hospital. If there is danger in an hospital there must be danger out of it. Where is the patient to go ? In the barbarous past we are told that persons suffering from certain diseases were stifled to death to prevent the contagion spreading. Are we to re-enforce such rude methods again ? The hospital ought to be prepared to receive such cases and treat them, for where are they to go if not to the hospital? Then the Herald tries to gloss over the case of the girl Warne. It says the delay in admitting her occurred because it was suspected she also was suffering from puerperal septismmia, but the Herald last week told us that Dr Hogg examined her and pronounced her ailment malignant diphtheria, and that she was not admitted because she had no certificate. Is not the afterthought of the Herald a clear case of glossing over ? Malignant diphtheria and no certificate last week, a suspicion of puerperal fever yesterday ! Shame on the Herald to lend itself to gloss over such inhuman practices as these. The Tiinaru people now have no means of knowing better; they have no other paper to expose the affair. They had a paper which would have exposed this, but they allowed it to die of starvation with the old year, and left toe Herald no opponent. Whatever version the Herald will give of a case, therefore, will pass uncontradicted, and the paper which cloaked over the two cases we have referred to would do anything. Great wrongs, dark and foul deeds, may be perpetrated in Timaru now without anyone being the wiser, unless it suits the Herald to expose them. 'I he people, however, can only blame themselves. They supported the Herald, and allowed the honest Liberal paper to die, and consequently they have to put up with the consequences.