Report on the accommodation in St. Pancras workhouse / by Henry Bence Jones ; presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty.

  • Jones, Bence, 1814-1873.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the accommodation in St. Pancras workhouse / by Henry Bence Jones ; presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. 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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    the sleeping room for boys immediately below the sick ward had become more offensive since the im- provement above. In the girls’ school infirmary, or short nursery, I found the windows open before the children or nurse were up. Six children were sleeping on the floor. I was afterwards told that many of these children had been removed out of the workhouse. In all the infirmary wards I consider the present crowding too great. I find that the means for obtaining constant ventilation are most imperfect. The necessity for occasional ventilation in all the wards becomes so great that the windows are opened for many hours daily ; and that even with this occasional ventilation disease is produced and recovery protracted. In some wards the entrance of foul air is very imperfectly prevented. To what extent the numbers in each room should be reduced, with the present ventilation, can only be determined by trial. If one third, or at least one fourth, of the patients were removed, I consider that unless the constant ventilation was improved the state of the air tvould still be worse than in any London hospital. The total number of sick and infirm is so great that the infirmaries, properly so called, are incapable of containing them, and they are conse- quently put wherever room can be found for them in the various buildings of which the house con- sists. The greatest want of order and arrange- ment is thus produced. My attention was very early in the inquiry directed to the men’s receiving ward, and to the women’s receiving and casual wards. The women’s wards consist of an upper and lower room communicating by an open staircase. In these two rooms eighty and sometimes more persons sleep. Being desirous to determine chemically the im- On the men’s receiving ward and the women’s receiving and casual wards.