QGR2/7/1/8

Annual Medical Report of the prison, by suregeon Robert Couchman to the Michaelmas Sessions Includes the following:

16 October 1871

From: 1871 To: 1871

The majority have undergone their various sentences of impisonment with unimpaired health. The prison has always been perfectly clean and well ventilated and the cells properly warmed during the winter, and clothing has been, in most cases, quite sufficient to maintain the prisoners in health. One of the prisoners threw himself from the second floor of the prison and very severely injured his feet and ankles for a long period. He was, in consequence, unable to leave his cell for several weeks, and was attacked with a most severe form of gaol scurvy, from which he had not entirely recovered when removed from prison to undergo a sentence of penal servitude. Another prisoner, sentenced to eight months imprisonment was in a weak state of health on committal in February 1st and received a free pardon on April 27th suffering then from disease of the lungs. Another had a severe attack of typhus fever, but had partially recovered his strength when his sentence of imprisonment had expired. Two others have been removed to Fisherton Asylum suffering from lunacy, and there is now one in prison for whom application has been made to the Secretary of State for removal to an asylum. In the families of two of these prisoners, insanity exists, and some of the members have been already confined in an asylum. One of the prisoners committed to gaol in November last for a period of eighteen months was attacked with exhaustion of the brain and nervous system, and died after an illness of ten days duration in May last.

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BEDFORD, Fisherton, general justices of the peace, chaplains, prison governors, Quarter Sessions, imprisonment, Bedford Gaol, County Gaol, House of Correction, crime, punishment, surgeon, health, disease, medicine, injury, clothing, suicide, scurvy, typhus, lunacy, mental health