Hospital and Institutional News

411 January 17, 1914. THE HOSPITAL HOSPITAL AND INSTITUTIONAL NEWS. and DEATH OF A LONDON HOSPITAL CHAIRMAN. diets, extras, stimulants properly requisitioned- the medical officer. refusal to the The death of Mr. Ernest Arthur Lazarus-Barlow, by Any obey instructions of the medical officer in this matter brother of the medical man alluded to in our article " a " would the master in very serious on the Cancer Cure controversy elsewhere in place position. He could be dismissed by the Local Government this issue, removes an of personal service apostle Board for not carrying out the duties of his office, from the voluntary hospitals. Among the many and, in the event of the patient's death being charities with which he was associated special caused or hastened by his neglect to the mention must be made of the French Hospital, to supply stimulants ordered, he might have to answer to a. which he was treasurer and chairman successively more serious charge. The most extraordinary of the board of in which capacity management, that occurred at the meeting was that Mr.' J. he received President Poincare when he visited thing Gill, the chairman, who explained to one member the last The Legion of Honour hospital year. the of the clerk, was one of those was conferred on him for his services to legal position who voted in favour of refusing further requisitions. the institution and to the French colony, any charity in connection with which immediately INFIRMARY OFFICERS AND MATERNITY BENEFIT. his interest. awakened The other instance, referred to above, occurred A PERSONAL NOTE. at Bethnal Green. Here the Board of Guardians a resolution that no officers shall We have received the following personal note: passed sign any " or other to enable the mother of an Mr. Ernest A. Lazarus-Barlow, who died certificate paper born in an institution of the suddenly on the 9th inst. at Lis residence at illegitimate child, to receive benefit unless such: West Mersea, was always, glad to escape thither, Guardians, maternity mother shall a written authority to the post when his many activities would permit, to indulge give or her to the whole of in his favourite pastime of yachting. He suc- office approved society pay the direct to the Guardians. This cumbed, at the age of to a second thirty shillings fifty-eight, of affects the medical attack of apoplexy, a previous one having been resolution, course, chiefly and as far as are concerned it has no fatal. He was one of the directors officers, they nearly force at because it is contrary to of the Comptoir National d'Escompte de Paris, binding all, finan- article 20o of the General Order of July 1847,- and manager of the London agency of that (3) hon. which makes it the of a medical officer to give cial institution. In 1893 he became the " duty a certificate to the 011 whom he is attend- treasurer of the French Hospital, and in 1909 was pauper of the sickness of such or other cause of elected by his colleagues as chairman of the com- ing, pauper his attendance when to do so." Parliament mittee. He was a man deeply attached to the required decided that a whether married fer interests of the hospital and its associated con- having mother, if a is entitled to benefit, valescent home at Brighton, and his business not, worker, maternity have no to to the- instincts and clear vision were a most valuable Guardians right try penalise unmarried mother. we confi- aid to the and of the work Fortunately, may development prosperity a was most deli- upon the medical officers to ignore carried on. His generosity also dently rely resolution which is both illegal and unjust. cately bestowed on both institutions." A WOMAN PIONEER OF LUNACY REFORM. ILLEGAL RESOLUTIONS BY SOUTH SHIELDS GUARDIANS. A notable personality in the history of the with death Boakds of Guardians often pass illegal resolu- modern lunacy laws passes away the of Mrs. Weldon in the of tions which have to be quietly rescinded subse- Georgina mid-seventies a letter. Two her life. The in which this last quently or allowed to remain dead obscurity lady's were shrouded was as as recent examples, however, are of importance years complete the pub- to the with name because they illustrate how the powers given licity connected her in the 'seventies medical officers of Poor-Law institutions by the and eighties, as the celebrated heroine of Orders of the Local Government Board: enable those numerous cases in the Law Courts. In 1878 an officers to protect the inmates from injustice, and attempt was made, at the instigation of her friends how important it is that those powers should and relatives, to spirit her away to a private remain undiminished by maintaining the status of asylum on the apparent ground that her philan- the medical officer and his independence as regards thropic project, teaching orphans, and her separa- the Guardians and the Guardians' other officials. tion from her husband implied some n^emtal, In South Shields the Guardians have adopted a aberration. She baffled her would-be captors, resolution, moved by Mr. H. E. Lincoln, that and as soon as the Married Woman's Property courts intoxicating liquors requisitioned by Dr. J. Dudgeon Act of 1882 allowed a woman to sue in the instituted Giles, the medical officer, for the use of his patients without her husband's consent she under be no longer supplied. This resolution is distinctly proceedings against Dr. Forbes Winslow, illegal. The Orders of the Local Government Board whose care she was to have been placed. After to the medical officer absolute discretion as to Having her case debarred from going to a jury by give in the diet and stimulants to be given to any sick Baron Huddleston, the Divisional Court, 1884, inmate, and the master is compelled to supply all accorded her a verdict of ?1,000 damages against 412 THE HOSPITAL January 17, 1914. v , , 1 one of the medical men who signed the certificate TRUANT SCHOOLS AND ALTERNATIVE REFORMS of lunacy. The trial, which lasted ten days, Dr. M. L. Tyler, of the London Homoeopathic excited immense public interest, and focussed Hospital, has drawn attention to the case of an attention on the horrors permissible under the then epileptic boy of six, brought to the institution after Laws. Her renewed efforts Dr. Lunacy against being struck on the head by the radiator of a motor Winslow at in a of length resulted verdict- ?500 omnibus. Dr. Tyler explains that this child had him for assault. A London damages against paper been charged before a Clerkenwell magistrate for was mulcted of a similar sum in the same year for truancy, and sentenced to three years' attendance but the next she herself was sentenced libel, year at a "truants' school," near Drury Lane. His to six for M. months' imprisonment libelling home is in the north of London, and, it seems, the musician. She from Riviere, emerged prison, he had to get up at 6 a.m. to wait for a boy aged however, under a writ of habeas corpus, to gain nearly eleven to pilot him to school, and back ?10,000 against Gounod, the composer between 7.30 and 8 at The " damages again night. pilot of another musical friend with Faust," for libel, liking to perch on the back of carts, his protege whom she In the same eventually quarrelled. had to cling on to the chain, from which one day were awarded her year, 1885, ?1,000 damages he fell, and thus was sent to hospital. This ghastly against Sir Henry de Bathe, who, it was stated, story?imagine how Dickens would have told it!? on had given the order, at her husband's request, leads Dr. Tyler to condemn the system which makes certificate for her detention as which the medical magistrates relegate epileptic children of six to a lunatic was Her interest in the reform granted. attend schools, with apparently no thought of the of the Laws is shown in the lectures she Lunacy distance they may have to travel, and the conse- and the that she edited on the gave periodical quent risk they run and also cause in the London She even went on the to act in a subject. stage streets. If it is necessary to have truant schools, entitled "Not the of which play Alone," object they should ibe resident schools, since, as this case was to the evils which the law expose permitted. shows, opportunities for truancy and something She was to at the in engaged sing Pavilion?quite much worse are bound to flourish so long as only modern manner. How far she was from the being daily attendance is demanded. Or, failing that, fit incarceration be from the fact for may judged an ambulance as exists for the special schools, her own case in all the actions that she conducted should fetch the children to and fro. We hope which she undertook. that Dr. Tyler will continue his investigations, and inform us of THE NEW HEART INSTITUTION OPENED. the possibility of l'eorganising the truant school either method. On Monday last Prince Arthur of Connauglit system by the new of the National opened buildings Hospital ONCE MORE THE BRITISH HOSPITAL FOR of in for Diseases the Heart, Westmoreland Street, MENTAL DISORDERS. Marylebone, of which we publish an illustrated In successive issues we have called attention to on another page. The description hospital's the President, Lord Verulam, received Prince Arthur unsatisfactory state of affairs which prevails at this and accompanied him to the out-patient waiting- so-called hospital.

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