Joseph Rogers, M.D.: Reminiscences of a Workhouse Medical OfficerRogers, Joseph
History
Joseph Rogers, M.D.: Reminiscences of a Workhouse Medical Officer
Rogers, Joseph
Charities, Medical -- Great Britain; Poor laws -- Great Britain
On the day after, in company with a pauper inmate, told off to carry the
Medical Relief Book, I went through the wards for the purpose of seeing
the infirm men and women who were on extras. I found on the women's side
that, as it was leave-day, many had gone out, and therefore drew the
inference that if they were well enough to go out they could dispense
with sausages, ham, tripe, eggs, &c., entered against their names, and
could eat the ordinary infirm diet provided by Dr. Markham's diet table,
which I saw hung up in the wards, which diet table had been drawn up
from the form drafted by our Association some years before. It is
curious that he claimed it to be his, without any reference to any one.
Whilst going through the female wards some of the inmates returned
drunk, one old woman very much so. She at once proceeded to ask me who I
was, and what I was doing there. On my replying that I had come into the
ward to see why she was on a diet of daily sausages, she tartly replied,
pulling up her petticoats and showing both her legs, which she struck
with her hands, "For these bad legs." I at once ran the pen through her
name. She lived in the House years after that, but she ate no more
sausages. I learned on inquiry that this fat old woman, who could go out
and return drunk, had had sausages, nominally, as her dinner for two
years. I write nominally because I learned afterwards that in the matter
of diets an extensive system of exchange obtained throughout the House
without any check or hindrance on the part of the officials. It took me
the greater part of four days to see all the infirm people on extras,
but the result was satisfactory, as it enabled me to put the
establishment so far as the diets were concerned, on an economic basis.
The clerk of the Board assured me at the time that I had caused a saving
of some hundreds of pounds, a statement which I honestly believe was the
truth.
It might be a matter of wonder how this could be, but having regard to
the very large amount of extras purchased from day to day, none of which
were supplied under contract, it can be well understood what an
opportunity was given for large prices being charged for such extras, as
practically no check existed on the cupidity of the tradesmen (selected
by the master) who supplied these things. I do not state that such was
the case here, but unless some good understanding existed between those
who ordered and those who supplied, how is it possible that masters of
workhouses, with their limited incomes, should succeed in leaving at
their deaths so much money, as many of them do? I was informed that the
old master who preceded Catch at the Strand Union had gone there after
failing in business as a tradesman in Covent Garden, that he held office
as master twelve years, and when he died that he left some £2,000.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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