“A gaoler, knowing a prisoner to be infected with an epidemic[97] distemper, confines another prisoner against his will, in the same room with him, by which he catches the infection, of which the gaoler had notice, and the prisoner dies; this is a felonious killing. _Stra._ 856; 9 _St. Tri._ 146. So, to confine a prisoner in a low damp unwholesome room, not allowing him the common conveniences which the decencies of nature require, by which the habits of his constitution are so affected as to produce a distemper of which he dies; this also is felonious homicide. _Stra._ 884; _Lord Raym._ 1578. For although the law invests gaolers with all necessary powers for the interest of the commonwealth, they are not to behave with the least degree of wanton cruelty to their prisoners. _O. B._ 1784, p. 1177; and these were deliberate acts of cruelty, and enormous violations of the trust the law reposeth in its ministers of justice. _Forster_, 322.” See I _Hawk._ P. C. by _Leach_, p. 119. Previous to the researches of the celebrated _John Howard_, (see his treatise on Prisons and Lazarettos) our prisons appear to have been in a most disgraceful state; they are now greatly improved, but something may yet be done for their amelioration, more particularly as affecting the health of the prisoners; and this principally, by allowing the most unrestrained medical inspection by disinterested practitioners, who should be as much as possible unconnected with local prejudices, or partialities; some of the parliamentary regulations of madhouses might in this respect be usefully extended to all places of confinement; those who are not _sui juris_ are ever entitled to additional protection.[98] The best practical proof of improvement, in the construction of our prisons, and in our prison discipline, is to be found in the disappearance of that fatal pest, which was commonly called the gaol fever, a disorder which, with something of retributive justice, frequently extended its ravages to those, whose proper vigilance might have prevented its generation. At the assizes held at Oxford in 1577,[99] called the black assize, we learn from _Baker’s_ Chronicle (p. 353) that all who were present died within forty hours: the Lord Chief Baron, the Sheriff, and about three hundred more. _Lord Bacon_ ascribed the fatality to a disease brought into court by the prisoners, and _Dr. Mead_ entertained the same opinion; nor was similar infection, though to a less extent, an uncommon occurrence[100], see vol. 1, p. 125. The ancient practice of strewing the court with aromatic herbs and flowers, and presenting bouquets to the Judges, is said to have derived its origin from the idea of preventing infection: fresh air, still wanting in our courts, would have proved a more powerful, and not less agreeable prophylaitic. BY WOUNDING, OR BLOWS.