by the delinquents solves the mystery, and
speaks for itself:

Extract from Report of E. Gulson, Esq., after a
visit to Keynsham Union Workhouse, on the
10th April, 1866:

Is the workhouse generally adequate to the wants
of the union in respect of size and internal arrangement?

Yes.

Is the provision for the sick and for infectious
cases sufficient?

Yes.

Are the receiving wards in a proper state?

Yes.

Are there vagrant wards in the workhouse, and
are they sufficient?

Yes, for the present.

Are the arrangements for setting the vagrants to
work effective, and is the resolution of the guardians,
under 5 and 6 Vict., c. 57, sect. 5, duly observed?

Yes.

Does the visiting committee regularly inspect the
workhouse?

They visit frequently, but do not always fill up
the book.

Do any of their answers to the queries in the
workhouse regulations suggest the propriety of any
interference on the part of the commissioners?

No.

Insert a copy of any entry made since your last
visit in the visiting committee's book, or other report
book, by a Commissioner in Lunacy.

None.

Has the maximum number of inmates of the
workhouse, fixed by the commissioners, been
constantly observed since your last visit?

Yes.

Has any marked change taken place in the state
of the workhouse, the number of the inmates, or the
general condition of the union, since your last visit?

No.

Observations not falling under any of the
preceding heads, and points (if any) upon which it is
suggested that the board should write to the
guardians.

None.

Dr. Smith's reports are so arrranged and
worded that an ordinary reader might plod
through them without knowing they revealed
shameful defects; and their author's professional
knowledge is rarely exercised on behalf
of the pauper. Where blame is given, it is so
gentle, that it seems like modified praise, and
it is only by a careful comparison and analysis
of the different portions of the book that even
a proximate understanding can be arrived at of
the conclusions it conveys. Let us compare
Mr. Hawley, the district inspector, with Dr.
Smith. The former reports of the workhouse
of Oldbury Union in August, 1866:

Is the workhouse generally adequate to the wants
of the union in respect of size and internal arrangement?

Yes.

Is the provision for the sick and for infectious
cases sufficient?

Yes.

Are the receiving wards in a proper state?

Yes.

Are there vagrant wards in the workhouse, and
are they sufficient? Are the arrangements for
setting the vagrants to work effective, and is the
resolutions of the guardians under 5 and 6 Vict.
c. 57, sect. 5, duly observed?

There are no vagrant wards; the sick vagrants
are sent to the workhouse.

Dr. Smith remarks in the following month of
the same union house:

Two sick women sleep in one bed.

The ventilation is effected by fireplaces, windows,
and a few ventilators; but there were not any
ventilators in the infectious wards.

There is not a paid nurse.

Hence there are many defects in this workhouse.

The medical officer attends about four days
weekly, and remains about three-quarters of an
hour at each visit.

So that, in spite of reticence and discretion,
we come to the bare fact that the medical
inspector in chief finds "many defects," where
the local inspector declares "internal arrangements
to be adequate."

Mr. Andrew Doyle, who recently
distinguished himself by the rudeness with which he
charged one of the Lancet commissioners with
falsehood, reported of the Birkenhead union
workhouse, in July, 1866:

Is the workhouse generally adequate to the wants
of the union, in respect of size and internal arrangement?

Yes; except that the schools have not yet been
built, although a school has been organised in the
body of the house.

Is the provision for the sick and for infectious
cases sufficient?

Yes.

And the value of his certificate will be
gathered from Dr. Smith's guarded report in
February, 1867, which says:

There is no system of ventilation whatever in the
hospital, except the ordinary one of doors and
windows, and the latter were in some wards opened at
the top. It is, in my opinion, essential that a
system of ventilation should be introduced, and air
bricks placed in the outer walls. Large openings
over the doors, and ventilators in the ceilings of the
upper rooms, were also suggested. At present the
ventilation is defective. There are iron gratings in
the corridor floors.

There are two paid nurses, man and wife, in
charge of the hospital and fever wards, who, with
pauper help, attend to all the cases, by night and
day, and give each dose of medicines and
stimulants. There is not a paid night nurse, and
considering that there are fever cases now in the wards,
and probably always will be, I do not think that it
is satisfactory.

Some few inspectors, notably Mr. Cane, Mr.
Farnall, and Mr. Graves, make frequent
suggestions in their reports, and in several instances
go far beyond Dr. Smith in their advocacy of
reforms. Mr. Robert Weale, too, writes as
follows:

The Hatfield Union presents a very different
appearance from any other in my district, and I
have repeatedly referred to it in my inspectional
reports. The Commissioners in Lunacy have
frequently referred to this workhouse in terms
deprecatory of its condition. The guardians, of whom
the Marquis of Salisbury is the chairman, have