12 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE Mr. Do you believe he performs that duty ?— I have no doubt of it. John McMullen. y0U aware of the sum that is paid to the physician of the county of Dublin ___ ^ / jp— per annum. (. 1 May.) For one gaol ?— Yes. That gaol, of course, more healthy and airy than the Dublin prisons; than New- gate, for instance ?— Not more so than the bridewell, I should think, nor so much so. Than Newgate?— More healthy, possibty, than Newgate. The description of prisoners that are committed to it, more healthy and vigorous, as generally coming from the country ?— I think they are much the same. Do you think that the prisoners of the city, generally speaking, are as healthy and strong a set of persons as the prisoners coming from the airy situations in the country ?— Perhaps not quite so much so; but I do not think there can be any important difference. Are you aware that the city prisoners are more than five times the number of the county prisoners ?— I believe so. Do you believe that they nearly equal ten times?— Probably about she times. Then in the ordinary course of proceedings, and suppose the healthiness of the county and city to be equal, he has six times the duty to perform that the physician of the county of Dublin has?— Supposing the number of patients to be the same. Has he not six times the number of patients, and five times the number of houses ?— He has ; but the distance which the physician of the gaol of Kilmainham, residing as he does in Dublin, has to traverse, I conceive to be nearly equal to the distance in the whole round of the city of Dublin gaols. Which do you conceive is farthest from the centre of the city, to Kilmainham or to Richmond penitentiary ?— 1 think Kilmainham considerably the farthest. Do you conceive the distance greater from Newgate to Richmond penitentiary, or from Newgate to Kilmainham ?— I conceive the distance from Newgate to Kilmain- ham the greatest. What is the distance from the Smithfield penitentiary to Richmond bridewell?— Probably a mile and a half. You have stated the proportion between what is paid to the physician of the Cork- street fever hospital and to the physician of the gaols ?— I have. How many physicians are there at the Cork- street institution?— I believe there are six, but the salaries paid to them all are not, collectively, equal to the salary paid to the physician to the prisons. They attend in rotation ?— They do. Month about?— I believe so. Then each physician has only two months attendance ?— I suppose so. # Are you aware of any difference between the situation of a person attending a gaol and that of a person attending an hospital, in the public estimation ; do you look upon hospital practice to bean introduction to private practice?— I look upon all medical practice to be improving, and consequently calculated to introduce the practitioner to other business. Is not hospital practice looked to by medical men as leading in probability to private business?— I rather consider it as being looked to as a means of improve- ment. Do not you think they look to it as an introduction to private business, and that they have that object in view in being made physicians to the hospital?— The fact may be so, but it never has occurred to me; I cannot see how it should introduce them to respectable families or to private practice. Are you aware, or do you believe, that the circumstance of being physician to a gaol, owing to a prejudice on that subject, rather precludes him from private practice than introduces him to it?— I have never met with such an opinion. Do you believe that no prejudice exists against gaol fevers and gaol distempers ?— I think in the city of Dublin no such prejudice does exist, for I have heard it frequently stated that in the gaol of Newgate a case of fever scarcely ever exists. Do you believe ihat the simple absence of a good cause precludes the likelihood and the possibility of prejudice existing ?— The absence of cause does not preclude prejudice; if cause exists it is no longer prejudice. Then, in point of fact, there may be prejudice though there is no good cause for that prejudice?— Certainly; but in this case I am not aware that it exists, njr do I believe it.