INTRODUCTION. xxi 



powder-mill. During the last two years of my office 

 (1848 and 1849) out of 800 prisoners, only twenty- 

 one patients died in the space of twelve months, and 

 they, of severe wounds, marasmus, or dysentery. 

 The jail, with its hospital, is situated outside the city, 

 in one of the filthiest quarters, where all the wells of 

 the neighbourhood contain briny or bitter water ; and 

 notwithstanding all my endeavours and remons- 

 trances, I could not obtain from the government any 

 better nourishment for my patients, than the usual 

 jail diet, so that I was obliged, in several cases, to 

 have recourse to a part of the unemployed funds of 

 the public hospital of the Durbar, in order to provide 

 such comforts as were necessary. Taking these 

 circumstances into consideration, my management 

 was peculiarly fortunate ; for, during a period of two 

 years from the foundation of that hospital, not a 

 single patient died of an acute disease — such as in- 

 flammation, fever, cholera, serpent bites, &c., of 

 which I had many cases ; some of them so danger- 

 ous, that I had to visit the patients three or four 

 times a-day. My successor was less fortunate ; for, 

 during the first six months after the annexation (from 

 May till October 1849) while I was still in the coun- 

 try, he lost upwards of sixty patients out of 1,000, 

 not to mention those v/ho were dismissed as incurable, 

 I may state, with regard to the latter, that the ex- 

 periments I made on similar diseases had often been^ 

 crowned with success. It was thought that the 

 great mortality during these six months was caused 

 by the small and unhealthy situation of the hospital, 

 in consequence of which a larger was built, on the 

 opposite side of the jail. The prisoners received 

 better nourishment, were not so oppressed by hard 



