234 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



eighteen years old, who superintended one of these 

 anchors, and was son of the man who refused to 'leave 

 old England,' most incautiously lifted the rope, 

 which had temporarily slipped from its place, with 

 his right hand, and it was instantly dragged into the 

 pulley, and three of the fingers were smashed and 

 partly torn off. As the county infirmary was 

 within a short distance, his hand was bound up, and 

 he walked immediately to the hospital attended by 

 his father. The house surgeon dressed the hand, 

 placing the fingers into place, and the lad was put 

 to bed in great pain, but by the evening he was 

 quite comfortable. The next day he was so much 

 better that he got up and walked in the grounds of 

 the institution. By the end of the week, five days 

 after the accident, he was still better, so that with 

 his left hand he wheeled about, in a bath chair, 

 another patient. The next day he complained to 

 the matron that he had ' a stiff neck,' and had some 

 difficulty in swallowing. She at once saw the 

 danger of these symptoms, and on the doctor 

 examining him, he found lockjaw had set in rapidly, 

 and to the grief and dismay of his parents, and all 

 of us, the next day he died of tetanus. Here was 

 an act of the victim's own imprudence — one to be 

 greatly deplored, as he was a promising young 

 fellow — and the accident was caused by a portion 

 of machinery in the open field, which was im- 

 possible to be fenced in. It would therefore be 

 difficult to decide how the new compensation Act 

 would work under such circumstances. No man 



