§ CAPTAIN DAWSON-DAMERsaid, he would beg to ask the President of the Poor Law Board, Whether it is the case that three or four patients recently brought to the Fever Hospital from different workhouses were found dead on arrival there, in consequence of having been convoyed in a sitting posture in cabs, instead of being conveyed in proper ambulances; and whether each I parish should not be bound to provide a fever ambulance?
§ MB. GOSCHEN, in reply, said, it was unfortunately too true that the three or four patients referred to were found dead on their arrival at the Fever Hospital. Although it could not be said that their having been conveyed in a sitting posture caused the deaths, the medical officers stated that it may have materially contributed to the result, which was, of course, much to be deplored. With regard to the second part of the Question, he stated that parishes were not bound to provide ambulances, and that these patients were conveyed, not in ordinary cabs but in what are called parish cabs. 627 The matter was under the consideration of the Poor Law Board, and it was a question whether the Metropolitan Asylum Board should not take the matter in hand and provide proper carriages for the purpose. He added that the patients who had died were not carried a very long distance; it was the sitting posture and not the distance that caused their deaths.