§ MR. W. H. JAMES (Gateshead)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If his attention has been called to the circumstances connected with the death of William Joslin, who died in Canterbury Prison on the 19th inst.; whether this man, while suffering from pneumonia, was called 451 upon to undergo the ordinary prison discipline; and whether, at the coroner's inquest, evidence was given to that effect; and, whether he will direct an official investigation to be made into the case?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. CHILDERS) (Edinburgh, S.)As far as I have been able to ascertain on the short Notice which my hon. Friend has given me, the prisoner William Joslin complained to the medical officer on Monday, the 15th ultimo. The next day he was taken off the treadwheel. On the 17th, he was ordered medicine and put to bed in his cell. On the 19th he was ordered into hospital, and he died on the 21st. The medical officer does not seem to me, as far as my information at present goes, to have recognized sufficiently early that the case was one of pneumonia. I shall order a most strict inquiry into the whole matter.