§ MR. M. HEALYI beg to ask the right hon. Gentleman why the fact that 776 the prison doctor of Tullamore considered that Mr. John Cullinane was suffering not from influenza, but (as turned out to be correct) from typhoid fever, was not communicated to the House of Commons in reply to the questions put on the subject in the first instance; and who was responsible for suppressing this fact?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThere appears to have been no concealment whatever in the matter; it was simply a matter of disagreement as to symptoms between the doctor and the medical member of the Board. I have just received a long Report, which if the hon. Member desires I will read; but it is not very important. Summarised it amounts to this, that the prison doctor thought the earlier symptoms in the case were those of typhoid fever, but the medical member of the Board came down, and seeing the prisoner thought that it was an attack of influenza, there being a good deal of influenza in the town of Tullamore. As it turned out, his conclusion was erroneous; the malady was typhoid fever.
§ MR. M. HEALYI am making no complaint about that; my question relates to the fact that several days after when a question was asked in this House as to what Mr. Cullinane was suffering from, and though the doctor had pronounced the illness typhoid fever, in effect the answer given here to the question implied that Mr. Cullinane was suffering from influenza. Who is responsible for this incorrect information being given to the House?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe hon. Member, I think, attaches too much importance to a trifling matter. [The right hon. Gentleman proceeded to read the Report.]