HC Deb 13 March 1913 vol 50 cc406-8
37. Mr. TOUCHE

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, during an attempt to feed the suffragist prisoner, Miss Lenton, the tube used was introduced into the trachea, thereby causing some of the liquid food to pass into the lung; whether Miss Lenton was thereupon released from prison, it being the opinion of the medical officer in charge that her life was in danger; and whether the doctor who examined her on her release found that pleurisy was present together with lung mischief?

The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. McKenna)

There is no foundation for the statement which has been made that the tube entered the trachea, or that any food passed into the lung, and I am obliged to the hon. Member for affording me an opportunity of giving the statement an emphatic contradiction. Miss Lenton's collapse occurred some hours after she was fed, and was due to the bad state of her health aggravated by her refusal of food. She resisted medical examination while in prison, but since her release, her own medical attendant has formed the opinion that she was suffering from pleurisy.

Mr. REMNANT

In the event of this or any other lady suffering permanent injury from treatment she receives in prison will the right hon. Gentleman or the doctor who administers the treament be responsible?

Mr. McKENNA

I must wait until a case arises in which any person has suffered any injury from her treatment in prison.

38. Mr. KING

asked the right hon. Gentleman if he is aware of recent pathological experiments, made on patients incapable of taking food, which tend to establish the fact that dugong oil, if persistently rubbed into the pores of the skin daily, will keep the patient alive for several weeks; and whether he will use this method of treatment as an alternative for the forcible feeding of prisoners?

Mr. McKENNA

I am informed that cod-liver oil has been frequently applied by inunction to infants to combat malnutrition, but with very doubtful success. In any case the prolongation of life by this means would be very limited.

Mr. KING

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that since I put this question on the Paper I have received letters from gentlemen attributing the saving of their lives to this process?

Mr. McKENNA

I can quite understand that to be the case, but it would only be possible to adopt this practice where the feeding was required as a temporary process. In the prison cases it would hardly be sufficient.

Mr. CATHCART WASON

Has dugong anything to do with cod?

Mr. McKENNA

I have replied with regard to cod-liver oil. The process would be the same.

Mr. KING

Does not dugong oil differ from cod-liver oil in this respect, that it is very much more pungent in smell?