§ 6. Mr. RENDALLasked if Sergeant Arthur Harris, late of the 4th Gloucestershire Regiment, has recently been discharged from the Army; if, in October last, following inoculation, he became very ill, with the further result that his mind became seriously affected and he was first placed in the Severalls Asylum, Colchester, and is now in the Gloucester Asylum; whether the allowance to his wife and four children ceased to be paid on 29th March, and his family are now in receipt of no income whatever; whether the War Office affirm or deny that his illness has or may have resulted from the shock to the system caused by inoculation; and what assistance it proposes to give to the family of this soldier, who served through the South African War and who afterwards, up to the time of the present War, acted as a postman and was always in good health?
§ Mr. TENNANTA report has been called for, but has not yet been received.
12 and 13. Mr. CHANCELLORasked the Under-Secretary of State for War (1) whether he will state the name, date of 1654 enlistment, date of inoculation against typhoid, and date and place of death of a soldier in the 20th battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers (Tyneside Scottish), who was certified by a civil medical practitioner to have died from typhoid inoculation and pneumonia and heart failure; whether the entry in the register of deaths gives the cause as above; and, if not, will he explain why such an entry was not made; and (2) whether he is aware of a report by Sir Thomas Oliver, M. D., honorary colonel, 20th battalion Northumberland Fusiliers (Tyneside Scottish), that at one stage of the proceedings as regards inoculation for typhoid fever it was thought the preventive measure ran the risk of receiving a check as one of the men died shortly after the inoculation, but fortunately, although the civil medical practitioner who had attended the patient gave a certificate that death was due to typhoid inoculation and pneumonia and heart failure, the necropsy revealed heart-disease of long standing, chronic pleurisy, and an alcoholic liver; whether he has reason to suppose that many men whose bodily condition is alleged to have been so bad as in the case of this soldier are being passed into the Army by the medical examiners; whether the man was in a fit state of health for the typhoid inoculation to be performed upon him, and, if not, why was it carried out; and what action, if any, it is proposed to take against the civil medical practitioner if he gave an erroneous death certificate?
§ Mr. TENNANTInquiry is being made.