DRUNK OR ILL?

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 924, 26 September 1896, Page 6

DRUNK OR ILL?

A Police Diagnosis,,

We heartily pity the unfortunate individual, man or woman, who is seized with Bndden illness even remotely resembling intoxication, and who falls into the clutches of the police. Tbe average policeman who finds anyone in a speechless and unconscious or semi-conscious condition invariably jumps to the conclusion that ' drink ' is responsible for the trouble, and runs the unfortunate in, if indeed he does not punch his prisoner's head into the bargain. A few hours' confinement in a whitewashed cell, with bare boards to lie on and a raised plank by way of a pillow, may work wonders when the prisoner ia really suffering from the effects of overindulgence in whisky or beer ; but it not infrequently happens that the supposed drunkard is nothing of the kind, and that the symptoms which Robert in his ignorance and indifference attributes to ' booze ' are due to quite other and infinitely more serious causes. A recent Christchurch incident is a case in point. A man was found in a paddock off the Lincoln Road by a police constable, who ran him in and placed him in a padded cell This was at 415 p.m., when, according to the watch-hcuse keeper at Christchurch police-3tation, the prisoner 'appeared to be suffering from the effects of drink. 1 The man's condition growing more and more serious Dr. Symes, the police-surgeon, was telegraphed for several times, but was away from home, and as he didn't put in an appearance Dr. Moorhouße was rung up at 10.30. He was promptly in attendance, but found the man (one McKinney) in a dying state, and at 10.50 he died. The post mortem disclosed that deceased had been suffering from heart-disease, bat that, in the opinion of Dr Moorhouse, who made this examination, death was due to exposure. So here was a man thrust into a policecell at 4.15 p.m., practically in a dying state, and did not receive a visit from a doctor for six hours and a quarter, and when he was just about to expire ! One constable declared at the inquest that ' the case was the worst he had ever seen in a lock-up.' Another that ' the prisoner was in a very weak state and semi-conscious,' and yet no doctor was in attendance until

the unfortunate man was literally at his Jast gasp I McKinney bore an excellent character, bnt received the treatment of a criminal because ' he appeared to be suffering from the effects of drink ' — in the opinion of the police — although Dr. Moorhouse distinctly stated that ' there was no smell of alcohol ' about him. The jury added a rider to their verdict, ' that in the event of the police doctor not being obtainable when called upon, another medical man should be got at once.' We fancy a case of a somewhat similar nature occurred some years ago in the Auckland lock-up. Anyhow, more than one arrest has been made in which the accused person was not drunk, but really ill. But the policeman seldom thinks of using any discrimination; a 'drunk' is a 'case,' and many cases spell promotion. It is pitiful to think that such cases as that of McKinney's may and do occur, and that a man should spend his last hours in the cold police-cell because of the stupidity of police constables, and the still stupider police red-tape regulations.