The Wanganui Chronicle AND Patea-Rangitikei Advrtiser. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1899.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIII, Issue 15000, 23 November 1899, Page 2

The Wanganui Chronicle AND Patea-Rangitikei Advrtiser. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1899.

SOMETHING WANTING. I The X'eople of the colony have been shocked on more than one occasion during the iast two or three years. by what may be termed tho tragedies of the police cells. A telegraphic message from Dunedin, published in our yesterday's issue, contained the news of yet another of these sorrowful occurrences. Tbe yictim, a woman, was according to tbe message arrested by the police in the belief that she was intoxicated, and was taken to the North Dunedin Police Station in a cab. Her arrest took place on the 6tb, and the message says:— "Between 2 and 3 a.m. iVo was sent to the Central! station in an express. Between 8 and 9 the matron- remarked that the - deceased must have -taken an awful quantity of drink, a**, she bad not slept off the effects and could not be' aroused./ A cab was procured and she was -sept jto 'tiie Hospital. The house surgeon : aii? tbe woman seemed paralysed on the.right side. When received in tbe Hospital sbe was',.unconscious." She was suffering from chronic Bright's disease .and paralysis, wincn pointed to hemorrhage of the brain. He could apt detect any signs of drink. She rallied for some days, but finally died on the 19th from cerebral apoplexy and chronic Blight's disease. The fact of the arrest,, would not in the doctor's opinion, have accelerated death, and a verdict was returned in ac4ordanc& witb the miedicat -evidence." Accepting fhe doctor's statemnt that tbe -sufferer's arrest did not tend to accelerate death, the question still remains whetbei her detention in the police cells foY so many hours, when from the veiy first she was evidently urgently in need of mediciil attendance, might not have been responsible for hurrying on her death. Now -the 'ordinary constable is not, and cannot be expected to be a medical expert, and it is naturally to be supposed that the officer who arrested the unfortunate woman and had her conveyed to le cells did only what he' honestly conceived to be his, duty. He probably found the woman lying incapable iii a-publicplace, and if, as the sergeant is reported to have said, she smelt strongly of liquor at the time of her admission, it was_ equally natural for the constable to suppose that her condition was wholly due to intoxication.' Nevertheless it is equally apparent that the poor woman was in .no i condition to be thrust into a police cell, and allowed to wait for bours before being medically examined. For the ordinary drunk, arrested .while staggering about and creating a disturbance of the pence,--%-nigbt in the police cells may not be out of place, but it is surely time when some more numane .treatment should be provided "for the helpless creature who i • picked up fn the streets. Tbe sad tase of* "Barbara Brown, the Dunedin victim, goes to show tbat it is sometimes next to impos sible to discriminate between drunkenness jpflre and simple and serious illness, and, in cases as hers the authorities shou'd [be instructed to nt once procure' medical '.advice.