In the convict prisons of the nineteenth century great efforts were made to improve sanitation and reduce the likelihood of epidemic diseases spreading. Ventilation systems were added, walls whitewashed, and unadulterated products bought to make bread. Better sanitation did not, of course, always halt the spread of disease. Alongside these attempts to control the health of convicts and the prison buildings, improves were being made to the methods employed to trace the cause or causes of disease. In 1874-1875 typhoid fever broke out in Wakefield Prison. The records which survive provide a rare insight into the methods used to trace the source of the disease within the prison environment and building on research done in previous decades by medical men working in state institutions like the prisons.
By the 1870s ‘committees’ and inspections were an established part of convict prison life. In Wakefield Prison, after a rapid rise in hospitalised convicts diagnosed with typhoid fever, a sub-committee was appointed on 1 February 1875 to investigate the causes of the typhoid outbreak. The sub-commitee were particularly concerned about sewage leaving the seniors house and the sewage going past the prisons’ C-Wing. The sub-committee recommend that pipes were mended, and that the ventilation in the prison be improved as it had not been updated since its installation in 1852. It was also advised by the sub-committee that prison staff set about disinfecting “the stools” of typhoid patient with “Coudy’s fluid” or “some other effective disinfectant.”[1]
Less than three weeks later, on 19 February, the sub-committee was forced to meet again to enquire into the new cases of typhoid and diarrhoea since their last meeting. There had been a total of forty-six sick cases, of which thirteen men and three women were pronounced cases, and three people had died. The cases appeared to be spread across the prison and apparently not connected to water or water closets. The sub-committee decided to disinfect every head of the drainage system, as well as grates and manholes, in an attempt to combat the disease. They also enquired into hospital accommodation and found it to be over crowded.[2]
As a consequence of this on 26 February the Prison Governor, Captain Armytage, and the medical superintendent, Dr Wood took over the school room in the E-Wing and the room under the chapel as extra hospital space for men (approximately twenty patients) making a total of one-hundred-and-fourteen sick beds for men. For women the existing twelve hospital beds were supplemented by the schoolroom in DD and the old convict hospital, making a total of fifty-two beds. In an attempt to rectify the situation Wood made some suggestions to change diets within the prison, which were accepted. Despite, restrictions being placed on prison diet in the 1860s when it was felt convicts should receive the same amount of food on a strict plan. The sub-committee also granted Wood the authority to increase diet of the sick when needed. Improvements to the ventilation pipes and scheduled regular, weekly flushing of the sewage system were implemented by the governor. It was also found that the northern sewer could not be flushed, and this needed to be addressed.[3]
On the 10 March Armytage reported to the sub-committee that Dr Briscoe, a prison inspector, had visited the prison on the instruction of the Home Office but he could not find the cause of the typhoid outbreak. Briscoe suggested a Local Government Board Sanitary Inspector visit the prison so Edward Ballard from the Board arrived on 7 March.[4] He believed the typhoid had not been caused by drinking from a well or from town water, but this, as Armytage reported, was not conclusive. Ballard debated if water coming into the prison should be filtered; and recommended an investigation was started analysis of the water would be provided by Mr Fairley, the public analyst for Leeds.[5] This scientific approach to water testing and treatment, and easy access to public health officials, had not been available a few decades earlier but now meant much quicker understanding of the cause and spread of disease. The committee requested reappointment to assess the results of the water test and to discuss hospital provisions.
Ballard reported that disease prevalent in the prison was “Enteric Fever” which “spread through the medium of a specific contagious of infective principle discharged with the evacuations from the bodies of those sick with the disease.” [6] Following a careful investigation Ballard concluded a female prisoner, Mary Ann Wadsworth had introduced typhoid to the prison. Wadsworth had entered the prison 5 December 1874, and her husband had died in November of “‘Gastric fever’ (a synonym of enteric or typhoid fever).”[7] She had been admitted to hospital with “simple fever.” Wood had fumigated and whitewashed her cell suggesting he suspected something more although he had not investigated or taken further preventative measures. Wadsworth’s “evacuations” went into the drainage system, as did the water used to wash her bedding, thus the disease was in the prison. Others were soon infected (first Noah Jones, then Frank Speke, and William Wilson) because of open windows near to an open sewage pipe or gully. These men then contributed back to the infected sewage. It was reported the disease travelled by air out of water closets, and also travelled out of the earth closets when dirty and clean earth had been mixed together (against regulations). This was particularly a problem in the women’s prison and as a consequence women working in laundry were also affected by disease carrying air and inefficient drains, claimed Ballard.[8] As we saw with Baly and Cholera there was a mixture of suggestions to the cause of disease and how it was travelling. Although there were advances in finding the cause of disease bacteriology was still not established.
A careful plan was laid out to combat the disease. Ballard advised the disinfection of all drains with crude carbolic acid every week. Hospital earth-pans were to be used in the hospital only and disinfected immediately. All pans should be cleaned with water and acid (one part to ten parts) before returning to cells. Common earth closets had to be gas-tarred throughout. No earth could be reused anywhere. In the long term, provisions have to be made to isolate infectious patents, and more detailed records had to be kept by the surgeon on all those who sought medical care. The draining system was considered defective, therefore a sewage engineer had to be consulted and in the interim enamelled rather than galvanised iron pans were provided. In addition although water was not believed to have cause this outbreak the well, No.1, was dangerous and contaminated by sewage.[9] These measures controlled the spread of typhoid in Wakefield Prison.
[1] Probably meaning “Condy’s Fluid or Natural Disinfection”. West Yorkshire Archive Service QD1379-380, QD1382-384 Minutes of the sub-committee appointed to investigate the causes of the outbreak of typhoid fever in the West Riding House of Correction.
[2] West Yorkshire Archive Service QD1/379-380, 382-384. Minutes of the sub-committee appointed to investigate the causes of the outbreak of typhoid fever in the West Riding House of Correction:
[3] West Yorkshire Archive Service .QD1/379-380, 382-384. Minutes of the sub-committee appointed to investigate the causes of the outbreak of typhoid fever in the West Riding House of Correction. 26 February 1875.
[4] Anon. 20 March 1875. “The Sanitary State of the West Riding Prison at Wakefield.” Leeds Mercury. 11526: 11.
[5] West Yorkshire Archive Service QD1/379-380, 382-384. “Memorandum” Edward Ballard. 12 March 1875.
[6] West Yorkshire Archive Service QD1/379-380 382-384. “Memorandum” Edward Ballard. 12 March 1875.
[8] West Yorkshire Archive Service QD1/379-380, 382-384. “Memorandum” Edward Ballard. 12 March 1875.
[9] West Yorkshire Archive Service QD1/379-380, 382-384. Robert Rawlinson: Report on the Sewers drains and main sewer drain ventilation of the county prison of Wakefield, situate in the West Riding of Yorkshire. 1 May 1875. To maintain sanitation in the prison a report on the sewers, drains and main sewer drain ventilation was written by Robert Rawlinson and presented to the prison on 1 May 1875. This formed the basis of sewage and ventilation precautions for the rest of the century and there were no further outbreaks of waste-born disease.
Laura Sellers 
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