A Populous Wilderness

I can't keep away from toilets at the moment. Here's a ground-breaking plea for ladies (and men's) toilets, in full, from 1879 (referred to my previous post on the Ladies Sanitary Assocation):-


REPORT ON THE NECESSITY OF LATRINE ACCOMMODATION FOR WOMEN IN THE METROPOLIS

by James Stevenson, M.D. Medical Officer of Health for Paddington


The Ladies Sanitary Association, having addressed a letter to the Vestry of Paddington respecting the provision by the Parish of Water-closet accommodation for Women, the same was referred by the Sanitary and Public Health Committee to the Medical Officer of Health for consideration and report.


The subject of Latrine accommodation for women in the metropolis, if it be deemed one which admits of a practical solution, suggests three main questions for consideration:-

1. Is such accommodation necessary?
2. Is it the business of a Vestry to provide it?
3. How can it best be supplied?

1. As to its necessity. - London is the largest city in the world, and in size and in population it is yearly increasing. The natural increase of its population, from the excess of births over deaths, is little short of 50,000 a year, or nearly 1,000 every week. As this annual addition does not arise from immigration, but naturally follows from the self-multiplying power of its inhabitants, it is consequently liked to be maintained. In a word, London possessed and retains within its own borders a population increasingly capable of ading largely to the number of its inhabitants and, with the need of more house accommodation, of extending its area.

The population of London, exclusive of the outer ring, is estimated at 3,620,868 of whom 1,694,741 are males, and 1,926,127 are females. The estimated population of Greater London, which embraces the suburrban districts, with an area of 698 square miles, is 4,534,040 With its 1,500 miles of roads, London already extends from Fulham to Woolwich and from Hampstead to Norwood and in 1871 contained 417,767 inhabited dwellings. As from five to six thousand homes are annually added to the metropolis, ever lengthening streets of brick and mortar form new neighbourhoods and the distances from the principal thoroughfares of business and pleasre are increased,

Great, however, as has been the growth of London during the last thirty years, the causes which have contributed to that growth are still in operation, as well as others of more recent origin. Railways and steamboats, which have directly or indirectly supplied much of the impetus to the accelerated rate of movement observable in every sphere of human activity, have not yet done all that they are capable of doing in the way of adding to the metropolis and of revolutionizing society. Agriculture is yearly becoming a less profitable occupation, anbd more and more the recreative employment of monied commercial men, who, having found profit in business, now seek business in pleasure. Commerce and manufacture, though the application of steam power, have enormously increased; and whilst they have added largely to the population of some provincial towns and cities, they have also created new and important commercial and industrial centres.

It is said that half London does not sleep in London. During the day time only it is the gathering ground of the people. Comparatively deserted during the night, it is betwixt sunrise and sunset that multitudes flock to the metropolis. That hundreds of thousands of pesons in the metropolis are compelled to live at considerable distances from the sphere of their daily employment, and are thus subjected to many discomforts and positive evils, besides the expenditure of time, of money, and of energy in going to and from theirt work, is a fact which, however much for some reason it may be regretted, should for present purposes be distinctly recognised. It is an inevitable condition of life in London, necessitated by circumstances, and making the conveniences in question a metropolitan want.

It is alleged that there are in this country more than three millions of women supporting themselves by their own exertions*

* The number of women enggaged in the various industries, as returned by the Census of 1871, plus 7 per cent for the increase of population appears to be as follows:-
Under 20  . . . .  .1,219,000
20 and upwards ... 2,469,000
total 3,688,000 (Prof. LEONE LEVI.)

and with a growing population, and the greater struggle to live it is certain that, unless they are to starve, much paid labour must continue to be done by them. The gross earnings of the female population of the United Kingdom already exceed £100,000,000 a year*

* The total amount of gross earnings of the women of the working classes of the United Kingdom under a condition of an average amount of employment and at present rates, I ascertained to be:
Under 20 . .  . . . . £29million
20 and upwards ... £84million
total £113 million (Prof. LEONE LEVI)

and with increasing ability entitling their labour to a better reward, it is not improbable that for a time women will continue to receive a higher proportionate rate of increase of wages than men, as has been the case during the past few years - a fact specially noticeable in the sums now paid to educationalists, to schoolmistresses, to domestic servants, and to milliners and dressmakers.

The census of 1871 showed that in the cpaital of the empire nearly every one of the multifarious forms of laobur had its female representatives. Of the 1,731,109 females of all ages then residing in it, about one half were returned as belonging to the domestic class, comprising wives and domestic servants engaged in household duties, less than one third were scholars and children of no occupation; and, with the exception of abbout 30,000 who were described as gentlewomen or annuitants, the remainder, numbering upwards of 300,000 were engagaed in professional, commercial, agricultural or industrial pursuits. From recent returns is apepars that there are 143,341 women enrolled in the trade societies of the metropolis alone, many of whom, as well as thousands additional similarly employed who do not belong to any society, have daily to walk long distances to and from their workshops.

The number of women of the wage-earning classes engagted in the various ways above indicated must now be very much greater, as the occupations which furnish subsistence to women are more numerous and since 1871 the estimated increase of the population considerably exceeds one third of a million. This throng of women, whose avocations of necessity dailyy take them into the streets, is increased by the much larger number who go out of doors for the purposes of shopping, or for the sake of their health, or for recreation; and it is further supplemented by the crowds of women who come to town for the day by river, road, and rail, and by the thousands of female visitors from the more distant parts of the country, and from abroad. Of the number of women who daily pass along our streets, I have seen no computation. The actual number of persons carried during the year 1878 by the Metropolitan and by the Metropolitan District Railways was 88,217,536;*

*Railway
The Metropolitan : 58,807,038
The Metropolitan District 29,410,498
total 88,217,536

by the tramcars 54,361,147

*Tramways
The North Metropolitan Tramways Company     28,569,639
The London Tramways Company 19,732,528
The London District Tramways Company  6,058,980
Total  54,361,147

and the estimated number by the omnibuses 74,719,060

*Omnibuses
The London General Omnibus Company 56,039,295
Estimated number carried by other Omnibuses 18,679,765
Total 74,719,060

giving a total of 217,297,743 for the year.

It will be conceded that a large number of these passengers were women, and that they had to leave their homes for a longer or shorter period; whilst they again were outnumbered by the crowds of their own sex who did not use any form of conveyance. The number of passengers poured into the streets from steamboats, omnibuses, tramways, underground and over-ground railways, as well as from the cabs and carriages used by wealthier citizens, is less than the stream of pedestrians who avail themselves of none of these means of locomotion.

No longer satisfied with mere accomplishments, the mind of the nation, moreover, has undergone a change with regard to the education of the wives and mothers of the next generation. The demand has been made and been admitted, that the resources of the Universities and the benefits derivable from academical education, which hitherto have been exclusively enjoyed by men, shall henceforth be shared by women. In fact, such are the exigencies of the day, so great is the supposed necessity in the world's onward progress for the utilization of all available forces, so urgent are the calls to the youth of both sexes to be up and doing in order to earn a livelihood, and more particularly to insure success in their respective callings, that society, recognising no distinction of sex, is no longer disposed to tolerate those barriers in respect of education which have hitherto prevented women of the middle ranks from actively engaging in the struggles of life. Whilst thus exemplifying and accentuating the doctrine of the survival of the fittest, women are becoming with their more complete equipment the helpmates as well as the helpmeets of men, and are so ensuring for themselves anothher title to our respect - that of being, in their several spheres, efficient working women.

As a consequence of all this material and mental rearrangement, and of the close relation between town and country in these days, the number of female workers is likely to increase; and with the prospect of the more remunerative employment of women, it is not impossible that men may ere long have to compete with tem in channels of business, and of professional life, from which the latter have hitherto been excluded.

Thus the facilities for travelling, the creation of new industrries, the enlargement of old ones, and the spread of education, both general and technical, have, together with other causes, the most imperious being the necessity to live, induced among large masses of the population migratory habits unknown to their forefathers. One very obvious result of all these social changes and movements is, that young men and women are leaving the rural districts in quest of employment, whilst the more ambitious of them gravitate towards London.

The preceding facts and figures cannot be deemded irrelevant or unimportant, as the circumstances which they disclose, if thoroughly understood, are, or should be, the cardinal factors in determining the question now under consideration.

Whilst they reveal the daily needs and conditions of metropolitan life, which are altogether different from those of smaller communities, they at the same time justify the adoption and emphasize the necessity of exceptional measures. No one would think of proposing latrine accommodation for women in a town where most of the inhabitants are known to one another, and are within an easy distance of their own homes. London is a populous wilderness, and nowhere is the sense of solitude at times more keenly felt. London is the heart of the world; and whilst its pulsations are felt at the extremities of civilization, at its base are growths and chronic adhesions, and other abnormal conditions, which require courage as well as skill in order to their successful, and altogether, peculiar treatment.

Upon the medical aspect of the question it is not necessary to enlarge. Of this aggregate of moving feminine humanity referred to, of all ages, and belonging to every grade of society, it is sufficient to wsay that every unit of it has in common with men the same physical necessities. For the maintenance of life, it is not more necessary to take food and drink, than subsequently to get rid of what the system cannot appropriate. The one organic necessity involves the other. They are correlated. It is a mistake to suppose that there are such differences in the female organization, that these primal requirements of physical being can be disregarded by women with less suffering than by men. There are periods and conditions peculiar to sex, when latrine accommodation would be specially convenient; and as at such times the requirements of nature are apt to be more urgent and more frequent, women would be spared much unnecessary mental and physical distress, were the accommodation provided.

It is true that by the exercise of the will we can control for a time the muscular openings which serve as inlets or outlets to the body; and that we thus have the power of resisting to a considerable extent the calls of nature, when inconvenient. This power is not possessed by infants, or young children, or by the aged, or the infirm. But such resistance, which circumstances too frequently impose upon women, if habitually practised, is sure to be followed by injurious results. Apoplexy is an every day consequence of constipation. Much of the cerebral and cardiac disturbance of the present day - and it is alleged to be on the increase - is probably due to the same cause. It is certina that almost every form of disease, whether local or constitutional, is likely to be aggravated by constipation; and that, whether it be the cause or effect of other diseases, it is sure to occur if the evacuation of the bowels, from choice or from necessity, be persistently delayed. It should also be borne in mind that diseases of a grave character, induced by constipation, are apt to continue their course independent and unchecked, long after the cause may have ceased. The same remarks apply, in great measure, to retention of urine, which is the other condition most likely to arise from the want of the provision in question. Again, persons of both sexes and of all ages suffer at times fro diarrhoea and irritable bladder, and must be greatly inconvenienced by the want of the required accommodation.

There is abundant testimony from medical men and others, available if necessary, to prove that this is no imaginary want, the creation of sentimentalism, but that it is really a great and growing one, which calls for the prompt and careful consideration of those who business it is to make provision for it, and at the same time deserves their beneficent efforts seeing that it is experienced by those whose natural reserve upon such a subject, and whose positions in life for the most part prevent them from making themselves heard. Modesty suggests that nurses should have the opportunity of privately performing thier duties to their little charges. Ladies who are interested in the welfare of those below them in the social scale are ready to declare that poor women have often told them, with tears in their eyes, of the agony and shame they have endured in circumstances which it is not necessary to particularise. Sir James McGarel Hogg has recently expressed himself as quite alive to the want, which he considers to be a real and a serious one. "There is no doubt," the Lancet has remarked, "that the establishment of retiring rooms for ladies will prove a great boon." To obtain this much-needed accommodation, some ladies go to restaurants and order refreshments which they do not require, and others to milliners' and confectioners' shops. It may be safely assumed that the money thus spent, even when it is only a few pence, cannot always be conveniently spared.

In the foregoing observations, if their full meaning and significance be thoughtfully considered, it must be candidlyy admitted that the conditions are shown, which make latrine accommodation a necessity, as it also the extent of that necessity; and that, in the nature of things, until it is provided, it must continue a great and urgent present and prospective want; and that, with the ever enlarging area of the metropolis, there must be a proportionately increasing demand for such accommodation, which it will at length be impossible to resist.

The question next arises-

II. Is it the business of a Vestry to provide such accommodation?

The answer is supplied by the Public Health Act of 1848* [*"And be it enacted that the Local Board of Health may, if they think fit, provide and maintain, in proper and convenient situations, water-closets, privies, and other similar conveniences for public accommodation, and defray the necessary expenses out of the district rates to be levied under the Act." 11&12 Vic.,57 Sect. c.63] and by the Act 18&19 Victorian 1855.* [*"It shall be lawful for every Vestry and District Board to provide and maintain urinals, water-closets, privies and like conveniences, in situations which they deem such accommodation to be required, and to supply the same with water, and to defray the expense thereof, and any damage occasioned to any person by the erection thereof, and the expense of keeping the same in good order, as expenses of sewerage, are to be defrayed under this act."  88 sect. 120 c.]

In Glasgow, Nottingham,* [* In Glasgow there are three Female Lavatories, which the Sanitary Inspector reports were used during 34 weeks of last year by 7981 persons. In Nottingham there is one lavatory for females, with five closets and one wash-stand on the ground-floor, for the use of which one penny is charged. Upstairs there are four wash-hand basins with additional toilet articles, for the use of these two-pence is charged. During the year ending 30th December 1878, 1040 females used the lavatories, and 18,649 the closets, at a total charge of £82 2s 11d. Dr. Seaton, the Medical Officer of Health for Nottingham says, "In speaking of the success of public closets, I am more especially lookingto the very sustantial sanitary advantages which have resulted from their establishment. They are generally regarded as a great public boon."] and some other provincial towns, and in Paris, and other continental cities, the conveniences in question already exist; thus furnishing presumptive evidence of their necessity, and of the practicability as wellas of the great propriety of establishing them in London. To prevent obstruction of the public pavements, the owners of omnibuses might fairly be required to provide at their offices, and other recognised stopping places, waiting rooms for their customers, as is done in Paris, and by the Tramway companies of the metropolis. To these shelters, necessary in our variable climate, closets might with advantage be added. It would be unreasonable to expect the Railway authorities in the metropolis who are already hampered by the want of room at their different stations, or Omnibus companies, to provide accommodation free of charge for the general public. If the former would extend the existing accommodation to other than their passengers, and thus do their part towards satisfying a want which they have helped to create; and if the latter would provide it for their customers in both instances at a fixed charge, the necessities of a large section of the public would be met more particularly in this parish, in which there are so many railway stations. But inasmuch as there are railway stations in some parts only of the metropolis, and some of them have not accessible waiting-rooms, there remains the multitude to whom public closets are a necessity, whichonly a Vestry or District Board can be expected to supply. Of that multitude, whilst many are poor women who minister to the wants of others in a parish and therefore deserve some consideration, not a few are ratepayers; and inasmuch as women, by the payment of rates, contribute to the parochial funds, justice demands that they should share the conveniences procurable by the expenditure of those funds.

Many vestries recognise the need of conveniences for women, but do not see their way to carry out the recommendations of their Medical Officers of Health in the matter. Hitherto, whenever attention has been directed to the question, it has been sympathetically discussed, and has afterwards been quietly shelved. Surely the time has come, when the problem should be solved. Its solution, which must happen sooner or later, does not involve any great expenditure; and that expenditure, if judicious, would in all probability be amply remunerative. The closets at the Waterloo Station yield £1000 each year, and those at Cannon Street and Charing Cross each a still larger sum. Much will depend upon the completeness of the arrangements and upon the management and care subsequently bestowed upon them.

Intimately connected with this question is that of urinal and water accommodation for men. In the matter of the first mentioned, the Londoners of today are much worse off than those of preceding generations, Owing to the removal of the conveniences which formerly existed outside every public house, there is nowadays, with a greatly increased demand, a greatly diminished supply. Here again, the remark holds good that publicans cannot fairly be expected to provide accommodation for the general public. It is enough for them to meet the wants of their own customers. In the parish of Paddington, with an area of 1,280 acres, with its 44 miles of roads, and with a population of 110,000 inhabitants, which is augmented during the day by tens of thousands of persons passing to and from no fewer than six railway stations, and in close proximity to others, there are only eight public urinals. As a general rule, at every cab rank there should be a urinal, with W.C. accommodattion of two kinds, and for two classes, in charge of an attendant during the day, and of a policeman during the night. The  convenience of this arrangement must be obvious to everyone. Some years have elapsed since a Sub-Committee of the Vestry adopted Dr. Hardwicke's recommendations and reported that at least 5 more urinals, as well as W.C. accommodation for both sexes, should be provided. Suitable sites were selected, and other valuable suggestions were offered by my predecessor, which it is not necessary to recapitulate.  Little, however, has been done in the matter of the one, and nothing in that of the other.

Respecting that accommodation, the question remains:-

III. How can it best be supplied?

The nature of the accommodation is understood. Besides closets, there should be a retiring room, in which children could be attended to, and another supplied with wash-hand basins and other toilet requisites.  To meet these requirements in the metropolis, in some instances special erections would be necessary, in others existing buildings could be reconstructed and utilised. In some parishes waiting rooms might perhaps be conveniently placed within the precincts of the workhouse, or of almshouses; or they mighht be attached to the public baths and washhouses, or other buildings which belong to to the parish. In the form of lodges at the entrances to parks, of public gardens, of public recreation grounds, of cemeteries, of burial grounds, and of bridges, there will be found suitable situations. In some streets there are recessess or small vacant plots of ground, which might be turned to account. At all churches and chapel necessary accommodation should be provided for worshippers. This is done by the Presbyterian, and to some extent, by other denominations.

Unless in the form of lodges when more space would, in general, be available, the closets should be in the rear of a building, and on a level with the street, thus avoiding stairs, and facilitating ingress and egress. The yard containing the closets, and admitting of their ventilation, shoul be covered in with glass, as at the railway stations, in order ot keep it always dry, and to secure privacy, as well as to prevent anything unsightly to the neighbours on either side. On the ground floor should be a private waiting room, and also a room for the accommodation of nurses; upstairs there might be a lavatory, with hot and cold water, for the use of which a separate charge could be made.

It is imperative that the provision made should be of two kinds, and for two classes - for those who are willing, and for those who are unable, to pay for the accommodcation. It is only reasonable that those who directly contribute to the cost and maintenance of public conveniences should have better accommodation, if it be attainable, than those who do not pay anything. Moreover, women of the middle class will not be willing to company, for however short a time, with a promiscuous crowd, even of their own sex.

The first-class closets should be lined with white glazed tiles, the doors having a patent registering lock to show how often the closet has been used. The free closets should be lined with dark glazed bricks. A common stoneware glazed pan, with flushing rim and S trap fixed to the neck of the pan above the floor line, would probably be the best arrangement. The control of the water supply might, possibly with advantages, be let in the hands of the care-taker, whose duty it would be to examine and to flush the closets every time they were used.

At first the closets might be ranged on opposite sides of the yard, which should bge divided lengthways, by a stout glass screen, and afterwards if necessary they could be placed in a row back to back down the middle. Separate drainage should be provided, for the two classes of closets, lest one or other of them should at any time be blocked.

"Public lavatories for women," or "Waiting rooms for women," or by whatever name they may be designated, should have separate entrances, marked 1st and 2nd class, the latter leading to the free closets. Subject to frequent inspection on the part of the Sanitary Authorities, they must be under the constant care of a reliable woman, whose duty it would be, to keep them scrupulously clean, to preserve order, and to acount for the money received from those who pay for the accommodation.

The buildings might be made readily distinguishable by a coloured lamp, and should be situated in the main lines of traffic, or within sight of them; such being, indicated by the omnibus routes. If they are placed in too prominent situations, in the middle of the streets, as has been suggested - like the cabman's shelter - or next door to a public house, or if they are hidden in back streets, they will be of little use, or will be frequented by those chiefly who will find a pleasure in making them additional nuisances to the parish.

Whether the premises required by a Vestry for the contemplated conveniences should be leasehold or freehold, whether they should include a shop for the sale exclusively of articles of feminine attire, or a cloak room, or a tea room, or a room supplied with newspapers, and writing materials, or for any other purposes, such as a servants' registry &c. are questions which must be determined by the different circumstances of different localities.

In Paddington the principal lines of traffic are the Edgware and Uxbridge Roads, which on two sides form the boundaries of the parish; and Praed Street, Harrow Road, Bishop's Road, and Westbourne grove, by which it may be said to be intersected. To these thoroughfares all others in the parish converge; and in them, or in close proximity to them, these conveniences should be placed. Suitable places for waiting rooms might be found, within sigh of the Edgware Road, in Star Street, or Titchborne Street; in the Uxbridge Road, at the entrances to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens; in Harrow Road, at Paddington Green and at the Workhouse; and for the accommodation of persons, when in the neighbourhood of Bishop's road and of Westbourne Grove, in Pickering Place, or at the Public Baths and Washhouses in Queen's Road.

In certain parts of the country, primitive habits are sitll practised, and the calls of nature are obeyed sub frigido Jove. Water closets, cattle troughs, drinking fountains and other similar contrivances are the expression of an advanced civilization. Is it too much to ask, that the Parish of Paddington, which claims a place in the forefront of that advance, should in a spirit of honourable rivalry, show to other localities, less richly endowed, how, not only to its own parishioners, but to all who wait upon its wants, every reasonable obligation can best be discharged? Such a rivalry in its inception, in its progress, and in its results, would be alike creditable to the parish and advantageous to the country.

In legislative matters, parochial, municipal, or parliamentary, the wisdom of statesmanship is seen in the prompt adoption of measuresbased upon a just appreciation present necessities, and upon a correct estimate of future proababilities.

JAMES STEVENSON, M.D.
Medical Officer of Health for Paddington

VESTRY HALL, PADDINGTON
March 1879

A Petition

To Vestry of St. George Hanover Sq., November 3rd 1857

The Petition of the Inhabitants of Grosvenor St. West and the vicinity against the proposed erection of a public urinal opposite Her Majesty's private entrance to Buckingham Palace.

Humbly herewith the petitioners view with considerable alarm and strong feelings of disgust the proposed erection for the following reasons:

Firstly, The position is unsuitable and ill chosen. 

Secondly, It is not required by the cabmen there being a closet at each Public House at either end of the cab rank there never being more than 12 cabs on the rank.

Thirdly There are several milliner's establishments overlooking the spot and on account of the young ladies employed it would be open to great objection.

Fourthly, Being in the direct road of Her Majesty and the Inhabitants of Belgravia it woud certainly cause a diversion of the traffic to the detriment of many of your petitioners.

Fifthly: The Class for whose accommodation it is designed not having very refined notions of public decency continual annoyance to residents would be an inevitable result.

And for many other and solid reasons which your petitioners could explain personally if permitted they pray that they may be spared the infliction.

Yours, etc.

[followed by about 150 signatories]

Well formed, but flabby.

The appellant examined, speaking of his failure during the marriage trip, said he attributed it to nervousness and his comparative weakness of health at the time. During the marriage trip there was no appearance of coldness or change of demeanour on the part of his wife. When they returned to Bombay, it was the season, and his wife went to a good many balls and made violent love to more than one person. What took place at the Byculla ball (14th of February, 1878) was the culminating point. He spoke to his wife quietly but severely. She defied him at first to interfere in any way, but afterwards to a certain extent was humbled. In the month of January, 1878, there were days at a time when she never spoke to him. After February (before the Byculla ball), she proposed they should occupy separate beds. They continued to sleep apart, and then they went on a visit to Kurrachee. In January, he had tried to have connection and found he was not sufficiently strong, and again he tried towards the end of that month, but when he was about to have connection gradual weakness came on and failure. Before they went to Kurrachee, he said to his wife: “This is a miserable life to lead, and is it to go on for ever?” “You had reason to complain at the beginning of our marriage, but things are altered now,” and he asked her to be friends. She said: “It is better as it is.” From that time forward she never received an advance by way of caress or kindness from him in a cordial way.
     When they went to Kurrachee, there was a room set apart for them, in which there was but one bed. She refused to sleep with him on the night of their arrival. He slept that night on the sofa. The rest of the time they slept together, he insisted on that, as he said he would not sleep on the sofa, but he said he would not touch her. He said that because the previous evening when she so decidedly said she would not sleep in the same bed with him, he said again “Cannot we make this matter up” &c., “If we were friends we might have a child and things would go better.” She said in the strongest way that if she had a child she would hate it, and that she would not sleep with him. When he spoke of having a child he believed his capacity had improved, and that he could have done his duty as a husband. At Kurrachee he made no attempt, nor ever afterwards, because her whole conduct to him was repeatedly antagonistic, insulting and disagreeable; it was the very last thing he would have thought of. He never heard until this action was raised that she complained of his failure of duty. Dr. Sidney Smith came to know of his failure and gave him some prescriptions which he did not take, because at that time his wife's conduct had done away with all affection for her.
     Cross-examined:—He never had connection with his wife or with any other woman before or after his marriage. His wife was a very handsome young woman. As a boy he had been addicted to a vicious practice, but did not continue it after fifteen years of age and the practice then entirely ceased. Even after there was a coldness between him and his wife, she did not repel his advances. He never approached her or tried to have connection. It was impossible for him to say when or where he offered to make it up with her, but she would not let him embrace or kiss her.
     The respondent examined:—She had become attached to the appellant. On the first night after the marriage he made only one attempt to have connection with her. He made later other attempts. She never resisted him in any way. All the remark he made was that he was nervous. From the time they returned to Bombay from the honeymoon till they left for Kurrachee the appellant endeavoured to have connection with her at intervals of two or three nights, but he never succeeded. The last time the appellant attempted to have connection with her was in February—not after the night of the Byculla ball. He never asked her to let him try again, or did anything to indicate that he was desirous of trying again. She did not think she was willing just at first after the ball to have allowed him to attempt to have connection, because she had got a dislike to him owing to the treatment she thought she had received from him. He never afterwards told her he was changed in his physical condition. They slept together when they arrived in Scotland until June, 1879, and all that time the appellant never attempted to have connection or proposed such a thing to her. When they arrived in Scotland her feelings towards the appellant had changed, she had ceased to have affection for him. Just before the Byculla ball she desired to sleep alone because of the heat. The appellant did complain to her that she was changed to him. At Kurrachee she refused to sleep in the same bed with him, because they had been occupying different beds. Her feeling of dislike to him was growing. She was very determined the first night at Kurrachee she should not sleep with him. All the other nights they slept in the same bed. He insisted on sleeping with her contrary to her wish.
     Cross-examined. She began to feel the first coldness for him in January. She was fond of gaiety. At the Byculla ball, the appellant accused her of flirting with one gentleman. In the beginning of February she did not like her husband, and she was afraid she shewed her dislike by speech and action. The coldness between them never disappeared. When in Scotland she did not treat her husband any better than she had before. She never made any complaint to any one of her husband until she was asked by a lady (with whom she then resided) after her husband had left her. She raised the present action because of the action brought against her, as she thought her husband was not blameless altogether, and that she should not bear both his share of blame and her own: she also wished to be free. She saw her law agent about the cause of her husband leaving her. She thought she gave him to understand that her treatment of her husband had arisen from his failure to consummate the marriage. The raising an action against him on that ground was spoken of.
     Her law agent, in his examination, said the respondent told him that the usual intercourse had not taken place, and that it was her husband's fault. He obtained an opinion from counsel. Undoubtedly the respondent's unmarried sisters' interests, and the publicity of an action such as this, affected largely the consideration for leaving the thing over.
     Three doctors were examined for the respondent and two for the appellant. The evidence of those for the respondent was substantially as follows:—Dr. Joseph Bell said he examined the appellant and found him a well formed, healthy looking man. His sexual organs well formed, but flabby. Vicious practice tends to the premature exhaustion of the sexual organs. The appellant had an  erection on each of two unsuccessful attempts, and an emission on the second, that was just the common case, insufficient erection and a too early emission. That is what they mean by impotency, where the organs are properly formed. Cross-examined. He believed if the appellant was encouraged, and had plenty of time and was not nervous, and if a little champagne were given him beforehand, he might succeed with any other woman; but after his failures it would be more difficult with his wife.
    Dr. Angus Macdonald said the opportunities recorded in the evidence were far too numerous to account for the failure without a distinct defect in virile power. The worst cases of impotence in the male were where they found transient erections with emission before there is time for penetration.
    Dr. Keiller said he was strongly of opinion from the evidence, and the fact of the appellant's age, his continence, and his former vicious practice that permanent impotency existed. Cross-examined. He had known cases where attempts at consummation had been made for months before complete success.
     Dr. Gardner examined on behalf of the appellant, said he believed the appellant was incapable at the date of his marriage to the extent he himself confessed; but his belief was that if the lady had given him proper opportunities, he would have come to it after a limited time. It was not at all unusual for a man to fail within the first few weeks of his marriage, and it was especially likely to occur where a continent man marries late in life. Dr. Gillespie gave a somewhat similar opinion.
     Dr. Sidney Smith, examined by commission for the pursuer, said the appellant told him he had failed. He prescribed for him. He saw him on the 31st of January, and also on the 18th and 23rd of February, and also on the 25th, 26th, and 27th of March, 1878. He asked him on one of these occasions whether there was any reciprocity on the part of his wife, or whether he got the “cold shoulder.” He said certainly, she would not allow him to come near her. On another occasion he said to the appellant, how were they to know whether the medicine was doing him any good, if there were no means of proving it. He also suggested to the appellant that there was probably some disappointment on the part of his wife, which, if he exercised a little tact might pass off. As far as he recollected, the appellant told him that whenever he did make an attempt to consummate the marriage there was no result. Subsequent to the 25th of February, the appellant told him that his wife would not have him come near her.

extract from G v M (1884-85) L.R. 10 Appeal Cases 171 

By wound from the spur of a Game Cock.

1 Death from hanging while suffering from delirium tremens.
2 Inflammation of Brain of a child, accelerated by neglect of mother in not getting medical aid.
3 Strangulation while insane.
4 Lock-jaw, caused by wound from the spur of a Game Cock.
5 Suffocation in bed.
6 Falling down a ship's hold.
7 Sudden death from excessive drinking.
8 Disease of Lungs and Heart.
9 Manslaughter against some person or persons unknown.
10 Newly born Male Infant found dead—Wilful Murder against some person or persons unknown.
11 Fracture of skull at Ratcliff Gas Works.
12 Suffocation in bed—an Infant.
13 Drowning in the London Docks.
14 Suffocation in a Barge.
15 Extravasation of blood on brain from a fall.
16 Suffocation in bed—an Infant.
17 Ditto.
18 Drowning in water of London Docks.
19 Sudden death—ulceration of stomach with perforation, accelerated by herb powders administered by a herbalist.
20 Excessive drinking.
21 Suffocation in bed—an Infant.
22 Drowning while of unsound mind.
23 From exposure and want—a Chinaman.
24 Poisoning by Sulphate of Copper
25 Congestion of the Lungs.
26 Compound fracture of the scull from falling down a ships hold.
27 Fractured scull on board ship.
28 Found dead—Post Mortem—Diseased heart
29 Run over by a sugar truck.
30 Thrown from cart while drunk.
31 Cutting her throat while insane
32 Run over by a cart.
33 Drowned in London Docks.
34 Sudden death—Male child—Convulsions
35 Male Child—Exposure to cold.
36 Suffocation in bed—Female Child.
37 Sudden death—Post Mortem—Pleurisy.
38. Ditto.—Paralysis.
30 Suffocation in bed—Female child.
40 Ditto. — while parents were drunk.
41 Sudden death—engorged Lungs—Post Mortem.
42 Fractured scull—falling down a ships hold.
43 Epilepsy.
44 Suffocation in bed—A child.
45 Ditto.

a list of Coroner's inquests for the year, 

from Medical Officer of Health's Report for 1860, St. George in the East, 1860