ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the draft of the evidence which was prepared to be given before the "Royal Commission on the Poor Law". This evidence went far to disprove the contention advanced in favour of rigid poor-law administration that medical relief was a first step to pauperism. The evidence included that the medical treatment given by Boards of Guardians was partly domiciliary, partly institutional. In England, the standard of medical work varied greatly. It was practically unsupervised and uncontrolled, and it had fallen into disrepute, relatively few of the poor availing themselves of it. The institutional treatment of the sick poor varied enormously in quality. In a few large towns it was of high quality; poor-law infirmaries were inadequately staffed, nursing was unsatisfactory, and there was a dearth of skilled consultatants. The work of the medical staff of these institutions at the time the Royal Commission reported was completely unsupervised.
