during the period of exercise we had to
run instead of walk. The running I found very painful and injurious to
my leg, and I petitioned the doctor to be excused from it, but was
refused. There was nothing for it but to hop along, every step giving
me great pain. Until one day I made a false step, the consequences of
which compelled me to give up walking altogether. My knee became
inflamed, and I was ordered to lie in my hammock in my cell. Some pills
were prescribed for me, which I soon found, from the state of my gums,
contained mercury. As I knew that the cause of my complaint was the
want of proper nourishment, I fancied the doctor had mistaken my case
when he prescribed for me, and I ventured to speak to him about it. He
did not appear pleased at my making any allusion to medicine. The pills
were discontinued, but I was put on a change of diet for a month, which
consisted in taking away my meat, soup, and potatoes, and giving me
instead a dish of what was by courtesy termed "arrow-root," but which
the prisoners more accurately designated "cobbler's paste." Under this
regimen it will readily be believed my condition every day became
worse, and at last, after being nearly two months confined to my cell,
I got the order of removal to the hospital.

I remember--oh! how well! with what pain I crawled to it on all fours,
and slid down stairs on my back without any assistance. In this way I
managed to reach the sick-room, and the first object that attracted my
attention on entering, was a convict at the point of death. A stream of
blood was rushing from his mouth, which choked him just as I was placed
in the next bed. Another convict, a Scotch shepherd, had died only a
few days previously, from the effects of the treatment he received in
the Scotch prisons previous to his trial. I may here mention that I met
with several instances of deaths occurring in English prisons in
consequence of the treatment the prisoners had received before trial in
Scotland. In the majority of these cases the period of detention before
trial was six or seven months. I also heard of one case, which did not
come within my own observation, however, where the prisoner who died
was innocent of the crime with which he was charged, and that his widow
intended to prosecute the authorities for damages. Whether she did so
or not I never learned.

For about a month I lay in this hospital, but no improvement could be
reported in the state of my health. In