Margaret Hames

[Debra A]

Cocaine was used to wean people off morphine in Victorian times. It was also used in lots of 'everyday' items, nasal sprays, toothpaste, cold tonics.

Tracy

Thanks Tracy. I didn't know it was in toothpaste and stuff.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Tom.
The Whitechapel Union Infirmary was the place for sick paupers, the Whitechapel workhouse was the place for paupers with no shelter or food. Trouble was there were conditions applied for gaining free food and shelter in the workhouse-you had to pay back with physical work, stick to the strict rules of the workhouse and NO alcohol allowed! Which probably put more than a few people off going there, unless as a last resort.

I suspect the care at the Infirmary would have been quite basic but if you were on the streets in Winter and had severe bronchitis then it would be very sensible to head there as no conditions were imposed (obviously no alcohol again but no work payment was involved), if you were sick you were sick and you got treatment. It was an essential service for many people, just think how difficult things like giving birth would be if you were part of the lodging house population! My guess would be that the doctors, nurses and board of guardians would be very aware of potential misuse of the Infirmary and be keen to spot such cases and prevent it happening.
The Union infirmaries were the same as any other hospitals with doctors, nurses and different wards.

Cocaine? I bet they used it at the London Hospital or anywhere where surgery was done as I think one of its main uses at this time was as a local anesthetic?

It's funny you mention bronchitis, because Pearly Poll spent a big chunk of 1888 in the infirmary but this and related illnesses. Weeks at a time. I was surprised their resources would allow them to keep a patient for so long.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Tom_Wescott]

That's neat about cocaine in toothpaste. I knew it was the number one toothache and headache medicine of the time.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[mariab]

I would bet that many of the women in the records claimed to have 'accidents' to explain their injuries (the majority probably domestic in nature) and no one would feel the need to persuade them otherwise or inform the police even if they had major suspicions and the woman's story didn't quite add up.

It's interesting though that Ada Wilson did the opposite. Maybe cuz initially she was calling for help from her neighbor/house owner, and later on she thought she might get some profit out of the attack?

That's neat about cocaine in toothpaste. I knew it was the number one toothache and headache medicine of the time.

I most definitely didn't know this. Gives a whole another meaning to "I'm energized in the morning. Brush my teeth, feel so awake". Lol.

[Debra A]

It's funny you mention bronchitis, because Pearly Poll spent a big chunk of 1888 in the infirmary but this and related illnesses. Weeks at a time. I was surprised their resources would allow them to keep a patient for so long.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

What probably seem to us like trivial complaints were a lot more serious in people living in squalid conditions, undernourished and with no antibiotics etc. There was no sick pay and most would have lost their jobs through having a long term illness so it wouldn't benefit most to stay in hospital when they didn't need to. I suppose it was a financial stretch for the union, yes, so I guess they wouldn't keep people in for longer periods than were necessary.

We live in an era where people describe a bad cold as 'the flu' and pride themselves on having had only a couple of days off work with 'the flu'.....we don't know we are born really.

[Scorpio]

Margaret Hames' entry in the latest edition of the A to Z:

"Fellow-lodger of Emma smith.Attacked in Osborne Treet/Brick Lane vicinity on 8 Dec 1887, receiving face and chest injuries that kept her in Whitechapel Infirmary until 28 December. It is possible that a misrecollection of her assault as fatal may have lain behind references to a murder at Christmas 1887."

I don't think this has been mentioned before, apologies if it has, but while looking through the Whitechapel Infirmary records for earlier in 1887, I came across Margaret being admitted some 8 months earlier too.
Here's the March entry from the Whitechapel Union Infirmary Admission and Discharge Register 1887-88. Margaret's entry is the top line in all the pictures:

[ATTACH]14010[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]14011[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]14012[/ATTACH]

My transcript:
1303 Admitted Monday March 7th, Hames Margaret,age 54, address 18 George Street, widow of John a ship cook, reason for admission - contused hips, religion C of E

Margaret was in the Infirmary for over 2 weeks and was discharged on 23 March 1887.
The March 1887 and December 1887 entries both record margaret being admitted in the morning, 11 am and 11.15am respectively.

I wonder what caused the contused hips?

Are you certain the name is really Hames?; that contemporary handwriting looks like it could be spelling Harriss, or Harries.

[Debra A]

Are you certain the name is really Hames?; that contemporary handwriting looks like it could be spelling Harriss, or Harries.

I should imagine that whatever the real name is, if it wasn't Hames it would have been a name that sounded like Hayes as that was the name reported in the papers and probably mis-heard. Neither Harriss or Harries seems right in that case.

[Tom_Wescott]

Look at the entry just beneath it (Marshall) and you'll see the writer's 'r' is very different from his 'm', so it's definitely 'Hames'.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Debra A]

Look at the entry just beneath it (Marshall) and you'll see the writer's 'r' is very different from his 'm', so it's definitely 'Hames'.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

It makes no difference anyway, Tom. it's still EXACTLY the same woman who was admitted in December 87 for face and chest injuries, living at 18 George Street and identified by other excellent researchers as the only woman who fits the details of Margaret Hayes who gave evidence at Emma's inquest.

[Tom_Wescott]

Speaking as the excellent researcher I am, I'm going with Hames as the way to spell her name (as opposed to Haymes, Hayes, etc.).

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Debra A]

Hames is the woman in the Infirmary records who matches Hayes the witness at the inquest. I think Scorpio was suggesting I might have the wrong woman altogether?

[Debra A]

Obviously the woman I have picked out is really Margaret Harries, admitted to the Infirmary with cracked lips where she spent 6 months.. as cracked lips (or is it lip) was a life threatening disease in Victorian times.

[mariab]

Lol. But seriously, I'm very interested in Malvina Hayes too.

[Roy Corduroy]

or she might have been hanging out with an abusive pimp

Good evening Maria,

Pimps to the Unfortunates of Spitalfields should be easy to trace - men who died of starvation. As the Unfortunates barely made enough to pay their own doss.

Roy

[SirJohnFalstaff]

Margaret Hames' entry in the latest edition of the A to Z:


I wonder what caused the contused hips?

After reading the book about murders and manslaughters during the year of the ripper, it seems quite a lot of people were hit by cabs and chariots.

But one hip contusion is probably the truth.

Very old people need hospitalization for hip injuries, that's a way to see if the bones are becoming more porous. It's an indication of poor health, and even though she was only in her 50's, considering the living conditions of these women...