[140]. See Law v. Hodgson, 2 Camp. 147. Johnson and others v. Hudson, 11 East 180, and cases cited there. The unprofessional reader must observe that there is considerable difference between the authority of cases determined at Nisi Prius, which are decided by a single Judge, and those argued in banco, which are resolved by all the four Justices of that Court in which the action may have been brought.
[141]. So also if a Farrier kills a horse or pricks him in shoeing; or if he refuse to shoe him whereby he is lamed, Bull. N. P. 73, and of trades generally, as, action against a Barber for barbing the plaintiff, negligenter et inartificialiter. 2 Bulst. 333; I Danv. Ab. 177; see also 2 Bl. Com. 163.
[142]. This case is recent, but we believe not reported. The plaintiff was a respectable artisan, and had been employed as engineer and brass-founder in a large manufactory in the city, and by his industry was enabled to earn about four guineas per week; the plaintiff’s right arm was dislocated by a fall from a gig. Mr. Pettigrew, the defendant, was sent for, but being unable to attend from illness, his assistant undertook the case, but conducted it so unskilfully, that the plaintiff lost the use of his arm—Damages £800.
[143]. For other provisions see the act itself. See also two reports from the Select Committee of the House of Commons, on the state of disease and condition of the labouring poor in Ireland. May 17 and June 7, 1819.
[144]. There is among the Sloane manuscripts in the British Museum, a complaint or remonstrance that the buildings had been appropriated to other purposes than those intended by their pious and benevolent founder.
[145]. For the regulations in the time of the Plague during the reign of Elizabeth, see 2 Stowe b. 5. p. 450.
[146]. The case of the King v. Taunton, in the King’s Bench, was to this effect. Mr. Taunton vaccinated his own children, was one of the first subscribers to the London Vaccine Institution, and has been constantly on the Board of Managers of that charity. At the same time he felt it his duty to inoculate such for the Smallpox, who through prejudice, or otherwise, refused vaccination. Many of the poor who applied for gratuitous advice, applied also for inoculation for the Cowpox, and some for the Smallpox.
On the 19th June, Mr. Taunton was arrested on the Lord Chief Justice’s warrant. He gave bail, and directed his attorneys to defend the cause, which was to have been tried on Friday, December 8th, in the Court of King’s Bench, where Mr. Taunton attended with his witnesses. Sir William Garrow, the Attorney General, and counsel for the plaintiff, stated to the Court, that he should not proceed in the present case, as he learnt that the defendant had given notice, with every inoculation, not to expose their children while the disease was out.
“God forbid,” said he, “that those who have the Smallpox should not be attended in their own houses by any person they choose; but they must not be carried about the street to the destruction of others.”
Mr. Justice Bayley.—“I hope it is sufficiently notorious, that the causing persons to pass through the streets, who may have that disorder upon them, although they are going for medical advice to some person in whom they may have confidence, is an indictable offence; and if that person, instead of attending them at their own houses, as he might do, chooses to direct that they shall, from time to time, be brought, or come to him, there is no question that he is liable to an indictment.”