( RESOLUTION .)
JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT.
MEDICAL.
Calcutta, the 22nd August 1872.
READ—
A letter No. 247A, dated the 31st May 1872, from the Inspector-General of Hospitals,
Indian Medical Department, submitting his Annual Report on the Calcutta Medi-
cal Institutions for the year 1871.
1. Hitherto the annual reports on the working of the various medical
institutions throughout Bengal have been separately submitted and dealt with
apart, no attempt being made to take a comprehensive view of their common
features or contrasts. Under the orders of the Lieutenant-Governor, the
Inspector-General of Hospitals will, in this and in future years, submit the reports
of his department on a different system, grouping cognate subjects together,
and presenting them in a shape more convenient for reference and more valuable
for record than heretofore. The report now under notice is the first of this
series.
2. It deals with the medical institutions of Calcutta, so far as these are
under the direct control of the Inspector-General, and treats in detail the
operations of—
The Medical College Hospital.
The Municipal Police Hospital.
, , General Hospital.
, ,
Calcutta Lock-Hospitals.
,, Municipal Pauper Hospital.
, ,
,,
Nurses' Institution.
But in order to show the comparative healthiness of the year, and to bring out
hospital statistics in stronger relief, the general results in seven other hospitals
and dispensaries in Calcutta and its neighbourhood are taken into account in
the comprehensive summary with which the report commences. The Lieutenant-
Governor entirely approves of this method, and begs that in future all the
public institutions in Calcutta for affording relief to the sick, regarding which
information can be obtained, may be included in the report.
3. In the five institutions first referred to, we find that 15,065 in-patients
Sukea Street Dispensary.
North Suburban Hospital.
Bhowanipore ditto.
Alipore Dispensary.
Aratoon Apcar Dispensary.
Howrah Hospital.
and 179,354 out-patients, or 194,419 persons in
all, received treatment, as against a total of 172,656
in 1870. If to these be added the patients of the
institutions noted on the margin, we have an aggre-
gate of 15,162 in-door and 219,248 out-door, or in
-
all 234,410 patients relieved by medical charities in 1871, against 208,833in
1870. Yet it appears that the year was an exceptionally healthy one, and that
the increase being mainly in out-patients, indicates only increasing popularity
in the hospitals and growing confidence in European medical science.
4. The rates of mortality are of course only given for in-door patients, and
these vary in a most remarkable manner from 22.65 per mille in the Police
Hospital to 272.12 per mille in the Pauper Hospital. The causes of this will be
adverted to further on ; but meantime it may be remarked that in almost every
instance the rates were much below those of 1870, indicating unmistakably
a most satisfactory improvement in the health of the town.
5. It is strange to note that of 234,410 persons treated, particulars of race,
caste, and sex, were recorded only in 97,322 cases. The Lieutenant-Governor
would have thought that it was possible to secure a complete record of such facts
as these without much difficulty. In the cases noted, however, it is interesting