CALCUTTA LOCK HOSPITALS.
85
16. I drew attention very pointedly in my reports to the proofs of the increase in 1872
been due to the arrival of a new regiment with its infected men. I showed how this -
having
was in close accord with experience in Europe, and I ventured to anticipate that a second
year of residence would find the 1-14th
°R
eoiment as free from contagious disease as
their predecessors were when they left Fort William. The figures of 1873 justify the
prediction, while the effect of newcomers in bringing disease into the town, which is soon
returned to them, is fluffier illustrated by the present state of the 3rd Buffs, now in the Fort.
On the arrival of the battalion, I visited the hospital and found 12 or 13 venereal cases in the
wards. I drew Dr. Colles's attention to the probability of the men infecting the Calcutta
women, as in former years, and he at once ordered an inspection of all unmarried men in the
battalion. The result was the detection and removal to hospital of between 30 and 40
venereal cases, and a further result is that up to the present time not a single case of Calcutta
syphilis has appeared among the men, and only one or two of gonorrhoea.
17. Still more satisfactory than the reduced percentage of all venereal disease in 1873 is
the singularly small proportion which syphilis bears to the whole. The following table
shows this:—
mereal in the
)rt garrison.
Year.
lam .i.
Admission from Garrison.
Admission from Garrison.
Syphilis.
Gonorrhce—a.
Year.
Syphilis. Syphilis.
Gonorrhoea.
1863
...
...
...
89
67
1871
33
44
1869
...
...
...
79
91
1872
09
1870
...
...
...
49
68
1S73
i3
56
So that the total percentage, viz. 7 .4, is made up of 1 .4 per cent. of syphilis and 6 per
cent. of gonorrhoea. In this calculation all cases are included which are not known to have
been contracted at Dum-Dum or elsewhere beyond the operation of the Act.
18. The main facts of the year may be summarised as follows :—A steady reduction of the
number on the register, and an increasing proportion of disease among unregistered women,
as evinced at the primary examinations. This increase, however, is but small, and it should
be observed that registration is often the result of information received by the police that
a woman is diseased, so that the figure is not an exact index of general disease among the
unregistered. Among the registered women, there has been a small diminution of syphilis and
some increase of gonorrhoea. There has been a net increase in the quantity of venereal
disease treated in the civil medical institutions of the town and suburbs, a very large increase
of imported cases, a small general reduction of indigenous disease, but an increase of
indigenous primary syphilis. The European garrison has been singularly free from syphilis,
of which among 929 men, only 13 cases occurred in the year. Gonorrhoea has fallen a
little.
19. The differences among the civil population are perhaps too small to form a basis for
definite conclusions as to cause. The influence of importation is of course the same on a civil
community as it is in a military station. Inhabitants become infected and add to the numbers
of those from outside to make up the hospital admissions. Those parts of Calcutta are seen to
. have been most disadvantageously affected which are most exposed to infection from without,
and stated to be occupied most largely by unregistered women, and the fact that syphilis
has been imported in disproportionate quantity coincides with the increase of that disease in
the General Hospital.
20. The garrison escapes syphilis. No new regiment arrives to undo the work that
had been done in the military sections, which are now pretty well commanded by the
police. Gonorrhoeal figures do not much improve, neither do those of the registered women.
Coupled with the events of the current year up to date, the facts seem to indicate that when
new regiments suffer, they suffer chiefly by reciprocation of the disease they bring them-
selves, and not by that imported through other European arrivals, for the latter must be
supposed to occur in nearly equal quantity from year to year.
21. It remains only for me again to bring to very favorable notice the conduct of
the resident medical officers, Dr. Naylor, Sub-Assistant Surgeon Mohendro Nath Goopto,
and Sheik Mongloo. Not a single complaint has been made during the year by the women
of the treatment they have received, and the number of unregistered women who have
resorted voluntarily to Alipore for the cure of disease is a positive and substantial testimony
to the contentment that prevails under Sheik Mongloo ; Sub-Assistant Surgeon Moh.endro
Natb. Goopto has lost his native patients, but he has the duties of two examination wards
on his hands, and discharges them with perfect efficiency.
I am also highly satisfied with the conduct of native doctors Bhola Nath Gangooly
and Rajendro Chunder Banerjee. The assistant (formerly compounder) to examiner at
Sealdah and Bow Bazar is a most active and useful man.
summary of the
1 car.
Medical
subordinates.
CALCUTTA,
A.
PAYNE, M.D.,
The 6th Zarch 1874.
Superintendent, Loch Hospitals, Calcutta.