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cold season to discuss the means by which the , Fort drains can be connected
with the municipal sewers. The scheme submitted has met with Mr. Eden's
approval, and he has asked the Government of India to have this important work
carried out as soon as possible.
5. The statement of the principal diseases from which in-door patients
suffered shows some increase in enteric fever. The disease, however, appears to
have been of a comparatively mild type. One-half of the sufferers treated were
Europeans, and 14 out of the 22 native patients were constables. No less than
11 of these 14 cases ended fatally. It does not, however, appear that this
result is due to specially defective sanitary arrangements in the police hospital
or the thanas. In all, 669 important surgical operations were performed, with
only 74 deaths. The operations on the eye were especially successful, only one
out of 223 ending fatally. Mr. Eden is glad to learn that out of 40 deaths
which followed operations at the Medical College Hospital, only two can be
attributed to hospitalism. This is a great improvement on previous years, when
this affection was so prevalent as to suggest a radical defect in the construction
of the hospital building. It only shows how wrong it is hastily to condemn
the construction of a hospital by the results of a single year.
6. The total amount disbursed on account of these institutions during the
year was Rs. 5, 07, 473, agai nst Rs. 4, 88, 835 i n 1875. Of t hi s i ncrease, t he
General Hospital is responsible for Rs. 33,223. A part of this sum is repre-
sented by Rs. 18,768 for medicines and books supplied by Government. There
was no corresponding entry in the accounts for 1875, and the circumstances
under which this heavy charge has been incurred have not been explained.
It is doubtless to some extent attributable to the undue extension of the out-door
department, to which allusion has already been made. But the Lieutenant-
Governor sees too much reason to believe that there is a great deal of waste
and pilfering of expensive drugs in all Government hospitals and institutions.
There is also an unexplained increase of Rs. 9,598 in the charges for dieting
the sick, and of Rs. 3,427 under the head "Miscellaneous." In the accounts
of the Mayo Hospital, as in those of the General Hospital, a charge for
medicines and books supplied by Government appears for the first time.
The expenditure under this head was Rs. 6,000. There is also an entry
of Rs. 4,013 for dieting the sick, to which nothing in the statement for
the previous year corresponds. Altogether, the charges of this hospital for
1876 amounted to Rs. 59,175, exceeding those for 1875 by Rs. 8,414. In
view of the circumstance that there was a falling off of 4,075 in the number
of persons treated, the Lieutenant-Governor cannot but consider this increase
in expenditure unsatisfactory. In the report for 1874, the Surgeon-General
estimated the permanent annual expenditure, exclusive of repairs, at Rs.
48,000. That this estimate was not unduly low was shown by the results
of 1875, when, excluding expenditure on repairs, the gross disbursements
were only Rs. 47,349. After deducting the charge on account of repairs,
however, the expenditure for the past year is found to have been Rs. 6,861 over
the estimate of 1874. The Campbell Hospital shows a decrease in the gross
charges from Rs. 78,793 to Rs. 75,241. The number of persons treated, all in-door
patients, was 6,640, against 7,782 in the previous year. Although the number
of patients was so much smaller, there was actually an increase in the amount
expended on bazar medicines, and on wine and spirits, and a large increase in
the wages of servants; while the decrease in the cost of dieting the sick does
not at all correspond with the falling off in the number of patients. The
Lieutenant-Governor has recently found it necessary to appoint a com-
mittee to report on the expenditure of this hospital. The Sumbhoo Nath
Pundit Dispensary, which has been deprived of many patients by the General
Hospital, is the only institution which shows money invested during the year
out of surplus income. The financial management of the Howrah Hospital has
been successful. Though there was an increase in the number of sick, the