( 4 )
already contributed to the municipal funds a large sum of money for effecting
a thorough drainage of the neighbourhood, and the College Council has been
asked to aid His Honor with suggestions for improving the present college and
hospital buildings.
13. The Lieutenant-Governor is glad to observe that the legacy, moneys,
and other funds belonging to the hospital have been brought under proper
control. As suggested, all the floating deposits and accumulated interest may
be at once invested in Government paper.
14. The experiment of training native midwives should certainly not be
given up. It is satisfactory to see that three out of the four under tuition
have passed the examinations.
15. General Hospital .—The addition to the civil hospital of all the build-
ings formerly occupied by the military sick make the General Hospital now a
really first-class institution capable of accommodating about 300 patients. The
average daily number of sick during the year was 182.25, and the death-rate
45.30, a rate below the average of the six years (1865—71) by 18.16, but exceed-
ing that of 1871 by 8.78. The cause of this falling off is shown to have been
mainly due to the greater prevalence of cholera.
16. The cholera death-rate was 446.8 per mille, as against 592.5 in 1871
(the result of comparison being the converse of that at the College Hospital) ; but
the absolute number of cholera cases was 92 against 27. The improved rate of
mortality of late years is attributed solely to the cases being brought under
treatment at an earlier stage. The river-side dispensary will, if established, do
much to secure this ; but unfortunately the opposition of the military authorities
to the erection of any building, however insignificant, on the Strand Bank has
prevented its being placed where it would have been of most use.
17. Dr. Ewart draws attention to the sewers that still void themselves
into the river, and to which much of the mortality among the sailors is attri-
buted. The Chairman of the Justices will be asked to get a report from the
Town Engineer upon this matter, and the Department of Military Works will be
requested to report on the state of things as regards the Fort drains and the
possibility of improving their arrangements.
18. Dr. Ewart's analyses of results under the other principal diseases
are interesting, but call for no special remark further than that careful investi-
gations into the nature of remittent fever ought to be quite possible with the
staff, permanent and temporary, attached to the hospital. The fact that all
the cases of heat apoplexy or sunstroke (insolatio) recovered is noteworthy.
The Lieutenant-Governor does not see that any of our supernumerary Sub-
Assistant Surgeons have yet been attached to this hospital.
19. The Surgeon-General's directions as to the mode of treating mori-
bunds in the hospital returns have been approved already. He should see that
they are duly attended to in practice.
20. It certainly seems inconvenient that when the hospital has only Rs. 25
a month to spend on books for the sick it should be prevented from buying cheap
and second-hand from reading clubs out here, and should have to indent for new
ones through the Secretary of State. The Government of India will be asked
not to press the rule in the case of this institution, and meantime Dr. Ewart
is authorized to buy second-hand books here. Perhaps if it were generally
known how books and magazines are valued in a hospital like this many
private donors would come forward to assist.
21. The Nurses' Institution .—The Calcutta Nurses' Institution has again
done much useful work, and though its balances have fallen somewhat, it
has been able to increase its staff to supply the wants of the General
Hospital. After the year closed, however, Government had to make a special
grant of Rs. 2,000 to the Committee of Management to enable them to meet
their working expenses, and it is hoped that the ladies of the Committee and
the friends of the Institution have since been able to place its finances on a
satisfactory footing.
22. The Municipal Pauper Hospital.—The Pauper Hospital, or Lazar
House of Calcutta, maintains its high death-rate of 277 per mille, or 202