CALCUTTA MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
3
6. The following statement (No. III) exhibits the number of cases treated
and the mortality in all the hospitals of Calcutta and its suburbs for the past
ten years, indicating also the death-rate from cholera, and contrasting the
hospital with the municipality returns. In certain years the hospital mortality
from all diseases has been a very little lo wer than in 1877, viz. in 1871 and
1872 when it was 132 per mille, but in all the other seven years it was greater
and in some very considerably so. The average annual hospital death-rate
from 1868 to 1876 was 154. In 1877 it was 133. The mean annual rate of
mortality among cases of cholera treated in the hospitals of Calcutta from
1868 to 1876 was 488 per 1,000; in 1877 it was 512. The annual report of
Health Officer of Calcutta shows that the death-rate from cholera among the
general population of the town was 3·3 per mille, while for the nine preceding
vears the average death-rate from cholera was 4·3 per mille:—
STATEMENT No. III.
Numbers treated
and the resulting
mortality.
YEARS.
ALL DISEASES.
CHOLERA.
Death-rate
excluding
cholera.
Number of
deaths regis-
tered by the
Municipality.
Rate per mile
of
population.
Treated.
Died.
Died per
mille .
Treated.
Died.
Died per
mille
1868
...
. . .
16,996
3,386
199
1,224
563
461
179
13,736
32
1869
... ...
18,035
3,043
169
1,144
558
487
147
12,795
29·8
1870
... ...
15,816
2,250
142
605
258
426
131
10,462
24·4
1871
... ...
17,325
2,288
132
255
112
439
127
10,299
24
1872
. . .
. . .
20,805
2,761
132
488
217
484
125
11,923
27·8
1873
. . .
. . .
18,896
2,706
143
492
264
536
132
11,558
26·9
1874
. . .
. . . 20,331
3,197
157
666
339
509
145
12,641
29·4
1875
... ...
22,806
3,815
167
787
405
515
154
15,069
35
1876*
. . .
. . .
21,832
3,226
147
740
399
539
134
12,964
30·2
1877*
. . .
. . .
24,822
3,308
133
574
294
512
124
13,704
31·9
* Exclusive of Eye cases treated in Eye Infirmary.
7. In reference to cholera as affecting the shipping, I have to repeat
what has been pointed out, that the sewage of about 2,500 natives stationed in
the Fort is still discharged into the river, and that sailors on ships moored near
to the place of this discharge, are still most liable to be attacked with the disease.
Dr. Raye's report shows that there were 16 cases from the Esplanade moorings
and six from the jetty, or together 22 above Fort Point; whilst the cases admitted
from below Fort Point were 43, or 16 from Prinsep's Ghât, 16 from Hastings,
three from Kidderpore, three from Garden Reach, three from Baboo Ghât, and
two from Fort Point. Unfortunately we have no information as to the relative
number of ships or of sailors at the different moorings, though the above
enumeration shows that the most cases occurred nearest to where the foul
drainage entered the river. It seems almost incredible that a practice which
is universally condemned in cooler climates should have been allowed to exist
so long in a climate such as that of Calcutta. That it must prove hurtful
there can be no doubt, and that the deposit left on the banks at low water is
liable to give rise to diarrhœa, dysentery, typhoid fever, and cholera, seems
to me to be exceedingly probable, notwithstanding that no offensive odour is
discernible. A practice so entirely opposed to all modern ideas of sanitation
can be defended on no possible grounds except its cheapness, and this apparently
is its only and great recommendation in the eyes of the Engineers who were
consulted regarding it, judging from correspondence on the subject that I have
seen.
8. Statement No. IV shows the principal diseases among the house-
patients of the Calcutta and Suburban Hospitals. Malarious fevers were the
chief cause of admission of 6,706 cases, with 483 deaths; dysentery furnishes
2,194 cases and 596 deaths, or 271·6 per mille; diarrhœa 1,866 cases and 535
deaths, or 286·7 per mille; spleen affections 1,063 cases with 143 deaths, or
135·4 per 1,000. There were 1,641 cases of injury with 91 deaths; 692 cases
of syphilis and 4 deaths; 986 cases of affections of the respiratory organs
and 153 deaths. Allusion has already been made to the fact that the number
of patients admitted in the last stage of disease tended very greatly to increase
the rate of hospital mortality.
Cholera.
Principal
diseases among
house-patients.