CALCUTTA MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
5
The two preceding statements show that, as would be expected, many more Christians
(Europeans and Eurasians) seek relief as in-door and out-door patients in Calcutta than in the
mofussil ; that Hindoos in larger, though not proportionately larger, numbers resort to the
hospitals and dispensaries everywhere than Mussulmans ; that women and children of
these two classes are treated both as in-door and out-door patients in small proportion to men.
This of course is to be expected ; and that women and children of Mussulmans are treated
in larger relative numbers both as in-door and out-door patients than those of Hindoos.
Classes and sex.
4. Death-rates.— Of 18,896 patients treated, 2,706 died—a rate per thousand of 143.
This rate is higher than that of 1872 and 1871, in both which years the rate of death
was 132 per thousand, and is almost the same as that of 1870; when it was 142 per thousand.
This, however, appears to be due mainly to the inclusion of the moribund cases at the
Howrah Hospital. In the following table the rates of mortality, both including and
excluding cholera, are shown, and the number of deaths and rates per thousand registered by
the municipality are placed alongside for the sake of comparison :—
Death-rates
As compared with
municipal
returns.
Statement No. V.
YEARS.
ALL DISEASES.
CHOLERA.
D e a t h - r a t e , e x c l u d i n g c h o l e r a .
N u m b e r o f d e a t h s
r e g i s t e r e d b y m u n i c i -
p a l i t y .
R a t e p e r 1 , 0 0 0 o f p o p u -
l a t i o n .
T r e n t e d .
D i e d
D i e d p e r 1 , 0 0 0 .
T r e a t e d .
D i e d .
D i e d p e r 1 , 0 0 0 .
1868
16,996
3,386
199
1,224
563
461
179
13,733
30·6
1869
18,035
3,043
169
1,144
558
487
147
12,795
28·5
1870
15,816
2,250
142
605
258
426
131
10,102
22·6
1871
17,325
2,288
132
255
112
439
127
10,300
23·1
1872
20,805
2,761
132
448
217
484
125
11,825
26·4
1873
18,896
2,706
143
492
264
536
132
11,471
23·4
If cholera be excluded, the rate is 132 per thousand for 1873, which is higher than it has
been during the three preceding years. A larger number of cases of cholera have been
treated than in 1872, the figures being 492 to 448 ; and, as compared with 1871, the number
is very nearly doubled. The rate of mortality from this disease is also seen to be higher :
in fact the proportion of deaths to treated is distinctly larger than has been noticed during
the last six years. It would seem, therefore, that the improvement in the health of the
town and its suburbs, which was so marked in 1870, 1871 and 1872, and which was coincident
with the improved drainage and water-supply, to which it was rather confidently attributed,
has not been quite so fully sustained during the year under review, so far at least as these
hospital statistics give evidence. It has been shown that though the total number of cases
treated for all diseases has been less than in 1872, it has been greater than was registered in
any of the previous years given in the table, and the rate of mortality has been higher than
in 1872 or 1871; and as regards cholera, that more cases and a larger proportion of deaths
have occurred than were recorded in 1872 and 1871, and fewer cases but higher rate of death
than in 1870.
Increase of cholera.
It is to be remembered, however, that in 1872 dengue, a disease seldom fatal, was
epidemic, and that 2,293 cases were treated with only 7 deaths,—a rate of 3 . 05 per thousand,
which would lower the general average rate of mortality. In 1873 only 79 cases of this
disease were treated, with one death.
Moreover these somewhat less favourable results, which appear to be arrived at in the
statistics of these hospitals for the past year, do not correspond with those published by the
municipality, by whom fewer deaths with a lower ratio are registered for 1873 than for 1872.
Comparison of
Hospital and municipal returns.
5. Diseases treated.—Statement No. VI shows the principal diseases for which in-patients
have been treated, and the rates of mortality, at each of the hospitals and dispensaries under
report.
Principal diseases
treated.
Fevers, bowel complaints, and injuries, as usual, have caused the largest numbers of
admissions. The large number of cases of phthisis treated this past year, viz. 893, is
remarkable, and is much in excess of previous years. The number admitted for syphilis
is also higher. Under the head of debility, 762 cases with 168 deaths are shown. Of these,
the Campbell Hospital furnishes 654 cases and 163 deaths.
The greatest number of deaths have occurred from the following diseases in order of
fatality :—diarrhœm, dysentery, dropsy, cholera, debility, remittent fever, and phthisis.
Principal causes of
mortality.