82
REPORT ON THE CALCUTTA MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
of the Government order is to submit an indent on Her Majesty's Secretary
of State. I am of opinion, however, that on representation, an exception may
fairly be made in favor of a great charity like the General Hospital, which
ministers so much to the alleviation and cure of the diseases from which the
mercantile marine suffer within its walls. I trust the Inspector-General will be
pleased to move His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor to sanction the continu-
ance of the practice of buying cheap literature from any of the reading clubs
for the library.
38. The Editors of the Englishman and Daily News continue to supply
their respective newspapers to the hospital, gratis. The Bengal Club have regu-
larly furnished the papers of the previous day. Mr. Pirrie Duff has kindly
favored us with the Scotsman.
NURSING.
Nursing.
39. In a letter dated 24th December, to Mrs. Colquhoun Grant, the
Honorary Secretary of the Committee of the Calcutta Hospital Nurses' Insti-
tution, I wrote in the following terms regarding the nurses : " I have much
pleasure in again bearing testimony to the very creditable manner in which the
nurses attached to the Presidency General Hospital performed their arduous
and highly responsible duties during the past twelve months. It is difficult to
estimate the important services rendered to the sick by these women. So
much am I impressed with the value of their services, that I should most gladly
welcome an increase to the number of nurses at present allotted to the
hospital. During the past year the whole of the buildings, formerly occupied
by the Native and European sick in Fort William, have been available for the
general purpose of the hospital. Whilst this has given more space, it has
entailed a marked increment to the average number of daily sick. To meet the
necessities of this increase of the patients in hospital, we ought, to begin with,
to be furnished with at least two more nurses in addition to the present staff
of ten nurses and one matron." During the greater part of the year, Mrs. Atlay
performed the duty of Honorary Secretary to the Committee. She has lately
been ably substituted by Mrs. Grant, who has taken a most active interest in
the management of the nurses. In this good work Mrs. Grant has been admir-
ably assisted by the matron, Mrs. Hickey.
COVENANTED EXECUTIVE ESTABLISHMENT.
New organization
of the hospital.
Dr. S. C. Macken-
zie's services.
40. I have been much indebted for the harmonious and smooth working of
the institution to my able assistants, Dr. W. J. Palmer and Dr. S. Coull Mackenzie.
The increased accommodation, consequent on the transfer of the building from
the military authorities to the surgeon of the hospital, has enabled me to dis-
tribute the work, and to effect an amount of decentralization previously im-
practicable, so that now each officer has charge of his complement of patients
in an entirely separate and distinct building of his own, subject to the control
and supervision of the surgeon-superintendent. But to render this decentra-
lization efficient, an augmentation of the establishment is needed. I trust the
scheme transmitted on 21st October 1872, may meet with the support of the
Inspector-General and the speedy sanction of Government, inasmuch as at
present everything is carried on at a rate of high pressure, which it will not be
possible to sustain permanently.
41. I consider it but due to Dr. S. Coull Mackenzie to take this opportu-
nity of bringing his excellent services to the notice of the Inspector-General.
Though he found his wards, on occupying them, with bare walls, and in a
rather filthy condition, he had not been in possession long before they were
put into the best order possible under the circumstances then existing. To