6
REPORT ON THE
11. Admission of moribund persons.—I subjoin a statement showing the
number of moribund persons received into the several institutions of Calcutta
in 1879, and their effect on the recorded death-rates:—
STATEMENT NO. V.
Campbell
Hospital.
Medical
College
Hospital.
Howrah
Hospital.
Mayo
Hospital.
Pol i c
Hospital.
Total.
Total native deaths, excluding cholera
...
...
...
1,981
3 6 5
362
197
29
2,934
Moribund persons
ditto
...
...
181
84
60
29
3
357
Difference
...
1,800
281
302
168
26
2,577
True native death-rate per mille, excluding cholera and
moribund cases
...
...
...
...
...
...
235.2
140.6
287.07
91.8
9.7
169.5
The figures here given are not comparable with those presented in the
corresponding statements of former years. If the persons who die from
cholera within 24 hours from admission be excluded, it will be found that the
moribund groups are composed mainly of natives. The effect on the death-
rate should therefore be estimated by the figures relating to natives alone, and
not by the combined death-rates of all races. Cholera deaths occurring within
24 hours should not be included with moribund cases. It is the natural
tendency of this disease to cause death within 24 hours, and the term moribund
cannot be applied to such cases, with the meaning which it carries in other
diseases. These corrections have been made in the foregoing table, which
therefore cannot, as I have said, be compared with former records of the same
kind, for the institutions whose inmates are of various races.
12. Surgical operations.— The tables next in order in previous reports of
this kind have presented to the Government detailed lists of surgical oper-
ations performed, with their results for the year in review. Such statements
are useful summaries for record in this office, but they offer nothing for unpro-
fessional criticism; they illustrate no points of progress or otherwise in their
tabular form, and have no interest for the Government or the public. They
are merely technical statements of the treatment of particular cases, and an
administrative report is not concerned with such matters. In every branch
of practice the experience of a year may, by its bearing on particular questions,
possess particular interest and importance; and the conclusions to be drawn
from such experience may fall within the scope of an administrative report;
but this is not, I think, sufficient reason for presenting to the Government
annually such tables as those which I have mentioned, and now omit from the
body of this report. The list of operations will be found in the appendix.
13.
Hospitalism.—The report of the Medical College Hospital for 1879
illustrates in one point the last remark: it contains some evidence regarding the
prevalence of hospitalism in the surgical wards, which evidence, though it does
not relate solely to the past year, affords interesting confirmation of the views
recently presented to and adopted by Government on that subject. It will be
remembered that, as a result of the enquiry of the Committee on Medical Expen-
diture, it was known that different authorities held different opinions as to what
affections should be included in the name hospitalism, and that these diversities
had created much doubt as to the real facts recorded in the hospital in former
years. It was also shown that much of the fatal disease that had been ascribed
to the hospital had in truth been brought into it from outside. How much,
it was not possible to say with any exactness; but of 30 cases of hospitalism,
Dr. McConnell had distinctly traced importation in 14. It now appears that
this proportion of imported cases was below the truth. Dr. Smith writes that
Dr. McConnell has carefully gone through all the post-mortem records of
surgical cases, and taking all the affections that can be included in the term
hospitalism, has found that of 64 cases occurring in the past six years no
less than 41 were imported; that is, were admitted with some form of putre-
factive disorganization already existing; so that only 23 are fairly attributable
to causes operating within the hospital. The above figures do not include all