( 2 )
was so sudden and unexplained as to raise a doubt whether some change in the
method of returning the patients was not effected in that year. It will be
observed that, apart from the closing of the out-patient department of the
General Hospital, it is again, in 1879, the fluctuations in the large figures of the
Mayo Hospital, an institution under private management, which chiefly affect
the returns. The number of patients receiving relief at the Medical College
Hospital has been steadily increasing for the last three years. For some years
before 1877 the figure had stood at about 49,000.
4. The total number of in-door patients treated was less in 1879 by
5,734 as compared with 1878, and by 1,793 as compared with 1877. It will be
remembered that 1878 was a very unhealthy year, while in 1877 the public
health was satisfactory. The lower figures in the Medical College Hospital,
in the Mayo Hospital, in the Campbell Hospital, and in the Police Hospital,
are entirely due to the generally favorable character of the past year. In
the General Hospital they are attributable partly to the same cause, and partly
to the more careful selection of cases for admission, but chiefly to the falling
off in the shipping of the port and in the number of seamen requiring treat-
ment. The number of seamen admitted to that hospital during each of the
past four years was as follows :—
In 1876
1,522
In 1878
2,748
„ 1877
2,489
„ 1879
1,790
The decrease in the numbers at Howrah is attributed to the more careful
selection of cases, to smaller numbers of railway servants and seamen seeking
admission, to the rejection of native out-patients who were in well-to-do
circumstances, and to improvement in the health of the town.
5. Only three of the six hospitals now treat out-patients. At the Medical
College Hospital the numbers increased by 2,222, as against an increase of
1, 480 i n 1878 over 1877; whi l e t here was a fal l i ng off, owi ng t o causes al ready
explained, in the attendance at the Mayo and Howr ah Hospitals. It is to be
observed that the figures for the College Hospital show only new cases brought
on the books during the year. In the other two hospitals the total number of
persons treated during the year is returned, including those remaining as out-
patients from the year preceding. Taking the number of "attendances," which
is a fair test of work done, the College Hospital returns 149,073, the Mayo
Hospital and its dependencies 538,740, and the Howrah Hospital 48,910.
6. The table showing race is not, the Surgeon-General remarks, of much
value as a test of the prevalence of disease among the different classes of the
community, owing partly to the indefinite way in which Eurasians and Native
Christians are returned both in the hospital books and in the census papers;
but chiefly because hospital admissions, being regulated by the available
accommodation, cannot be a safe guide to the health conditions of the classes
represented by the patients received. The figures for the last three years are,
however, gi ven bel ow; * t hey are, of course, rel i abl e as regards sex : -
RACE.
WOMEN
CHILDREN.
-
TOTAL.
-
1879.
1878.
1877.
1879.
1878.
1877.
1879.
1878.
1877.
1879.
1878.
1877.
Europeans
5,780
7,988
8,631
1,342
1,350
1,664
1,983
1,012
1,739
9,105
10,350
12,034
Eurasians
...
..,
9,975
9,826
10,762
6,724
7,569
8,199 13,555 14,522 15,391
30,254
31,917
34,352
M ahomedan s
...
51,819
57,342
55,459
1 0 , 2 7 8 10,856 11,875 26,821 25,966 29,613
88,918
94,104
9 6 , 9 3 3
aindoos
...
.,.
(85,262
99,513
101,042 17,561 17,716 20,875 20,165 20,691 24,896
122,988
137,920
146,813
Dther castes
.„
3,196
-
3,176
2,776
2,998
-
3,107
2,433
5,635
5,299
4,151
11,829
11,582
9,360
Total
...
156,032
177,845
178,661 38,903 40,598 45,016 68,159 67,490 75,790
263,094
285,933
299,497
It would be interesting to have the relation of hospital mortality to sex and age
worked out in future reports. The number of children treated is so large, and
if the experience of the General Hospital is any test, the mortality among them
is so considerable that it is possible infantile mortality may be an important
factor in the hospital returns. There is nothing, however, to show the number
of children among in-door patients.
* The differences between the totals in this table and those in paragraph 3 for 1879 and 1878 arise from the
exclusion of dental cases in which particulars were not recorded.