8
REPORT ON THE
20. It will be observed that 206 persons died from phthisis, and 179
from "respiratory affections" during the year 1884. The frequency of
chest maladies, and the heavy mortality they yield, call for remark. The
exciting causes of pulmonary diseases are obscure. We notice epide-
mic occurrence of pneumonia, for instance, in our cold damp weather, and
at other times under conditions precisely the reverse. The disease is met
with in our hospitals in both medical and surgical practice, and as a
complication in the reduced and exhausted. The physical surroundings
of many fatal cases outside our institutions lead to the conclusion that a
vitiated state of the air breathed is one, if not the principal, factor in the
causation of the disease, rather than, as is too often supposed, mere changes in
the temperature or humidity of the atmosphere. The disorder is so frequently
a concomitant during the progress of some diseases, that it is not unreasonable to
believe the productive sources are alike. The deaths from pneumonia are not
shewn separately in this statement. It is presumed they are included under the
head of " Respiratory affections." The following very meagre information is all
I can cull from the several annual reports. In 1884 pneumonia caused 3
deaths in the Medical College Hospital; the admissions are not given. In the
General Hospital there was 1 fatal case, but the number of admissions is not
recorded. In the Campbell Hospital 40 patients were admitted under treat-
ment for this disease. No mention, however, has been made of the deaths. In
the Police Hospital there were 10 cases and 2 deaths
Very little is said in any of the reports on the prevalence of bronchitis,
which occasions much sickness at certain seasons among all classes in Calcutta,
either as a disease of first instance, or as the premonitory sign of pneumonia,
asthma, pleurisy or pleuro-pneumonia, and phthisis. Again, the sequelæ of
chronic bronchitis are by no means rare.
It is a question of considerable interest how far this affection is related to
so-called malarial exhalations or to tangible sanitary defects.
21. The total number of persons admitted into all the hospitals during
1884 suffering from diseases not specified, but entered under the heading
" Other diseases" in the several orders of the nomenclature, was 5,182, or an
increase of 397 over that recorded in 1883, the death-rate being 85 .29 per 1,000
in 1884 against 74.19 in 1883. Of parturient women there were treated
421, of whom 33 died. The corresponding figures for 1883 were 371 and 8.
STATEMENT No. VI.
C a m p b e l l H o s p i t a l .
Medical
c o l l e g e H o s p i t a l .
Howrah
General
Hospital.
Ma y o
Hospital.
Police
Hospital. TOTAL.
True native deaths, excluding cholera ... ... ...
1,376
343
256
237
20
2, 232
Moribund persons ... ... ...
...
... ...
...
2 4 1
143
55
56
2
497
Difference ...
1,135
200
201
181
18
1,735
True death-rate per mille excluding cholera and moribunds.
189.9
96.06
281.1
88.24
8.1
133.14
22. The figures in this table furnish the true death-rate of native patients.
The high rates for the Howrah and Campbell Hospitals must not be accepted
as an equitable reckoning for comparison, for, be it remembered that, at these
institutions many hopeless cases are admitted, which on terminating fatally go
to swell the death-rates very materially. The enormous increase of " mori-
bund " persons in the year 1884 is noticeable. The total number admitted
was 497, the highest on record. The diseases which led to this mortality
are nowhere defined. I presume therefore, that they are included in the
" other diseases " alluded to in the last paragraph.
23. Operative Surgery. —A table showing in detail the operative surgery
of the several hospitals is given in the appendix.
At the Medical College Hospital there were treated 416 cases of important
surgical operations in 1884, with 52 deaths. In 1883 there had been 377 with