6
REPORT ON THE
9. Particular diseases.—The quantity of fever in 1883 varied little from
that of the previous year, but it was less fatal in the proportion of 77 to 90
per thousand. There was some increase of cholera with an ordinary degree of
fatality.
10. In the small-pox hospital 103 persons were treated in 1883. Of these
22 had been vaccinated, of whom 3 died ; 18 had been inoculated and 5
d i e d ; 4 h a d h a d s m a l l - p o x p r e v i o u s l y a n d 1 d i e d ; 5 9 w e r e u n p r o t e c t e d
and 26 died. Assuming the death-rate elsewhere to have been the same as in
the hospitals, the number recorded in the first table will represent about 214
cases of disease, showing that nearly one-half were received into hospital. This
proportion is an improvement on previous numbers, and is explained by the
activity of the police mentioned by the health officer in his reports. But the
return of small-pox in 1883 is less satisfactory in the quantity it shows. Hereto-
fore the town has enjoyed three or four years of comparative exemption between
severe outbreaks,—not between culminating points, but between the cessation of
high numbers after one epidemic and the return of them on the approach of another.
One doubtful exception occurred in 1876-77. There was before 1883 but one year
of exemption, viz. 1882, and as the figures of 1883 have already been exceeded by
those of 1884, there is reason to fear that the power conferred by the law which
made vaccination compulsory in 1880 has not been employed to advantage.
The records of the health office do not show any improvement in the quantity
of work, and the protective value of it is open to serious suspicion on the data
supplied by the Campbell hospital. I understand that some members of the
European community are preparing a representation to Government on the
risks to which they are now exposed, and the want of proper accommodation in
Calcutta for persons attacked by small-pox. This will no doubt lead to investi-
gation and action, and it is unnecessary for me further to discuss in this place a
topic which does not belong strictly to the subject-matter of this report.
11. There was a good deal of fatal dropsy in the Campbell hospital,
meaning probably the general dropsy common in this country. Respiratory
affections were frequent, but not very fatal. Dysentery and diarrhœa presented
fewer cases than in 1882, but the fatality was about the same. Parturient
women were treated in larger numbers than before. The increase falls chiefly on
the Europeans of the medical college, owing to the advantages of the Eden
hospital and the restriction on admissions to the general hospital.
STATEMENT VI.
C a m p b e l l h o s p i t a l .
Medical
college
hospital.
Howrah
general
hospital.
Mayo
hospital. Police
hospital. TOTAL.
True native deaths excluding cholera ... ... ... ...
1,159
346
224
216
19
1,964
Moribund persons ... ... ... ...
. . .
. . .
. . .
192
91
33
43
1
360
Difference ...
967
255
191
173
18
1,604
True death-rate per mille excluding cholera and moribunds.
191.03
111.7
252.6
92.27
7.6
130.06
12. These figures present the true death-rates of native patients at the
several institutions. They are satisfactorily low for the medical college,
Campbell and Mayo hospitals, and high for Howrah. At Howrah very many
hopeless cases are sent by the municipal police, merely to die in the hospital.
13. Operative surgery.—The usual particulars concerning surgical opera
tions, their successes and failures, will be found in the appendix. In my
last report (paragraph 12) I wrote of the fallacies which underlie figured
statements of this kind and, having shewn that the administrative questions
which had led to detailed discussion of technical matters had been set at
rest, I expressed a belief that it would not be necessary again to encumber
the departmental report with such discussion. Both surgeons of the
medical college hospital have furnished detailed reports on operations in 1883