8
REPORT ON THE
17. PARTICULAR DISEASES.— Small-pox was not prevalent until the end of
the year, when it gave rise to 64 cases, of which more than one-third proved
fatal. This is a heavy mortality for this disease, and shows that probably a
large portion of the milder cases are never sent to hospital. Patients suffering
from this disease are now treated only at the Campbell Hospital, where there
are special wards for their accommodation. A few patients are entered as
having been treated at the General and Police Hospitals, but these were
admitted before the nature of the disease had been diagnosed, and were
subsequently removed to the Campbell Hospital.
18. Cholera was less prevalent among the general population during the
year, and fewer cases came under treatment in the hospitals. There were 795
admissions from this cause, with 419 deaths, as against 905 and 521 in the pre-
vious year. Roughly speaking, it may be said that one-half of the cases prove
fatal, no matter how or where they are treated, and a trial which was given
at several of the hospitals during the year to a new remedy, named Salol, was
not followed with any encouraging results.
19. Dysentery was not more prevalent than usual, and most of the cases
were treated at the Campbell Hospital, where it caused a very heavy mortality.
20. Malarial fevers also were not more common nor of a worse type than
in former years, the death-rate from them being the same as in 1888, viz., 70
per mille of treated.
21. Venereal affections .—The foregoing table shows that a larger number
of persons suffering from these affections were treated in 1889 than in the
previous year; but it should be borne in mind that the figures represent
only the indoor patients, and that many more cases were treated either in
the voluntary lock-hospitals or in the outdoor department of the other hospi-
tals. Hitherto the system of classifying these affections has been extremely
faulty owing to the absence from the printed returns of any heading for venereal
diseases other than those in group A, and the consequence has been that a
large proportion of cases have been entered under other headings, and have
not been taken into account when estimating the prevalence of venereal disease.
This circumstance was pointed out during the year to the Government of
India, with the result that the insertion of a heading as above mentioned has
now received official sanction, and in future it will be possible to draw more
correct conclusions regarding the extent to which these affections are prevalent.
22. Tubercular affections show much diminution in 1889.
23. Respiratory affections.—The number of these shows little variation
from that of previous year.
24. The same is the case with leprosy, of which most of the cases
were treated in the Campbell Hospital. It is to be hoped that the erection
of a new leper asylum in or near Calcutta, which I believe is contemplated,
will render it unnecessary to admit any more patients of this kind into the
hospitals where it is most difficult to carry out any effective system of
segregation.
25. The other figures of the return bear a resemblance more or less to
those of the previous year, and do not call for any special remarks.
STATEMENT No. VI.
ENTERIC FEVER.
REMITTENT FEVER.
1 8 7 2 . 1 8 7 3 . 1 8 7 4 . 1 8 7 5 . 1 8 7 6 . 1 8 7 7 . 1 8 7 8 . 1 8 7 9 . 1 8 8 0 .
1 8 8 1 .
1 8 8 2 .
1883. 1 8 8 4 . 1 8 8 5 . 1 8 8 6 . 1 8 8 7 . 1 8 8 8 .
1 8 8 9 . 1 8 7 2 . 1 8 7 3 . 1 8 7 4 . 1875. 1 8 7 6 .
1 8 7 7 .
1 8 7 8 . 1 8 7 9 . 1 8 8 0 . 1 8 8 1 . 1 8 8 2 . 1 8 8 3 . 1884. 1885. 1886. 1 8 8 7 .
1 8 8 8 .
i :
Medical College Hos- 5 9 5 6 6 1 .. 2 ... ... ...
... 1 1 1
. . .
...
. . . 80 86 58 125 95 124 152 164 180 196 150 119 106 92 73 94 9 0
pital ...
. . . ...
Presidency General 17 6 11 12 17 18 9 11 6 11 12 1 10 1 7
17 11 9 11 19 22 10 48 27 39 38 34 49 32 40 45 26 53 75 26 35
Hospital ... ...
Howrah Hospital ... ... ... ... . . . . . . 4 2 4 2 3 3 ... ... . . .
... 2 1 3 28 88 146 172 210 359 393 228 107 77 73 30 82 86 55 33 4 4 ! ,
Mayo Institutions ... 6 2 1 5 6 . . . ... ... ... 1 . . .
... ... ... ... . . . . . .
...... 15 13 22 35 36 174 224 130 208 221 143 212 210 197 123 92 6 1
Campbell Hospital ...
8 6 28 2 ... . . . . . . ... . . .
...
. . .
... . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . .
... 239 212 495 466 438 432 466 333 354 309 301 322 462 314 316 220 250
Police Hospital
... 12 8 11 . . . 14 1 1 2 1 . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
. . .
. . . 11 29 28 5 8 41 52 44 61 64 75 77 ' •
TOTAL ... 126 53 3 023 4 334 13 18 8 15 151111 2 018 13 1 0 14 381 421 731 847 806 1,128 1,284 918 926 893 748 780 930 803 706 540 557
26. Enteric and Remittent fevers. —Calcutta remains comparatively
free from enteric fever, although it must contain a large number of young