( 2 )
their seeking and obtaining it elsewhere on payment. These orders are moreover
applicable to other hospitals in Calcutta and its suburbs.
3. Only 31,338 women and 51,439 children were treated in the various
institutions to which the report refers in 1889 as compared with 36,030 women
and 59,404 children in 1888. This falling off is undoubtedly due in no small
measure to the very successful management of the Lady Dufferin Hospital by
Mrs. Foggo. The death-rate in all Hospitals, excluding the Eye Infirmary,
rose from 124 to 126, the rates for the Campbell and Howrah Hospitals, where
paupers are treated, and into which many moribund and incurable cases are
admitted, being, as usual, very high. Though the general death-rate is slightly
higher than in the preceding year, which again showed a slight increase on the
years 1887 and 1888, it was still much below the average of the years 1879— 85.
4. Whatever form of treatment was adopted in cholera cases, about
half the patients died, and the Lieutenant-Governor regrets to learn that the
experiments made with the new remedy, salol, which has been tried with success
by Dr. Nicholson in Patna, were not followed by encouraging results. Cases
of enteric fever still continue rare in Calcutta, and remittent fever appears to be
on the decrease.
5. There were 1,143 admissions for venereal diseases, against 1,064 in the
previous year. In commenting on these figures, Dr. Hilson observes :—
“It should be borne in mind that the figures represent only the in-door
patients, and that many more cases were treated either in the voluntary lock-
hospitals or in the out-door department of the other hospitals. 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.”
6. The number of important surgical operations in the Calcutta institutions
rose from 1,719 in 1888 to 1,926, and the minor operations from 20,264 to 20,933.
There were 80 deaths after operation, the rate of mortality being 39 per mille
(including the cases left over from the previous year) as compared with 46
per mille in 1888. The Lieutenant-Governor agrees with the Inspector-
General in considering that these results are satisfactory evidence of the skill of
the operators and of the care taken of the patients.
7 .
O n t h e s u b j e c t o f e n t r u s t i n g a l a r g e r n u m b e r o f s u r g i c a l o p e r a t i o n s t o
House Surgeons and senior students, Dr. Hilson observes :—“The Medical
College Hospital is designed primarily for the treatment of the sick, but it is
also intended for the practical instruction of natives in medicine and surgery,
and it seems to me that more opportunities of performing operations might be
given to the House Surgeons and advanced students. To the want of such
opportunities is to be traced in some measure the small amount of surgical work
performed in Bengal by Assistant Surgeons after they leave the College and
begin to practise in the districts. I know it has been urged that House
Surgeons and senior students in the large English Hospitals are only allowed
the privilege of operating on patients to a very limited extent, and that the
high reputation which the Medical College Hospital at present enjoys might
suffer if a different course were followed, and many operations were performed
by inexperienced and unskilful hands. To this it may be replied that India is
not England, that the Indian student requires a more practical training than his
English confrére to fit him for the active duties of his profession, and that there
is no necessity to entrust him with other than the more simple operations, which
might be satisfactorily performed under the immediate supervision of the senior
officers of the surgical wards. At the Mayo Hospital, Lahore, the Assistant
Surgeons and senior students are allowed to perform a considerable number of
the major operations every year, and this system of training the students and
enabling them to acquire confidence in their own capabilities does not seem to
detract in any way from the usefulness and reputation of that institution.
” Sir Steuart Bayley would commend these observations to the careful considera-
tion of the Medical College Council.