14
REPORT ON THE
29. The total number of major operations performed during the year at
all the Institutions collectively was 1,926, against 1,719 in the previous year,
while the minor operations rose from 20,264 in 1888 to 20,933 in 1889. The
number of cataract cases operated on was 329 as compared with 325 in 1888.
I particularise this operation because it usually contributes, more than
any other, to swell the total of the year, and the fact that there were only four
more than in 1888 shows that increase has chiefly occurred among general
operations. Eighty deaths occurred after operation, making the death-rate 39
per mille when the number of cases remaining from the previous year are taken
into account. The corresponding figure for 1888 was 46 per mille. These
rates compare very favourably with what obtained in former years, and bear
testimony to the skill of the operators and to the careful after-treatment received
by the patients. Strict antiseptic precautions which are now generally adopt-
ed, careful nursing, and good sanitary arrangements, have also contributed to
the success which has been obtained.
30. At the Medical College Hospital there were 1,414 major operations
during the year, and 74 remained under treatment from the previous year,
making a total of 1,488, of which only 47 proved fatal. Many of these oper-
ations were of an important character, requiring much skill for their proper
performance and treatment. Among them there were the following:—
Cases.
Cases.
Extraction of cataract ...
. . .
237
Radical cure for hernia
...
11
Obliteration of varicose veins
. . .
9
Herniotomy
..,
...
3 2
Operation on aneurism
...
1
Ovariotomy
. . .
...
6
Tracheotomy
. . .
...
3
Plastic operations
...
. . .
15
Litholopaxy
. . .
. . .
16
Operations for vesico-vaginal fistula
14
External urethrotomy
...
5
Kolpohysterectomy
...
...
1
Internal ditto
...
. . .
3
Oophorectomy
. . .
. . .
3
Abdominal section
...
. . .
5
Operations for elephantiasis of
scrotum, &c.
...
...
40
31. The operators were Brigade-Surgeon McLeod, Surgeon-Majors Raye,
Sanders, O'Brien, Joubert, and Surgeons Jameson and. Adie.
32. Some of the major operations were allotted to the following House
Surgeons, viz.,—
11 to Assistant Surgeon Daudar Rahman,
6 to
" "
Syam Nerad Dass Gupta,
1 to
" "
Lala Golok Chandra;
but it is much to be regretted that a larger share did not fall to these officers.
33. 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 perform-
ing 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.
34. 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 satis-
factorily performed under the immediate supervision of the senior officers of the
surgical wards.
35. 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.