12
table they came to 378 European and 45,049 Natives—total 45,427.
Then, again, according to the Surgeon General, the in-patients in the
Civil Hospitals of the Northern Division were 3,304, and the out
-patients 15,928. The first figures agree with those given by the
Deputy Surgeon General, though the table given by the latter has
no heading to show whether in-patients or out-patients, or both, are
included in it—the second figure cannot be traced at all. Again,
according to the Deputy Surgeon General, the total number of sick
treated at the Northern Division Hospitals altogether came to 20,200,
while the total from the Surgeon General's table would be 19,232.
It is true that 20,200 includes Police patients treated at Dohud;
but Government are wholly unable, even with this information, to
reconcile the figures, as the total of Civil and Police patients, ac
-cording to the Surgeon General, is 20,765, and according to his
Deputy 20,964. These discrepancies are much to be regretted.
63. In regard to the cost of these institutions, a combined
statement, showing the general financial position of all Civil Hos
-pitals, has been prepared; but unfortunately the details from which
those figures are calculated are scattered over the book under dif
-ferent forms, and it is, therefore, a matter of great difficulty to com
-pare them. It is quite evident, as has been observed, that all the
tables require to be thoroughly recast on an uniform plan; and Go
-vernment hope that next year the Surgeon General will be able
to place all the detailed information relating to the different Civil
Hospitals, dispensaries, &c., in serial order in one list, so that the
number of in-patients, the average cost of diets, and the like can be
compared at a glance; and that in his own report he will comment
on the results thus shown, pointing out the deductions that the
figures lead to. It will be as well to give the population of each
town in a column next the names of the towns; and when there is
also a separate dispensary at the Civil Hospital town, its figures
might be given in a brief remark opposite the Civil Hospital in
question. The names of the officers in charge of each institution
or office during the year should always be specified. The averages
also might be deduced, as Dr. Niven has done, in relation to each
item of expenditure, as the cost of Medical Officers, &c., varies so much
that an average taken from the aggregate expenditure is of little
use. Care, too, should be taken that the actual number of persons
treated only is shown, and that repeated visits by one person are not
calculated as visits of separate patients; or that, as at Callian, if a
person took away two days' medicine, he was entered as an atten
-dant for two days. The Surgeon General's experience will, no doubt,
enable him to lay down rules by which the actual number of
patients shall really be shown, while at the same time credit is
taken for the treatment of distinctly separate attacks of illness suf
-fered by the same person.
64. Owing to one Deputy Surgeon General giving the average cost
of each in-patient and out-patient separately, while another gives it
for both together; to one giving the average cost of each diet, and
another the total cost but not the number of all diets, the detailed