10
REPORT ON THE
this was more than a coincidence; At Howrah a European sailor contracted
cholera a week after admission; No cause could be made out. He died. The
water at klowrah is bad, that at Sealdah excellent so far as it goes, but the
supply has been insufficient, and unfiltered or tank water is liable to be used at
times, although there is nothing to point to its having been concerned in the
outbreak.
11. Professor Haffkine has continued his anti-cholera inoculation through-
out the year with untiring zeal and devotion, and a- considerable body of
evidence has been accumulating towards the settlement of the question of its
value; As stated in last year's report, the process is not complete till the second
inoculation some days after the first has run its course. It is obvious, therefore,
that a man may contract cholera before the second inoculation without any
discredit on the system. This was illustrated during a severe outbreak in the
Gaya Jail in July last; Dr; Harvey, happening to be at Gaya at the beginning
of the outbreak, telegraphed for the Professor, who promptly responded, and
succeeded in persuading 215 out of 433 prisoners, or 49 . 65 per cent;, to
accept the inoculations; Up to the eighth day there was little difference
in the proportion of attacks between the inoculated and the non-inoculated,
but after that the non-inoculated prisoners yielded eight cases and the
inoculated none; This seems to me strong evidence of at all events temporary
immunity;
12. Dysentery;—The large figures of 1893 are exceeded in 1894, though
the death-rate is slightly lower, 30 ; 17 against 30;53.
The remarks in last year's report as
agains
the mis-
leading nature of a mean average might be reported
almost verbatim, the death-rate varying from .87
(two deaths out of 228 cases) at the Police Hos-
pital, '7.86 at the General Hospital to 42 ; 50 at the
Campbell Hospital and 44 .41 at the Howrah Hospital, and the explanation of
these extreme variations remains the same; At the Police Hospital cases are
treated at once at Howrah and Sealdah a large proportion are chronic cases,
practically moribund on admission.
13.
Diarrhæa was also higher, but the general death-rate fell from 39'58
to 35 . 86. The figures vary from 00 ; 00 among
“other classes" at the Presidency General Hospital,
63
3 ; among Europeans at the Medical College Hos-
pital, to 41 ; 89 at the Campbell and 48 ; 67 at the
Howrah Hospital, and the same explanation applies
1893.
1894.
In-patients
1,513
1 , 6 3 4
Out-patients
... 6,336
7,572
Total
7,849
9,206
1893,
1894.
In-patients
ents
ut
Out-patients O
...
. . .
1,551
6,713
1,662
6,970
Total
. . . 8,261
8,632
1893.
1894.
In-patients
4,629
4,059
Out.patients
44,451 49,676
Total
... 99,080 53,735
much higher death-rate than in 1893, 12 . 21 as com-
pared with 7; 88, a very great increase; This
diminished admission and enhanced death-rate are com-
mon to most of the hospitals, the Campbell Hospital
alone having more admissions than in 1893 (1,904
against 1,828), but its death-rate rose from 15 .01 to
22.47, , while the death-rates at the Police Hospital and the Medical College
Hospital and among Europeans at Howrah were slightly lower. The Chandney
and Dufferin. Victoria Hospitals both showed fewer admissions, but the net
result of the year was 4,059 admissions as compared with 4,629 in 1893 and 496
deaths against 365; The death-rate for Europeans and Eurasians was 2.35,
rather less than in 1893 ; that for other classes 13 ; 5 0 a s c o m p a r e d w i t h 9 . 0 3 ,
and the variations run from 00 . 00 at the Chandney and Dufferin Victoria
Hospitals, 1 .05 among Europeans at the Medical College to 19 .07 at Howrah
and 22'47 at the Campbell Hospital.
15; We have seen (paragraph 2) that the statistics of the town and
suburbs, including Howrah, show a general increase in the mortality from
bowel-complaints, and that deaths from fever, though somewhat fewer in the
suburbs than in 1893, were more . numerous there as well as in Calcutta and
Howrah than for any previous year, and that this fact is at first sight surprising
in view of the diminished rainfall and generally more normal climatic conditions
. as in the case of dysentery.
14. Malarial fevers caused fewer admissions into hospital, but gave a