( 2 )
3. The number of outdoor patients rose from 252,059 to 264,041. Out
of this increase of 11,982, the Medical College Hospital accounts for 3,815,
probably due to improved accommodation having been provided for out
-patients; and the Campbell Hospital for 2 610, which shows that the out
-patient department, started in 1892, has met a real want in that part of
the town. The large increase of 2,828 at the Park Street Dispensary is not
explained in the report. The Dufferin Victoria Hospital, the statistics of which
were included for the first time in last year's report, shows an increase of out
-patient from 8,758 to 9,035, which denotes satisfactory progress. The outdoor
department recently opened at the Presidency General Hospital had an attend
-ance of 303, which is less than might have been expected, considering that
persons living in Bhawanipur, Hastings and Alipore have hitherto been obliged
to seek treatment at the Medical College Hospital. But the number may have
been kept down by the operation of the rule restricting gratuitous advice and
medicine, in the case of European and Eurasian patients, to persons whose
circumstances render them unable to pay. This attempt to check the abuse of
the out-patient system by well-to-do persons is said to have worked well in the
Presidency General and the Campbell Hospitals, while it had no practical effect
at the Mayo Hospital, where very few European and Eurasian patients are
treated. In the Medical College Hospital a difficulty was felt in applying the
rule, owing to the reluctance of the medical officers to question sick people
about their incomes.
4. The total number of indoor patients admitted into the hospitals fell
from 26,058 to 24,912, the daily average attendance also declining from 1,338·38
to 1,281·36. The falling off was insignificant everywhere except in the
Campbell Hospital, where the number dropped from 9,384 to 8 440—a fall for
which no convincing reasons are assigned. The Lieutenant-Governor is glad
to observe that at the Dufferin Victoria Hospital the number of patients rose
from 155 to 304, which shows that substantial progress has been made in
combating the current prejudices on the subject of the treatment of the diseases
of women.
5. Of the total number of patients, both indoor and outdoor, treated in all
the hospitals during the year, 171,084 were men, 45,714 women, and 72,155
children. The corresponding figures for the previous year were 167,092,
45,290 and 65,735. During the yast year, therefore, there was an increase
of 10,836 patients. Of the total number treated, 48·67 per cent. were Hindus,
33·11 Muhammadans, 11·05 Eurasians, and 3·12 Europeans. The number of
Muhammadans treated shows an increase of 5,090, and that of Europeans of 666.
6. The general death-rate of all the institutions, excluding the cases
treated in the Eye Infirmary, rose from 12·8 to 14 per cent. of the persons
treated. As was explained in the Resolution on last year's report, the circum
-stances of the different hospitals differ so widely that no trustworthy conclusions
can be drawn from a comparison of their aggregate rates of mortality. Taking
the rates for different classes of patients, the returns show that the mortality
among adult males varied from 1·04 at the Police Hospital, where the patients
are mostly in the prime of life, to 22·13 at Sealdah, which receives a large
proportion of moribund cases; among women from 1·46 at the Dufferin
Victoria Hospital, which treats special diseases, to 34 80 at Howrah, where the
conditions resemble those prevalent at Sealdah. The death-rate for female
children at Sealdah rose from 21·59 to 26·89; while at the Dufferin Hospital
no deaths occurred among the thirty-one girls who were treated.
7. The number of deaths from small-pox in Calcutta, Howrah and the
Suburban area rose from 39 to 416, and the number of patients admitted into
hospital from 49 to 177, of whom 70 died. Of the patients treated in 1894,
121 were unprotected, and of these 56, or 46·28 per cent., died. One of these
56 had had small-pox before, and one person who had been inoculated, died in
spite of the protection thus offorded. Fifty were said to have been vaccinated,
among whom 13 cases, or 26 per cent., proved fatal. It is stated, however,
that typical vaccination scars were found in only one case, so that it seems
doubtful whether these 13 persons had been effectively vaccinated.
These statistics deal only with the initial stages of the outbreak which has
unhappily lasted on into the current year. The monthly mortality up to the
end of May 1895 in Calcutta is shown in the following statement side by side
with the corresponding figures for the previous year:—