23
CALCUTTA MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
one of the four cases of cephalotripsy ; the uterus was ruptured before admission.
Many of the general operations were of supreme importance. A very notable
fact is the increase in the number of abdominal sections. It was formerly a fixed
belief that these operations were not suited to India, and they can hardly be
called established even yet, since the operations are confined to the capital
towns and a few provincial dispensaries. They should number thousands yearly
instead of tens. When performed under favourable conditions, they are quite as
successful as in other countries, and the reason for the high mortality in India
is that most patients suffering from ovarian or other disease calling for laparo-
tomy delay the operation so long that its risk is multiplied by many times.
An average case at the Eden Hospital is far worse than most of those met with
elsewhere. Cases are, however, beginning to come earlier, and the numbers are
increasing yearly, the measure of success improving also. All the ovariotomy
cases recovered. The death shown in the return was a case remaining from
1892. Two of the colotomy cases died, but it was the disease and not the
operation which killed them. One of the hysterectomies ended fatally.
A few years ago this operation was considered unjustifiable, as ovariotomy had
been twenty years before. Seventy-five per cent. of the remaining laparotomies
recovered, two of the eight deaths were due to shock, three to disease and three
to peritonitis. The list contains very many additional operations of great
importance. The hospital is doing splendid work and becoming more and more
useful every year.
42. Minor operations have not been recorded, but are said to average 20 or
30 daily. Orders were issued that a record should be kept, and it is no excuse
to say, as the Superintendent says, that it cannot be kept properly. The omis-
sion vitiates the returns of the institutions generally, and had orders been
obeyed would have turned the decrease mentioned in paragraph 25 into a con-
siderable increase.
43. Food is still cooked in the Medical College kitchen. This is and has
always been the weak point in the hospital arrangements, but there are practical
difficulties in the way of improvement. The arrangements for procuring hot
water have been improved and cheapened.
44. The out-patient department continues to work well. Three thousand
five hundred and thirty-five new cases were treated during the year, and the
average daily attendance was 28.25. This department has provided most useful
material for clinical instruction, and arrangements have now been made by
which the girl students from Sealdah shall share in the teaching.
45. The Ophthalmic Department—located in the Shama Charn Law Hos-
pital—continues to do excellent work. In-patients numbered 502 against 501 in
1892. Out-patients 11,079 against 12,381. The chief operations were as noted
1892. 1893.
Extraction of lens
...
... 298
316
Iridectomy
...
...
34
45
Extirpation of eye
...
...
7
9
Operation for pterygium
...
25
22
Ditto for fistula lachrymalis ...
17
33
Ditto for staphyloma
...
21
14
in the margin, and point to a great amount
of excellent work. Of the cases of extrac-
tion of the lens, including 39 remaining
from 1892, 70.98 per cent, were cured,
sight being restored; 9.01 per cent. are
returned as relieved. In those the opera-
tion succeeds as such, but from changes
in the retina or other causes, restored vision does not result. The operation as
an operation, then, was successful in 80 per cent. of the cases.
46. The Ezra Hospital for Jews treated only 281 in-patients as compared
with 350 in 1892, but the decrease is due to greater strictness as to admissions.
Parsis, Arabs, Armenians, &c., have hitherto been admitted more or less freely.
Admission is now limited to Jews, who have special arrangements for " Kosher"
food, funeral customs and so on. There was an increase of 383 among the out-
patients, but here the race distinction is less rigidly adhered to. The hospital can
make up 22 beds, and 14.12 were constantly occupied. The figure for 1892 was
16.91. Fourteen major and 77 minor operations were performed. They are in-
cluded in the general return of the Medical College and need not be further
alluded to. There were 11 deaths against five in 1892, the increase depending on
the nature of the cases and not on any defects in the hospital. Part of the spare
room has been utilized to provide for the Apothecary to the Medical College
Hospital, whose quarters were given up to the Dental Department. This