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Enclosure 2.
Report from the Medical Officer in charge of Gaol Hospital.
GAOL HOSPITAL,
HONGKONG, 1st February, 1891.
SIR,-I have the honour to forward the report and statistical tables of the work done in this Hospital in 1890.
2. During the past year as shown in the Table K, 368 men were admitted; 32 of whom were, by orders of Magistrates and for other reasons, kept under observation.
3. At the first medical examination (Vide Table Z), 44 men were put in for treatment.
4. The percentage of these cases and the rate of sickness and mortality are given in the Tables IXa and XI. The number of prisoners received at the Gaol was 3,444.
5. Six deaths have occurred from disease. Two patients died from Dysentery. The other deaths resulted from pulmonary and laryngeal Phthisis, from cardiac and chronic Bright's disease, from Re- mittent Fever, and from Meningitis.
In addition to these, an old convict (who had returned from deportation) and a prisoner on remand committed suicide by hanging themselves in their cells.
All the deceased were Chinese.
6. The cases that were treated outside this Hospital are given in the Table X.
Not less than 100 prisoners had scabies, 28 were suffering from ringworm, and 62 from superficial abscess of plantar surface of feet.
7. Many prisoners had also abscess about the ankle joints, caused by rubbing the rough edges of fetters against the skin.
I have recommended that all the short-sentenced men should wear also canvas girdles for protect- ing their ankle joints.
8. We have continued to vaccinate the long-sentenced prisoners, without neeting with any serious accident. In some rare instances, small abscesses supcrvened, but they healed up very quickly.
The result of our work and inquiry on this subject for the last three years are tabulated below.
Year.
Total number of vaccination and re-vaccination.
Taken.
Failed at first vaccination
and re-vaccination.
Total number of those who have been vac- cinated or inoculated outside the Gaol.
1888,
1889,
1890,
2,051
1,854
697
2,060
1,445
615
1,736
1,024
712
1,951
2,057
1,722
9. Owing to leprosy, six Chinese men and one woman were released and sent to Canton soon after they were sentenced for various offences. One of the men came back and was subsequently three times convicted and committed to Gaol.
10. Table XIb gives the weights for the first four weeks of opium smokers who were deprived of this drug after their admission to this Gaol.
This table was compiled by Warder FLORES and by Assistant Warder HAMED who also weighed the prisoners. Table XIe shows the number of these men who were in the Hospital for treatment.
11. Influenza made its appearance in the month of March, and caused 25 admissions into this Hospital. Almost all these patients suffered also from gastric derangement, pains in the lumber region and in the joints, were greatly depressed, and in many cases, the symptoms resembled those of small-pox in its premonitory stage.
I was often able to recognise this affection by looking at their tongues, which were generally of a bright red colour in the tips and on the edges, but thickly coated in the centre by a whitish or sometimes by a yellowish fur.