362
This is the last return I shall make under this heading, as by order of the Secretary of State all medical examination of women has been abolished and the wards have now become the Venereal Wards for women attached to the Government Civil Hospital. For the last six years as I have shown in my reports the examination of the women has been voluntary and they have only been admitted to Hospital at their own request, who if their condition allowed went out for a few hours daily or if not their female friends had free admissions to visit them. As all of them can make themselves understood in English there has been no need for interpreter. Last year the order came from the Secretary of State that all inedical examination was to be abolished within six months.
At the request of the women I wrote a letter to Government explaining matters in full, that they had learnt the benefits they received from examination and requesting its continuance. This report was sent home and an answer was received a few months ago confirming the previous order from the Secretary of State. The women then offered the nurse if she would leave the Government service, to pay her a better salary, furnish a house for her so that two rooms could be used as wards, if she would attend on them and I would take medical charge and examine them as usual offering also to pay me for doing so; but to their great disappointment I explained this could not be done.
This institution had worked since the beginning of 1858 as Table XV shows, 28 years under the Contagious Diseases Ordinance, and six years as a voluntary attendance Venereal Hospital for women. How carefully it had been worked when enforced by law is shewn by the ready attendance of the women at their own request for six years after the law was abolished. The Justices of the Peace have visited the Hospital once a week and never had a single complaint made. It seems very hard that their wishes should not be complied with as very many women do not know they are diseased till they are accused of having diseased others or till discomfort or pain sets in, and I think after forcing it on them for 28 years not to permit their voluntary attendance when they have learnt the value of it is hardly just and is a severe blow to the health of the Colony. The largest number detained in Hospital in one year when the law was in force was in 1870 when there were 722 admissions, the smallest number detained while the law was in force was in 1881, when there were only 44 admissions. That also was the smallest number in the 20 years I have been here. The largest number in the last 20 years detained was 411.
This year there were 63 admissions and 11,603 examinations made, there are 279 registered women who attend voluntarily, allowing that each woman missed the examination 12 times in the year when she was unfit from natural causes and was not compelled to be examined when the law was in force, the voluntary attendance was very regular each woman reckoning by the numbers missed from other causes only twice, then allowance has to be made for ill health or absence from the Colony for a time. And in the six years of the voluntary attendance it has been very little less regular than could have been enforced by law. So that I consider these women have a very fair cause for complaint against the Government at Home that forced them to learn the benefits of the examination for 28 years and then denies that benefit when they desire it. There were 2,718 men in Garrison this year; of these 73 contracted constitutional disease and 523 were otherwise afflicted with milder forms of venereal disease.
The average strength of the Police Force for the year was 660; of these 5 contracted constitutional disease and 39 suffered from other causes.
The Garrison in proportion to strength suffered less than last year from all causes and so did
the Police.
There was an increase of 47 male patients admitted to the Government Civil Hospital suffering from all causes of venereal disease, being 174 admissions as compared with 127 in 1892. These cases are mostly seainen who contracted the disease elsewhere.
VACCINE INSTITUTE.
This establishment, though it began its work in 1892, was not in full working order until the beginning of this year and, therefore, is still in its infancy, but, so far, has given very satisfactory results. Mr. LADDS, who has been appointed Superintendent of the Institute, has furnished a very interesting report. It has furnished the Government with reliable vaccine lymph for the supply of all the Hospitals in the Colony for the use of the Victoria Gaol for the vaccination of prisoners most of whom have not previously been vaccinated, all recruits for the Police are now vaccinated or revac- cinated if it has been done before and not recently.
Supplies have also been purchased by all the Local Dispensaries for distribution and by Chinese Merchants for use in the interior of China the amounts thus obtained have more than defrayed the cost of the actual working expenses of the Institute and it has saved the Government the cost of purchase of vaccine lymph from outside sources most of which had been found unreliable. The Superintendent, Mr. LADDS, has by this addition to his other duties to work in many cases after dark and it is to be remembered that his office hours begin very early in the morning and often last till daylight finishes, his office hours not being a 10 to 4 arrangement, and I hope that, in the future, this Institution being found to be a profitable speculation by the Government, the post of Superintendent may become a paid one and not as it is now an honorary appointment.