456
There were three cases of Plague, two of which are shown in the Table as having been in the Hospital while under observation. The third was removed direct from his cell to the Plague Hospital at Kennedy Town. All three occurred in prisoners recently admitted to Gaol, and presumably infected before admission. In each case careful measures were adopted to prevent the spread of the disease in the Gaol, fortunately with complete success.
Six deaths from natural causes occurred during the year, as follows:-Chronic Bronchitis, Tuberculosis of Lungs (two cases), Multiple Liver Abscess, Gall-Stone, and Plague. There were also eight deaths by Hanging :-two suicides and six executions.
The total number of Floggings with the birch was 173-101 by order of the Police Magistrate, 3 by the Supreme Court, 51 by the Superintendent, and 18 by the Superintendent along with a Justice of the Peace. In no case was injury caused requiring surgical treatment or any modification of the prisoner's labour.
Twenty-seven prisoners were during the year discharged from the prison on the recommendation of the Medical Officer. as follows:-11, found to be suffering from Leprosy, were handed to the police for deportation from the Colony; 9 were found to be of unsound mind, for the most part on their first admission to the Gaol, and were sent to the Lunatic Asylum; 2 were transferred to the Govern- ment Civil Hospital, 4 to the Tung Wah Hospital, and 1 to Kennedy Town Hospital.
During the year I have, in consultation with the Superintendent of the Gaol, and with the fullest information on the subject before me from local and convict prisons in Great Britain and from prisons in different parts of India, reconstructed the whole of the Diet Scales in the Gaol, and the amended dietaries have been adopted by the Government.
The health of the warders has been satisfactory, an unusually small number of them having been sent to Hospital during the past year.
The sanitary condition of the Gaol is good, and is being greatly improved in connection with extensive structural alterations now in progress.
These alterations have included the transformation of part of the warders' barracks into a com- modious hospital; but, while the necessary structural changes have been made, the wards bave had to be re-occupied by Indian warders, pending the erection of their own new quarters. Meanwhile, the old hospital having been given up to be merged in the female prison, on the understanding that the new one would at an early date be available, the medical work of the Gaol has during the greater part of the year been carried on at great inconvenience, and unsatisfactorily, in certain cells previously assigned to debtors.
I append the following Tables :-
I. Showing the Admissions and Mortality in Victoria Gaol Hospital during the year 1898; II. Showing cases treated by the Medical Officer in Victoria Gaol, but not admitted to Hos-
pital, during the year 1898;
III. Showing the Rate of Sickness and Mortality in Victoria Gaol during the year 1898; IV. Showing the number and results of Vaccinations in Victoria Gaol during the past ten
years;
V. Showing General Statistics connected with Victoria Gaol and the Gaol Hospital during
the past ten years.
Tables IV. and V. are new, and afford a good general view of the medical work of the Gaol; Table III. I have modified in one or two slight details; and the tables that formerly appeared concerning Opium Smokers and cases admitted to Hospital at their first medical examination by the Medical Officer I have, with your previous approval, omitted as being no longer necessary, sufficient data on these subjects having been placed on record,
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
JOHN C. THOMSON, M.D., M.A., Medical Officer.
Dr. J. M. ATKINSON,
Principal Civil Medical Officer,
Je..
Jl..
$c.