269
RETURN of DISEASES and DEATHS in 1902 at Kennedy Town HOSPITAL.
DISEASES.
Remain- ing in Hospital
Yearly Total.
at end of Admis- 1901. sions.
Remain- Total
ing in Cases Hospital Treated. at end of
Remarks.
Deaths.
1902.
Small-pox,
Plague,
Cholera,
Measles,
Dengue,
Dysentery,
Malaria,
Beri-beri,
Septicæmia, Syphilis,
Alcoholism,
Rheumatismo, Pneumonia,
Diarrhoea,
Lymphangitis,
Parotitis,...
Plague Contacts,
17
3
18
94
80
94.
52
33
2223
52
I
1
Under observation
140212-
27
13
་་
"
77
2
"
1)
51
25
*
31
1
"
45
2
*
"
14
14
21
1
1
"
1
"
2
*
Total,
205
119
206
1
J. C. THOMSON,
Medical Officer in charge.
Report of the Medical Officer of Victoria Gaol.
VICTORIA GAOL,
HONGKONG, 10th January, 1903.
SIR, I have the honour to submit, for the information of His Excellency the Governor, the medical report on the health and sanitary condition of Victoria Gaol for the year 1902.
Dr. R. LAMORT acted for me during my absence from Hongkong at the begin- ning of last year. I resumed medical charge of the Gaol on my return to the Colony on 5th February.
The health of the Gaol Staff has been good, but dengue was severely pre- valent among the warders and guards during the epidemic of that disease.
The new Warders' Quarters have been completed, and the new Gaol Hospital became available for patients on 11th June.
The sanitary condition of the Gaol is satisfactory. But overcrowding has been more or less continuous since the New Territory was taken over, and the question of increased Gaol accommodation for the Colony is one of pressing importance. Both the number of admissions to the Gaol last year-5,988-and the daily average population-576-are the largest on record; and reference to Table IV, showing general statistics connected with the Gaol during the past ten years, will show how serious is the increase as compared with all previous years. An important con- sideration that does not appear in the figures is, that on account of the serious crime that has had to be dealt with by the Courts during the past year or two, there is a great increase in the number of long-sentence prisoners, that is, in the comparatively permanent population of the Gaol, so that there is no prospect that even a consider- able diminution of crime in the Colony might tend to rectify the existing state of congestion in the Gaol. In 1901 the number of admissions was 5,077, and the daily average number of prisoners 499.
In spite of these circumstances the general health of the prisoners has on the whole been satisfactory. While the number of admissions to Hospital is larger, partly on account of more adequate hospital accommodation being available, the rate of sickness and mortality in the Gaol, as shown in Table. II, is less than in the previous year.
3,973 prisoners were vaccinated. All prisoners are vaccinated on admission, unless health reasons render it undesirable, or evidence of previous small-pox or recent vaccination renders it unnecessary.
During the epidemic of dengue 131 prisoners were attacked. All made good recoveries. One case of cholera occurred. There was no plague.