23.—A Public Mortuary has been built, which will be a great relief to the Hospital, and we shall no longer have the offence of bodies in an advanced state of decomposition contaminating the atmosphere of the Hospital to the detriment of the patients and annoyance of the Staff.
24.—The admissions during the past year have been more numerous than ever before. The following table shews the number and position of the patients admitted during the past three years.
1881 1882 1883 Police, 498 549 599 Board of Trade, 117 116 110 Private paying Patients, 193 268 260 Government Servants, 67 88 105 Police Cases, 139 207 227 Destitutes, 222 230 201 1,236 1,458 1,50225.—The admissions from the Police and Government Servants are the cause of the increase in the admissions this year. The Government Servants admitted are for the most part Officers in the Gaol and others, and to the impossibility of their procuring decent accommodation their ill-health may in a great part be attributed. To the unwholesome condition of things to which they, and other officers of Government drawing salaries of from $40 to $60 a month have to submit, I have in previous reports drawn attention.
26.—Of Police cases and destitutes, the majority are Chinese, but the European loafer still holds a prominent place among them, notwithstanding the efforts of many private individuals to abate the nuisance. It is not satisfactory, after providing the loafer with a passage and clothes, to find that the former has been lost, and the latter spoilt, by the man getting drunk and being found in a gutter by the Police, when he makes his appearance either in the Gaol or the Hospital, in both of which he has to a certain extent to be nursed into condition, either to bear his punishment or appear in the streets again, and better men deserving of help have to go without it from the irritation he has caused in the minds of the charitably disposed.
27.—Table V shews the character of the diseases in patients admitted to Hospital.
Table VI, the rate of mortality for the past ten years.
Table VII shews the admissions and deaths in each month in the year, both sickness and mortality being as usual greatest in the Summer months.
Table VIII shews the number of dead bodies brought to the Hospital, a very large proportion of them being children.
28. The number of admissions and deaths in the Government Civil Hospital for the past ten years are as follows:—
Admissions Deaths 1874, 829 59 1875, 1,010 59 1876. 1,000 36 1877. 950 49 1878, 1,289 50 1879. 1,071 55 1880, 1,055 44 1881, 1,236 49 1882, 1,458 68 1883, 1,502 70SMALL POX HOSPITAL.
29.—This year this building was used in the summer months for the reception of cases of a choleraic character, of which there were two, both European Policemen. One of them had been sick for between a fortnight and three weeks before being sent to Hospital. The other had been in attendance on him, assisting his wife. This Constable and the wife died from diarrhoea of a choleraic character brought on from over-exertion, want of proper food and rest, and exposure.
30.—The man on whom they were in attendance also succumbed to a diarrhoea of a similar type. None of these cases were of the epidemic type known as Asiatic Cholera. But Cholera being all round us in neighbouring ports, and cholera cases having been in quarantine on Stone Cutters' Island, they created a scare in this Colony, happily with no serious result.
31.—Thirteen cases of Small Pox were admitted to this Hospital during the year, for the most part of a mild type. Eleven recovered and two died.