1873 — Page 232

months to train them. Any one who has suffered from sickness and injury will readily understand the difference between the cool and gentle firmness of the handling of a trained nurse and the nervous and clumsy roughness of an inexperienced one which habit alone can overcome, and it is for this and an hundred reasons as little change as possible should be made among this class of employés. Their duties are not only arduous and trying to the nerves, but they often confine the Wardmaster to the building for days together and this under their employment by no means agreeable to them, it is therefore greatly to be desired that their services should be thoroughly well understood and up- preciated. In especial I may mention with praise the services of the Chinese Wardmaster, A Lok, a servant of nearly ten years standing, quiet and well behaved, a very good Interpreter, u skiltul dresser and of great assistance in the past mortem room; he deserves encouragement.

I do not hesitate to say that, in my opinion, the pay of the Wardmasters is too low when the climate, the confinement to the Hospital, the comparison of the pay in England of men holding similar situations and also of men of similar grade in other employs here is taken into consideration. The European Wardmasters are very much worse off in the duties they have to perform than Inspectors of Police, their posts are quite as responsible, for ignorance or carelessness on their parts, means death or injury to patients and therefere they should not be worse paid.

The number of the admissions to the Hospital has somewhat increased during the last half of the year owing to the closing of the Seamen's Hospital, but this increase has not been so great as might have been anticipated, partly owing to the number of seamen in port being fewer and perhaps also partly to the general health being better than in the last few years.

Nine hundred and fifty-two persons were admitted during the last twelve months; of these fourteen were in a dying condition from injury or previous sickness and only survived a few hours.

Of the nine hundred and thirty-eight treated, it will be seen from Table IV; that one hundred and twenty-five were venerial cases, deducting these and the Police admissions from the total, a remainder of four hundred and four is left to represent the number of sick seamen, destitutes, and paying patients admitted.

The principal diseases for which patients were admitted, according to Table IV, are Simple, Con- tinued and Intermittent Fevers, Diarrhưa, and Diseases of the Chest.

In July, during ten days of continued drought, no wind, and a maximum temperature in the sun of 131°, three fatal cases of Remittent Fever occurred, all of them dying within three days of ad- mission apparently utterly prostrated from the outset of the disease. In August and September, during the prevalence of Cholera in the Siamese ports and Straits Settlements, three fatal cases of Choleraic Diarrhoea occurred, two were Indian Constables and one a colored scaman.

A number of cases of Low Continued Fever, some resembling Typhus others having many of the characteristics of Typhoid Fever, were admitted from the brothels, all were without a doubt en- gendered by the bad sanitary condition of the houses. This I have already male a subject of special Report and with improved condition of these houses and those of the lower classes, there would be unquestionably a considerable diminution of this class of cases. But that this type of disease is gradually assuming a severer form and steadily and surely increasing in Hongkong there is no doubt, as is shown on inspection of the Tables of previous Annual Reports; this most decidedly indicates a necessity of improvement in the drainage of the town and of regulations concerning the sanitary condition of the houses of the lower classes whose filthy habits are well known, or in future years these plagues will be endemic in the Colony, and probibly end in an epidemic of unenviable renown.

The mortality notwithstanding the increase in the number of admissions is considerably less than that of the preceding year. This is a great matter of congratulation considering the general mixture of diseases in the Hospital, which the limited space and peculiar design of the building render

unavoidable.

The treatment of diseases of the respiratory organs is especially unsatisfactory, owing to the defective accommodation, and many of the cases admitted are both aggravated and prolonged on that

account.

A number of this class of cases occur every year among the Police, and it is not surprising that complaints should arise on this head. The Seamen too contrast their present accommodation with what they were accustomed to at East Point and not to the advantage of the Civil Hospital.

In November, ten men were addmitted from the American Ship Meron, all suffering from Scurvy, the disease in some having reached an advanced stage. This was, I believe, made a matter of enquiry by the American Consul.

No deaths from Small Pox occurred among Europeans in the Colony, and only a few cases were reported among Chinese at the beginning of the year, none in the latter months.

A number of the Chinese male and female have voluntarily applied for advice at the Civil Hospital and some have come for operation.

The number of dead bodies brought to the Hospital for examination during the twelve months was one hundred and thirty-one, eight of them were Europeans and one a Colored person.

The amount received during the year as shown in the Hospital books on account of paying This does not patients is $2,440.08 as compared with the $929.57, received the preceding year. include the Seamen sent by the Harbor Master, whose expenses are paid directly into the Treasury by him and not through the Hospital, nor does it include Police expenses.