178
complaints concerning this part of the subject have but very small foundation, and the opinions he has given are not in accordance with facts. I see no reason to alter the opinions I bave given and the statements I made on the subjects of the temporary arrangements, the proposed new buildings or the Hospital Staff in previous reports and letters, mentioning especially my Annual Report for 1879, my letter C. S. O. No. 322 dated January 30th 1879, letter dated September 4th with enclosures, letters, dated September 20th 1880, and October 2nd 1880.
Two Commissions of Enquiry on the Hospital Staff and the proposed New Buildings were appointed this year and reported on these matters. The first, composed by Surgeon General MACKINNON, A.M.D. and Dr. O'BRIEN, I was informed, agreed with my views. The second was composed by Deputy Surgeon General THOMSON, A.M.D. and Deputy Inspector General BREEN, R.N. Of their report I have heard nothing although they in a manner sat in judgment on the opinions I had expressed and recommendations I had forwarded to Government. But I am permitted to draw my own conclusions, as since that by the sanction of Government and the Military Authorities a Military Surgeon has been permitted to take charge of the duties of the Superintendent of the Government Civil Hospital pending his absence on leave for a twelve-month, and it is not thought too much by either of these Authorities or the gentleman himself for him to perform his military duties as Surgeon as well as those of the Superintendent at the Hospital. Nor apparently did the Superintendent who complains so much of the excess and arduous nature of his work think it too much to ask of another man to do his duty for a twelve-month for considerably less than half pay. How this can be reconciled with the statements in his letters and the report which I enclose that he is overworked and has not time for doing things be thinks should be done, I am at a loss to understand.
The admissions to the Government Civil Hospital during the year 1880 were 1,055. Of these there were Police 588, Police cases 144, Destitutes 97, Government Employés, chiefly Gaol Officials 48. The remaining 168 were seamen sent by the Harbour Master and paying patients. The numbers admitted during the past eight years are as follows:--
Year.
1873,
1874,
1875,
1876,
1877,
1878.
1879, 1880,
Admissions,
952
829
1,010
1,001
950
1,289
1,071 1,055
That is to say that the deaths in Hospital are less than 2.50 per cent. The deaths among the whole European population of the Colony is 2.49 per cent. This would indicate that the cases in Hospital must be of a simple nature. I know of no General Hospital anywhere else showing such a small percentage of deaths to admissions, and this at any rate is no proof of the unfitness of the Buildings now in use, as a general hospital, a purpose for which they were never intended, but rather that they have been excellent makeshifts. So far from the lower wards not being airy, and being interfered with by the position of the new Lock as the Superintendent states, Dr. BLENNERIASSETI, his locum tenens, was observing the other day how cool and airy these wards were, although the day was exceptionally hot and close.
The increase in the cost of this establishment has been considerable, one item only, the staff which in 1873, when the Superintendent took charge, cost $2,920 now cost $7,824, and is still reported as being insufficient.
The paying patients exclusive of Police and seamen sent by the Harbour Master brought in 1873 $2,440.08, in 1880 $3,441.98, or just $1,001.85 more, which is a long way from paying for the increase of Staff. Certainly the Staff required much improvement, but I do not now see the necessity for the incessant grumbles concerning its insufficiency.
Only one operation is reported in Table V, amputation of the toe. The operation refered to for stone in the Superintendent's report was performed this year and will appear in the Tables for 1881.
A valuable addition was made to the Staff of the Hospital in 1879 in the appointment of Mr. H. MCCALLUM, as Apothecary and Government Analyst. I have much pleasure in expressing my satisfaction with the efficient and obliging manner in which he has performed his duties. Though he has had good grounds for complaint in his capacity as analyst in the want of a Laboratory for which there is no place suitable in the building at present used as a Hospital.
SMALL POX HOSPITAL.
The number of cases of Small-pox admitted to Hospital in 1880 was 29, an unusually large number. 27 of them were admitted in the first four months of the year, the deaths were 4.
The admissions for the past eight years are as follows:----
Year.
1873,
1874.
1875,
1876,
1877,
1878,
Small pox cases,
7
6
5
18
25
7
13 29
It will thus be seen that if it had not been for the great increase in the number of admissions from the Police Force during the past three years, so far from an increase in the demand for accommodation, there would have been a steady decrease. The increase from the Force arises, as I believe, from preventable causes, so also do a number of the admissions of the Gaol Officials and destitutes. The latter are for the most part European sailors, deserters, or discharged from their ships, a worthless drunken lot who pass their time drunk in a gutter, in Gaol and in Hospital alternately. It would be cheaper for Government to ship them off to other ports where they might find some employment which they cannot find here even if they wished. I presume the Government would prefer to have increased accommodation in their quarters for the Police in preference to increased accommodation in the Hospital. The admissions from venereal disease on which so much stress was laid as demanding increased accommodation, shew a decrease this year by the Superintendent's own showing in his report, but not by the Tables, as it appears only Europeans were put down in Table C in previous years, the Chinese being left out.
At least two thirds of the
Table V shews the number of admissions, deaths and their causes. cases are such as would only be treated as out-patients in any General Hospital at Home, and certainly could cause very little trouble and not the least anxiety.
Table VII shews the number of admissions for each month of the year as usual the numbers are most numerous in the hot mouths from June to October.
The number of deaths in Hospital this year was 44 which in comparison with previous years is low as the following figures indicate.
Year.
Deaths.
1873,
55
1874,
95
1875,
59
1876,
36
1877,
49
1878,
50
1879,
55
1880,
44
18 9. 1880,
In the first four months of this year 1881, only 6 cases have been admitted, although small-pox is reported as raging in Canton. It will be seen that the demand for accommodation in this Hospital was much above the average last year. Though some of the cases were mild varioloid, and only detained a few days.
VICTORIA GAOL.
There have been fewer admissions to the Gaol than last year, but the daily average number remains much the same as the following figures demonstrate.
Total number of prisoners
Daily average admitted to Gaol.
number of prisoners.
Year.
1873,
1874,
1875,
1876,
1877.
1878,
1879, 1880,
4,656
388
3,645
350.04
4,023
374,06
4,063
432.60
3,964
395.22
3,803
519.22
3,669
576.13
3,530
574.25
These figures demonstrate that although the total admissions show a decrease as compared with past years, the daily average number in Gaol has increased considerably. So also has the number of sick whereas in 1873 only 148 were admitted into the Gaol Hospital, the number in 1880 has risen to 316, and this is less by 48 than were admitted in 1879.
The dry earth system, though a great improvement, is very difficult to manage so as to get as much bencfit us might be obtained even with the inferior description of dry earth used, which is composed of disintegrated granite. The short-term prisoners cannot be made to understand the arrangement, and urinate on the dry earth side of the buckets, thus rendering it powerless as a decodorizer, which in any case it only is partially. As a disinfectant dry earth of the best description
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