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serious infection. It is of interest that 97.5% of the patients admitted to the hospital during 1953 were booked cases". Whilst this does not mean that all these cases had received adequate ante-natal care before admission it may be said that the majority had had sufficient antc-natal supervision to exercise a favourable influence on their subsequent confinement. The number of cases of pregnancy toxaemia encountered was 306, an incidence of 4.5%. Included in this number were 15 cases of eclampsia, one of which ended fatally, giving an incidence of obe case of eclampsia to every 454 deliveries.

198. The still birth rate was 1.39% and the neo-natal death rate was 1,05% constituting a combined infant wastage of 2.44%. Approximately 2/3 of this mortality

mortality was due to prematurity.

199. In view of the unsatisfactory surroundings in which such good work is being done it is gratifying that construction work on the new Tsan Yuk Maternity Hospital of 200 beds which will replace the present institution has commenced on a site close by. The new hospital will be a seven-storied building and it will provide vast improvement on present maternity facilities in Victoria. It is anticipated that the building will be completed in the beginning of 1955.

Eastern Maternity Hospital.

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200. This institution provides accommodation maternity beds in an old and, in many respects, unsuitable building situated in the eastern district of the city of Victoria. Nevertheless, good work is carried out and the results obtained were good.

201, There was a small decrease in the number of cases admitted during the year, there being 2,456 admissions with 2,383 deliveries as compared with 2,706 admissions and 2,626 deliveries in 1962. There were ΠΟ maternal deaths. The number of still births was 12 and there were 7 neo-natal deaths, giving a still-birth rate of 5 per thousand and a neo-natal death rate of 3 per thousand,

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Sui Ying Pun Hospital.

202. This is the infectious disease hospital for Hong Kong leland and it has a nominal bed strength of 88. It has been very frequently necessary to exceed this number by providing tem- porary beds at periods of peak incidence of the more common infectious diseases. The hospital building is very old and outmoded and, although extensive repairs and redecoration were carried out, it remains an unsatisfactory infectious disease hospital. It will be necessary one day to replace it with a modern institution, which will more adequately meet the needs of the Island population.

203. The total number of patients admitted was 1,561 and the 3 main causes of admission were diphtheria, typhoid and bacillary dysentery, Diphtheria accounted for 435 admissions and 38 deaths. Cases are still too frequently admitted in a moribund condition when there is little that treatment can do.

204. At the period of maximum incidence of typhoid fever, which occurs in the warm weather about the middle of the year, and during the year under review reached a higher peak than ever before, a serious strain was thrown on the hospital's resources. The number of cases admitted was 224 as compared with 173 in the previous year. There were only 9 deaths in hospital from this infection and the low mortality rate is accounted for by the administration of chloramphenicol and, in delirious toxic cases, A.C.T.I.

205. Bacillary dysentery cases numbered 120 and there were 3 deaths. In this condition, too, chloramphenicol proved its worth and is considered to be the beat drug, particularly for severely dehydrated children.

Lai Chi Kok Hospital.

206. This institution with 400 beds is the second largest hospital in the Colony. It is situated on the northern outskirts of Kowloon and serves the Mainland as an infectious disease hospital. However, only part of it is used for this purpose and

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