Sessional_Paper_1886-1887 — Page 244

241

No.

87.

HONGKONG.

FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING DEATHS IN THE ITALIAN AND FRENCH CONVENTS.

(In Continuation of No. 43 of 1886.)

Presented to the Legislative Council, by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government, on the 7th January, 1887.

(1.)

Memo. on Report of the Secretary of the Sanitary Board on the French and Italian Convents.

1. The Report seems a very moderate and reasonable report, and there is only one sentence in it, I am inclined to find fault with, and that, I think, ought to be noticed. In the second last paragraph Mr. MCCALLUM, says:-

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"It is quite evident that the nursing of the sisters is an utter failure as far as saving the lives of the infants committed to their care is concerned."

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To assert that there has been an utter failure is to assert very positively that success to a great or to some extent was possible and ought to have been attained, and that the sisters were so wanting in skill or care as not to be able to accomplish what ought to have been accomplished with skill and care.

Can Mr. MCCALLUM assert as a fact that this success was attainable, that more lives might have been saved than were saved? I do not think he can.

The Sisters who see the children say that they are brought in in such a state that it is a wonder that so many are saved as there are. The same assertion has been made before that the Sisters did not save all they could, and Dr. O'BRIEN gave special attention for some time to all cases received. He satisfied himself that all was done that could be done, that all were saved that could be saved. Most of the children he found suffering from some fatal knotting or twisting of the intestines, the result, apparently, of mismanagement at the moment of birth, or detachment from the mother.

This is a matter that ought to be inquired into, on its own merits, by some sanitary authority, but is outside the present question, the treatment of the children after they get within the Convent walls.

The percentage of children saved in the two Convents, out of the total number brought in, is about the same as the percentage of saved in similar institutions in Europe.

The Sanitary Board might be informed that, if they will appoint a medical man to be in attendance day and night at the Convent for a week or a month to take note of the cases brought in, every facility will be given him, and his directions most carefully attended to in every instance.

About the defective state of the drainage, dressing, &c., I have nothing to say, only that the Sisters are too poor to go into such expenses.

(Signed)

(2.)

J. BURGHIGNOLI, Pro. Vic.

Report by the Colonial Surgeon.

I have inspected these babies often. The great majority of them are brought in in a moribund condition, or so ill nurtured that they are all but hopeless cases. The great majority are also female children, and all, if not received into the Convents, would be found on the hill sides (as many are already) dead. The greatest possible care and attention are given to them, and I know of nothing better that can be done for them by the Sisters than is done in the Convents.

(Signed) PH. B. C. AYRES,

30th November, 1886.

Colonial Surgeon.