Sessional_Paper_1892 — Page 426

422

VIIa. Table of admissions into and deaths in the Small-pox Hospital.

VIII.-The aggregate monthly number of patients visited in the Hospital daily for last

four years.

VIIC.-Table giving the hours of duty of the Malarial Fever cases occurring amongst

the Police.

From the foregoing it will be seen :—

(i.) That the number of in-patients under treatment during the year was 1867, a decrease of 90 as compared with that of the previous year; the total number of deaths was 84, a percentage of 4.49 as compared with a percentage of 5 in 1890; there were of moribund cases dying within

24 hours,.... 48

12

.....25 ........32

(ii.) Out of the total number of in-patients 136 were females, an increase of 12 on that of previous year. Six of these were difficult obstetric cases.

(iii.) Six thousand eight hundred and thirty-one (6,831) out-patients were attended to during the year.

(iv.) POLICE. The total number under treatment was 12 less than in the previous year. With regard to the different nationalities there was an increase of 18 amongst the European Members of the Force, an increase of 31 amongst the Indians, and a decrease of 61 amongst the Chinese.

There were five deaths during the year, two Europeans, two Indians and one Chinese. The cause of death in two cases was Bright's disease, in other two cases Remittent Fever, and in the fifth Pneumonia.

-

(v.) INFLUENZA.~There were 34 cases under treatment during the year. 25 of these were admitted during the months of January and February. Seven of the cases in January came from the Gaol, the first case being admitted on the 9th instant, the second on the 17th, three on the 23rd instant, and one each on the 24th and 25th instant. These men were all Turnkeys and were sent in to this Hospital by the Medical Officer of the Gaol, their symptoms were very similar:- the attack commencing with marked fever, temperature rising to 103° or 104° F. and accompanied by pains in the back and limbs and especially over the eyeballs, sore throat was complained of, and in most cases slight coryza and nasal catarrh were present. In a few hours these symptoms were aggravated by the presence of a troublesome cough, some thick viscid mucopurulent phlegm with difficulty being expectorated; and on the third or fourth day in all these cases there was a distinct pleuritic rub to be heard at the base of one or both lungs.

In only one case did Pneumonia supervene, and that ran a normal course.

There were no deaths and the disease was not communicated by these cases to any patients who were then under treatment in the same wards.

In my opinion they were cases of the ordinary endemic Influenza always to be met with here in the cold months of the year, a little more severe perhaps than usual, for, as a rule, it has not been found necessary to admit such cases into the Hospital. I certainly do not think they can be classed with that aggravated form of the disease the epidemic type.

(vi.) TYPHOID FEVER.--There were 8 cases under treatment during the year with five deaths. Two of these cases were admitted from Canton, and the remaining six come direct to the Hospital from different ships, these all being Board of Trade patients. Three of them died within three days of their admission to the Hospital.

There was no case of Typhoid Fever under treatment in which the disease had been contracted in this Colony.

(vii.) CHOLERA.--There were only two cases under treatment during the year, both of these proved fatal.

The first case was that of an officer in the service of the Canton and Macao Steam-Boat Company. He was admitted at 1.25 P.M. on the 29th August, in a state of collapse. Notwithstand- ing all that was done for him he rapidly sank and died at 10 P.M. that same evening.

He stated that the diarrhoea and vomiting had only commenced at 5 A.M. that morning. Post Mortem EXAMINATION.--Decided congestion of the stomach and small intestine, especially of the serous coat. The bowels contained "rice-water" fluid. Bladder was quite empty. Cultivations were made of the fæces, some sterilised gelatine being inoculated with a small quantity of the stools passed before death, a distinct growth took place, the gelatine being liquefied all along the track of the needle, on staining the growth and examining it microscopically, a number of bacilli were seen, the rods being thicker than those of the comma bacillus, indeed in their microscopic appearance and in the manner of the test tube cultivations they resemble the

Spirillum Finklerii."