(    3    )

Alipore Dispensary. The following table exhibits the death-rate per thousand
at the different hospitals and dispensaries for the past three years:—

      6. The very low rate of mortality in the Police Hospital is of course to be
accounted for by the fact that whenever a constable is incapacitated for work he
is required to go to hospital. Thus the proportion of petty cases must be much
larger than in hospitals to which persons ordinarily resort only when they distrust
domestic treatment. It may be presumed that the comparatively small
death-rate which has prevailed among the patients of the General Hospital
is due to the superior physique of the bulk of the patients, who are
Europeans. The small death-rate among in-door European sufferers, parti-
cularly in dysentery, diarrhœa, and ague cases, as compared with the mortality
among native patients, is certainly very noticeable. The death-rate at the
Medical College Hospital was considerably higher than in either of the pre-
vious years, owing chiefly, Dr. Chevers considers, to the exclusion of incurable
patients from the Sealdah Hospital during a part of the year. It appears that
about 108 per mille is considered the normal rate of mortality in this hospital.
In the Mayo Hospital the death-rate has been subject to great fluctuation during
the past three years. Nearly two-thirds of the hospital patients of Calcutta
and the suburbs were treated in that institution, but no explanation has been
offered of the marked differences which have occurred. In the Howrah General
Hospital the mortality is far in excess of that of the Medical College Hospital
or the Mayo Hospital, though a considerable number of the patients were
Europeans. The Lieutenant-Governor would have been glad to have received
some explanation as regards these statistics, and the more so as the
returns show instances of marked variations in the rate of mortality from the
same diseases in the different institutions. The excessive and continued
mortality in the Campbell Hospital, (viz. 280 per mille) has been stated to be
inevitable, and Dr. Woodford's remarks would certainly point to that conclusion.
But it would have been well had Dr. Woodford illustrated his remark that one
of the chief causes is attributable to the fact that this institution receives the
rejected of other hospitals, by giving the number of cases thus received on
the ground of incurability or for other reasons. It is shown, however, that of
the total number of deaths four-sevenths occurred within a week after
admission. Turning from the Campbell Hospital, which treats in-door patients
only in one part of the suburbs, to the Alipore Dispensary which receives
comparatively but few in-door patients in another, the Lieutenant-Governor
finds a still more alarming death-rate, reaching during the past year to the
very high figure of 319 per mille. No explanation, however, has been offered
of the causes to which this remarkably high rate of mortality is to be
ascribed.

      7. The total expenditure on account of the medical institutions of
Calcutta and the suburbs amounted to Rs. 4,88,835-5-6, against a total income
of Rs. 6,15,043. Of this sum, Rs. 3,77,054-14-11 were contributed by Govern-
ment on account of salaries, special allowances, and cost of medicines, &c.;
Rs. 25,887-11 were realized as interest from invested funds; Rs. 19,988-10-6
were received as subscriptions and donations, and Rs. 52,486-7-3 were
contributed from local funds and municipalities. The total floating balance on
the 1st of January last amounted to Rs. 1,26,207-12-2.