Reports on civil dispensaries at the Presidency and in the provinces of Madras, during the year 1852.

  • Madras (India : Presidency). Medical Board.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports on civil dispensaries at the Presidency and in the provinces of Madras, during the year 1852. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    c a> E CL JZ <✓) LO O 7 20. By this increased number of sick, a larger field lias been open for the clinical teaching of the students of the College, and the Opportunities thus offered, have been duly taken advantage of; but the Board would draw special attention to the radically bad construction of this hospital, and its want of elevation, whereby due ventilation is prevented, and adequate improvement rendered almost impossible; the building moreover is so much enclosed and guarded, as to render it in some degree repulsive to Native applicants, which is to be regretted, this being the chief hospital at which the students of the Medical College receive clinical instruction, the most important part of all their studies. House of Industry. 21. The House of Industry adjoining the Native wards of the General Hospital, is still occupied as such; the wishes of Government as to the pre- mises being transferred to the General Hospital for the purposes of a Dispen- sary as soon as other accommodation can be procured for the inmates of the House of Industry, are kept in view, and it is to be hoped that this will soon be accomplished. The average number of inmates during the year was 35, but this number has been frequently tc a considerable extent renewed by the departure of some, and the entrance of fresh arrivals, and this explains the ap- parent heavy sickness uniformly observed in the returns of this institution ; while at the same time it may be observed, that in not a] few instances, appli- cants are admitted or rather brought to the refuge in a most miserable state of destitution, and this accounts for the comparative high rate of mortality pre- sented by the same return ; in the present instance 4 deaths are recorded, all feeble children, who died shortly after admission, from bowel complaints. Native Infirmary. 22. This valuable institution continues to be highly appreciated by the Native community of Black Town and Royapooram. The total treated dur- ing the year has been 969 males and females, and the average daily sick has been 63. Of^the number treated, 224 proved fatal; this heavy mortality is attributable to the hopeless condition in which many poor creatures, picked up in the streets of the city, are brought to the Infirmary, in whose cases medicine can be of little or no avail. But in addition to this, always a more or less constant source of mortality locally, intractable cases of disease are frequently received from the shipping in the roads, such as Lascars from the Cape and Australia, returned coolies from the Mauritius and West Indies, whose consti- tutions have been deeply undermined, and whose health has become irretriev- ably injured. 23. In the return of sick, there is happily a total absence of epidemic disease, fevers have been few in number, only 38 admissions with 4 deaths, and ol eruptive fever, 20 with one casualty, of cholera 15 cases have been