Report by the Central Board of Health of Jamaica / presented to the legislature under the provisions of the 14th Vic. chap. 60, and printed by order of the Assembly.

Jamaica. Central Board of Health

Date:: 1852

Credit: Report by the Central Board of Health of Jamaica / presented to the legislature under the provisions of the 14th Vic. chap. 60, and printed by order of the Assembly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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$tiny, spciidin}; flie lialiuue of llio day, lor llie mosf \)\\vt, ill idleness, saiislied that lie can make up the (lillt rence by the sale of yams, cocoes, and other pro- visions, out of his groiuid, which ground he cultivates f)u Friday and Saturday, and by which he is, in a great measure, rendered independent of the planter. iNo 5. 'i'he parish relieves, during the year, (as paupers paid small weekly sums, and as occasional t>r transient poor,) some two hundred persons. 'l\\Q persons most inca[)able of contributing any thing to provide themselves with medical attendance, are some of the coloured people. There are doubtless also some among the black persons incapable to do so, but they are not many ; ond in too many instances they are old people, wiio are thus jiot rid of bv their families. JNo. (J. Some twelve or fourteen years ago the pa- rish of lianover supported, in a comfortable manner, sorVie sixteen medical practitioners. Of late years. I am sorry to say that the want of interest evinced by the upper clasvses in the medical profession, couplet! the carelessness and disregard by the negroes of human life, only four (hily (pialitied practitioners ma- nage to drag out an existence in the whole parish. Of these, Dr. Keich keeps a retail drug shop, and lives in Lucea. J)r. Potts lives two miles out of town, but keeps, in Lucea, a retail drug shop. ])r. Breb- ner lives four miles out of town, and keeps also a re- tail drug shop in Lucea. ])r. James Mason lives in the Green Liland district, eighteen miles from Lucea. Each of these gentlemen say that they would be un- able to live by the practice of physic, if it were not from the assistance derived from the vending of drugs, and the resources of their respective country residen- ces. This number is, however, quite inadequate to the requirements of the population. No. 7. There is no public dispensary or hospital, properly so called, in Hanover. Certain small ill venti- lated rooms, (selected generally for their cheapness,) capable of containing twenty-eight persons, by$