REPORT OF THE PROVINCIAL SURGEON.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 11, Issue 855, 2 July 1867, Page 3

REPORT OF THE PROVINCIAL SURGEON.

Napier Hospital, June 24, 1867. Sin. — In reply to a circular issued by Your Honor, bearing date the 10th inst., I have the honor to furnish you with the following details, by which it is apparent that the number of patients admitted into the Hospital during the current six months, also the number of rations supplied, have more than doubled the corresponding half year of 1866. The arrival of the ill- fated ship Montmoreney has largely increased the number of patients'; no loss than eight of her immigrants have received I'oJicf from the fever which has raged with such violence amongst them generally. The sphere of usefulness as regards the Hospital is becoming daily enlarged, and a vast amount of good, and unostentatious charity, is daily effected. I would urge upon Your Honor's consideration tho" necessity fora liberal addition to the contingency estimate for the ensuing year. With respect to the nature of the fever which has been, and continues to be, so prevalent, I may state generally it has been of a bilio-gastric character 1 , passing in many cases into typhus of a very grave aspect. lam not of opinion it has been caused by emanations from tho swamps, about which so much is said, inasmuch as a long experience in Napier assures me it is of extraneous introduction, and not of a kind hitherto seen here. lam happy in adding that no deaths have occurredYour Honor will pardon my suggesting that in the event of the establishing a Board in Napier, by the Government, for general purposes, such Board should take cognisance of the suppression of the nuisance of water closets and privies ; that is, there being kej>t in as inodorous a state as possible, as rendered compulsory in Wellington, I believe, and elsewhere. I may state that the health of the prisoners in the Gaol has been far below the usual average ; as also with the lunatics. . I am, &c, Thomas Hitchings, Provincial Surgeon. His Honor the Superintendent, N apier.