THE HOSPITAL AND ITS WORK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10415, 13 April 1897, Page 4

THE HOSPITAL AND ITS WORK.

The voluminous and detailed report of the year's proceedings at the General Hospital submitted by the medical superintendent to the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board yesterday-a brief resume" of which appears in another column—affords very striking; evidence of the valuable work being done by that institution for the relief of suffering. The great increase in the number of resident patients, is not a subject for congratulation from a taxpayer's and ratepayer's point of view, but it certainly shows that the Hospital is meeting a great public want, and the efforts of the Hospital authorities in straining the capacity and resources of the institution to the utmost, are in the cause of humanity. Of the large number, 1340, who have been under treatment, the catalogue of their sufferings representing a ghastly list of nearly all the distresses to which flesh is heir only 109 have died, but as 35 of these or as near as may be a third of the number succumbed within 48 hours of admission, and consequently must have been moribund when taken under treatment, the institution is only to be debited fairly with about per cent, of losses. When one looks "down the long list of the causes of admission, including, besides some of the most fatal diseases, all kinds of fractures and lesions of vital parts, and malignant affections of all the vital organs, ills that to the lay ear have such a deadly sound in their names, one cannot but feel that this is a remarkable result. The report is full of suggestiveness, but probably nothing in it is so subversive of preconceived ideas as the detailed report of typhoid. Dr. Baldwin has supplied a valuable index to the sanitary conditions of the district, in giving specifically the localities from which his patients have been drawn. There has been a current idea that the typhoid cases come mainly from the country, and that the sanitation of the city is relatively so good that its contribution of typhoid cases is comparatively insignificant. This report gives to that idea a flat contradiction. We have been at the pains to sum up the results, and it appears that of the 173 cases of typhoid ' treated in the Hospital during the year, all except 49 were from the city arid its immediate suburbs. Of the total, 92 came from the various streets of the city, 20 from Parnell, nine from Newton, and three from Newmarket. Over the whole city the cases have been distributed pretty equally, Queen-street, Hobson, Victoria, Wakefield, Alexandra, Lome, Pitt, Vincent, Wellington, Nelson, Union, Grey, Beresford, Albert, Elliott, Durham, Cook, Symonds, Liverpool, Bridge, Stanley, Jermyii, and Abercrombie - streets, Karangahape x Road, Freeman's Bay, Victoria Quadrant, Park Road, and Grafton Road having each of them sent typhoid cases to the Hospital, Every part of Ponsonby, Ponsonby Road, Surrey Hills, Richmond Road, Great North Road, Dedwood Terrace, etc., etc., have all sent their records of typhoid. Over Parnell the cases were similarly distributed, the comparatively bad record of that borough coming no doubt mainly from the poison fumes of the intake and cesspit in Mechanics' Bay, which have to be inhaled by everyone going to or returning from business in the city. It is to be noted, too, that half of all the fatal cases have been sent from the city, two from Parnell and one from Newton making nine, or three-fourths of ' the , total from these three contiguous centres of population,', the remaining' fatal cases having been sent, two from Onehunga and one. from - Orakei.* Outside of these three boroughs—the city, New-/ ton,' and Parnell-, with Newmarket— which sent .124 cases <iot' the 173 typhoid cases ia the Hospital, onJy49

cases are to be accounted for. Of these Onehunga contributed 11; the adjacent suburban districts such as Mount Eden, Epsom, Avondale, and similar, sent 13 cases of typhoid to the hospital; one case came from the shipping, and 25 from what may be described as tlio country, including the remoter suburban districts as Pamure, Takapuua, etc., with Ngaruawahia, Coraniaudel ana 'Others. It will thus be seen that this tilth disease is mainly confined to the city itself and its immediate contiguous suburbs, and that popular opinion has maligned the rural districts in affixing to them the charge of being the main contributors of typhoid to the hospital. The other principal tilth disease, diphtheria, of which only 20 cases have been sent to the hospital, does not seem to have exhibited a predilection for the city as typhoid has, Only two cases have been sent from the city, three from Parnell and one from Newton; Onehunga contributing (wo cases, while Mangere district forwarded four cases, other equally salubrious rural or suburban districts making up the remainder of cases of this mysterious malady. But the most notable thing about this is the remarkable success that has attended the Hospital treatment of diphtheria. There was but a single death, an infant of a year and a-half, out of all the 20 cases. It seems but the other day, when this was the most dreaded and fatal of all invasions of the domestic circle; now through the invaluable treatment with antitoxin, and the success which appears to attend tracheotomy under antiseptic conditions and professional skill, diphtheria appears to have been robbed of all its terrors. Altogether the year's record at the Hospital has been a very satisfactory one, and it is fair to state that it is amply borne out by the good report which the Hospital has obtained in the popular estimation without, as well as for the professional skill ana attentiveness of the medical staff, as for the kindliness of the nurses, and the. harmony that appears to pervade the whole establishment.