252

HOSPITAL REPORT.

Dunedin Hospital,

October 1st, 1862.

His Honor Major Richardson,
Superintendent.

SIR—

I HAVE the honor to forward a return of the number of patients admitted and discharged at this Hospital in the twelve months ending 30th September, 1862. It is with considerable satisfaction I direct your Honor’s attention to the number of cases effected, and the proportional small number of deaths which have taken place in this Hospital, where every species of incurable disease is admitted. While the mental and bodily condition of every lunatic has improved in this Hospital, the treatment adopted has been attended with more than the average proportion of cures, and one death only in six years.

Considering the number of cases of Typhoid and Typhus fever treated in the temporary Hospital, hastily erected to meet the rapidly increasing medical requirements of the Province, it is matter for thankfulness that none of the attendants or patients have been affected by contagion.

Several cases of badly fractured limbs, accompanied with great injury to the soft parts, recovered, without either sloughing, erysipelas, or the loss of limb, which so often happens when such cases are admitted into the foul air of Hospital wards. Immunity from Hospital gangrene and erysipelas is to be attributed to the purity of the air, and the absence of foetid smells in the wards, consequent on the peculiar arrangements of the Surgical and fever cases, the establishment of convalescent wards and basement ventilation. But the rapid increase of population calls for a more commodious and better constructed Hospital, and there is an immediate and urgent need of a model Institution for the safe keeping, treatment, and cure of the Insane, to be presided over by a properly qualified specialist, who, I trust, the Government will authorise me to procure from the Home country.

The most important measures for the prevention of disease are the formation of main sewers in the principal streets, the drainage of each house by drain pipes, for the conveyance of house and soil drainage, and the drainage of the sub-soil of the low parts of the town by land drains to carry off the natural water, so as to free it from damp. Impermeable drains are absolutely necessary, in order to carry off the house and soil drainage without contaminating the atmosphere of the town. The main sewers should extend to the proposed sea-wall, and discharge on the waterside of it, otherwise the sewage water deposited on the beach, together with animal and vegetable matter decomposing thereon will be not only offensive but injurious to the public health, by the evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen and hydrosulphuret of ammonia into the surrounding atmosphere and dwellings. In the absence of sewers, every householder in the more densely inhabited portions of the town should be required to have properly-constructed drains and cesspools. If they are not water-tight, their liquid contents, abundantly charged with hydrosulphuret of ammonia and other nitrogenous compounds permeate the neighbouring soil, thus rendering the surrounding dwellings damp and unhealthy. The introduction of noxious gases into the blood by inhalation, consequent on terrestrial exhalations of sulphuretted hydrogen, hydrosulphuret of ammonia, and carbonic acid gases finding their way into the dwellings is not the only way in which the human system is injuriously affected by them. The liquid contents of permeable cesspools and drains find their way into the adjacent wells and springs, and are thus introduced into the blood by imbibition. Hence arises the necessity of removing some of the town pumps, and supplying the inhabitants with unpolluted water conveyed to them from a distance through iron pipes. It is unnecessary for me to indicate the sources whence water is to be obtained, but for culinary and all the ordinary purposes for which water is required, that from the Kaikorai is to be preferred. The water, which issues from a rock hill on the Town Belt, near Mr. Logan’s residence, if conveyed to the Octagon in iron pipes, would supply the public with water of the first quality for internal use.

Having thus briefly adverted to the principal medical requirements and remedies for the prevention of disease within the Province, I would further direct your Honor’s attention to the precautions in force for the prevention of the introduction of disease from without. The quarantine regulations adopted by the General Government, and peculiar to New Zealand, are no longer suited to our altered circumstances, or sufficiently comprehensive or stringent to protect us against the introduction of foreign diseases. I would also suggest the necessity of your Honor’s recommending the General Government to appoint a Health Officer to be resident at the Port.

While it is considered necessary on public grounds to guard against the generation and importation of disease, it is highly important that a local Ordinance should be passed protecting the public against a host of unqualified medical pretenders who now infest Dunedin and the gold-fields.

I have the honor to be,

Sir,
Your Honor’s most obedient servant,

EDWARD HULME, M.D.,
Provincial Surgeon.