CALCUTTA MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.                                        37

the temporary latrines and bath-rooms were placed, has been cleaned, covered with cement,
and made available as a promenade for the patients, while almost the whole of the commodes
formerly in use have been discarded. As a consequence of this, the general appearance of
the wards has been rendered much more tidy, and the atmosphere more pleasant and whole-
some. In the new latrine, the 'dry earth' is in successful operation. During the year the
hospital building and out-houses were put in thorough repair." It is very satisfactory to
notice that the bath-rooms and latrine arrangements, which were reported on in preceding
years as being "as objectionable as can well be imagined," have been done away with, and
that the new and approved ones, which were under construction, have been completed and
brought into use. Such an essential improvement in the sanitary condition of the hospital
will, it may be confidently predicted, add considerably to the comfort of the patients and
will ensure them a purer atmosphere than they could have enjoyed while the bath-rooms and
latrines existed in their former and highly objectionable positions with reference to the wards
occupied by them.

          18. Regarding his medical subordinates and hospital establishment, Dr. Bird reports
as follows:—"Taking the establishment, as a whole, I venture to say a more efficient one
will not easily be found."

Hospital
establishment.

          19. In the following table is shown the receipts and expenditure of the year 1876:—

Cash Statement.

          20. During the year there were 17,346 diets supplied to the European department of
the hospital, at a total cost of Rs. 9,621-6-3, or at an average cost of Rs. 0-8-10½ per each
diet. In the Native department 17,950 diets were issued, at a total cost of Rs. 2,083-0-6, or
at the average cost Re. 0-1-101/3 for each diet.

Number of diets
and their average
cost per patient.

          21. The Deputy Surgeon-General of the Presidency Circle made his inspection of this
hospital on the 24th January 1877. There is nothing in his report of any unusual interest,
but he states that the inspection was ” very satisfactory."

Inspection by the
Deputy Surgeon-
General.

          22. Mr. Grant, the Magistrate of Howrah, in forwarding the report, pays a well-merited
tribute to Dr. Bird's energy and perseverance in originally obtaining funds for the erection of
the hospital, and to his unwearied devotion to its interests since its establishment. He thus
expresses himself:—"In forwarding this, the last report that will be received from Dr. Bird
in connection with the Howrah Hospital, I think it right to refer to the very eminent
services of that officer with regard to that institution. When Dr. Bird first came to Howrah,
some 17 years ago, this town, with its large European population and its large number of
Native sufferers from fever, was without a hospital, and the sick of this place had to resort to
the distant and heavily-burdened hospitals in Calcutta. His energetic charity induced him
to set about supplying this grave deficiency. He worked at his scheme with unwearied
patience and perseverance for some three years, never losing sight of it for a moment, and
never losing a chance of obtaining funds, and at last, in 1861, was rewarded by seeing the
present really magnificent hospital completed and opened. When I say that the spacious
and noble building was directly the result of Dr. Bird's personal exertions, and that its
existence and immense public usefulness are due directly to him, I say no more than what
every one in Howrah knows already. From the day on which the hospital opened to the
end of 1876, Dr. Bird's connection with the hospital which he raised was almost uninterrupted,
and during that period 230,000 patients have been treated there. It is not for me to speak of
his work as Surgeon in chief charge of the hospital, but I can bear testimony to his full
and delighted devotion to that work. I look upon Dr. Bird's successful achievement of his
hospital project and its success during its existence as services of exceptional brilliancy."

Remarks by the
Magistrate of
Howrah.