The Straits Settlements medical report.

  • Straits Settlements. Medical Department.
Date:
[1912]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Straits Settlements medical report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    26/184 (page 24)
    19- Operations.—In all 941 were performed during the year. There were 846 in 1911 and 583 in 1910. A table showing the results of the more important operations is appended. Appendix III. 20. In the European wards the total number treated was 631, compared with 420 last year. It will be seen that the increase is due to the large number of Japanese who were admitted. Europeans. Japanese. Eurasians. Others. 1911 105 172 87 56 1912 119 344 9° 78 21. Gas for illuminating and sterilizing purposes was introduced into the operation theatre during the year. In addition to being able to attend satisfactorily to injuries and urgent operation cases during the night, we are now able to sterilize the dressing material that is issued to the wards. 22. Staff.—Dr. KENNEDY left for duty at the Medical School on May 20th, since then I have been in charge. Messrs. Rodriguez, Appadurai, and CARNEGY have been attached as Assistant Surgeons during the whole year. Mr. FERNANDEZ left for Province Wellesley in May and was replaced by Mr. De Souza. They have done excellent work. Our complement of dressers has been short throughout the year, particularly the hospital assistant grade. There have been constant changes and resignations among them. It is extremely difficult to get a really competent junior dresser to remain on the staff on account of the higher salary that he can get elsewhere. The pathological work has been carried on by Dr. SCOTT assisted by Mr. BARDHAM and Mr. Ando. Dr. Gray acted as Consulting Surgeon since June. Dr. Keith was appointed Physician in September. He has taken charge of two medical wards since then. 23. There were two small outbreaks of cholera during the year, the first in June the second in July. There were in all 26 cases. In spite of the closest investigation their origin could not be traced. Notes on Ankylostomiasis in Tan Tock Seng’s Hospital by Dr. R. Keith. The treatment of Ankylostomiasis as represented in the ordinary text books on Tropical Medicine is a simple procedure. Starvation and the administration of Anthelmintics with purgatives are the usual means recommended. Little or nothing is said as to the great difficulty experienced in getting the Anthelmintics to act nor the length of time it takes to get rid of the parasites. During the past six months I have had in my wards numerous cases in which the ova of the Anchylostome have been found in the stools. A large number of these, it is true, suffered from other diseases, but I am convinced that YVatson in a recent utterance certainly underestimated the importance of this condition in the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States, at least as far as Singapore and Johore are concerned. (See Trans, of Soc. of Trop. Med. Hygeine VI. No. 3 page 92). At first, in treating these cases, I followed hopefully the usual methods of administering thymol or eucalyptus oil, but in a very short time I saw that, in anything like severe cases, it would be necessary to adopt more persistent and strenuous measures. The great difficulty, here, in treating this as well as other diseases is that of keeping the patient sufficiently long in hospital to give any method an adequate trial. After a few days rest patients feel better and demand to be let out of hospital. If one does not allow them to go they at once abscond and more especially if a particularly nauseous medicine is given. In one instance a stock mixture of thymol bismuth carbonate, mucilage and water was made up, the idea being that the bismuth, would help to retain the thymol in the upper part of the intestine longer than would otherwise be the case. During the few days this was being administered, patients getting it were clamouring to go out and some absconded after a few doses. From a study of my notes on 70 cases who remained long enough in my wards to enable me to draw conclusions as to the result of treatment, I am convinced that a point of great importance is the percentage of haemoglobin in the blood. Sahli holds that there is no normal for haemoglobin in man and that considerable variations in healthy subjects occur. I therefore estimated the percentage in 28 healthy students