CONDITION OF PATIENTS DISCHARGED. Recovered Relieved Not relieved Not treated Died Total 10 1,764 899 151 128 351 3,293 The rate of mortality during the year was 9 per cent. of the patients treated in all the departments of the Hospital. The excess of this rate over that of previous years was largely due to the fact that of the 229 patients in the smallpox department, 54 died, or 23 per cent. If these cases are excluded in this estimate, the rate of mortality will be reduced to 9 per cent. for the Hospital proper. There were admitted during the year 95 more patients accidentally injured, than in any former year; and 79 cases in all departments resulted in death within 48 hours after admission; showing an increased proportion of cases necessarily resulting fatally, and materially enlarging the rate of mortality over that of previous years in the history of the Hospital. NUMBER OF PATIENTS TREATED EACH YEAR, AND RATE OF MORTALITY. It will be seen that the considerable increase in the amount of the expenditures for the year was due chiefly to the unusual expenses of the Small-pox hospital. In addition to this, the increased number of patients treated caused a material enlargement of the sum of the expenditures. It will be evident, from the foregoing statements, that the business of the Hospital has been still further enlarged, during the past year, although it had previously reached the proper limit of the capacity of the wards, by a steady increase, each year, in the number of patients. Nearly 500 more patients have been treated in the wards than in any former year; but this has been possible only by constantly crowding with beds all the available space, and by shortening the length of stay of each patient in Hospital. Many applicants were turned away for want of room, and many others, whose cases demanded immediate care and treatment, as a matter of humanity, were admitted, at the risk of incurring the evils of overcrowding; some of which have, without doubt, been experienced during the latter part of the year. That this should have been so must be apparent, when it is considered how nearly the daily average number for the year, 218 patients, approaches to the proper capacity of the Hospital, which is 230 beds. But this number was much exceeded in some seasons of the year. During the months of winter and early spring, there was a period of many successive weeks, in which there were constantly about 250 patients in the wards, and at one time 264 were under treatment, the largest number ever attained in the wards of the Hospital proper, exclusive of the Small-pox department. The want of sufficient accommodations for all the sick, who, under the present rules for admission, must be treated here, has existed for several years, and hardly needs to be set forth in stronger terms than has already been done. In |