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Medical Report.

During the past year the cases of illness in the Institution have been unusually numerous and severe.

The prevalent epidemic of measles has not spared us, forty-three of the children, being indeed all those who had not previously suffered from the disease, having been affected in batches of from two to ten at a time. Many cases were very severe, and were followed by various other affections; all, however, recovered. Amongst the number were two adults, one whose age bordered on seventy; this man had a secondary attack of bronchitis.

I must here be allowed to say how efficiently the invalids were tended by the matron, Mrs. Quin, and by Gertrude Thorough good, the latter of whom voluntarily added to her daily duties most valuable services as a sick nurse.

Two deaths occurred during the year, one in the person of an old man, a negro, who died from erysipelas, followed by gangrene; the other of a girl eight years old from diphtheria. Immediate measures were taken to prevent the spread of this latter malignant disease; these were fortunately successful, as no fresh instances occurred. There were also two other cases of erysipelas. Amputation at the thigh was resorted to in the case of a man who had suffered for a long time previously from an exceedingly painful affection. The operation succeeded in perfectly relieving the patient, who will, moreover, be now able to walk when supplied with an artificial leg.

There were numerous other illnesses, which do not require any special reference.

All the children are vaccinated. The health of the inmates is now good; and as recently great improvements have been made in the drainage, it is to be hoped that the great good fortune of sound health, which for so many years attended the inmates of the Institution, will revisit them during the coming year.