540 



REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



[8J 



Nervous disorders 143 



Boils, abscesses 139 



Eruises and sprains ... 131 



Senile inflammation 74 



Total 3, 033 



Or three-fourths of all the sick treated. 



Table V below shows the proportion, for the last five years, which the 

 prevailing diseases have borne to the size of the fishing population. On 

 the average there have been treated yearly : 



For cardalgia and chronic gastritis, 12 in every 1,000 men. 



For catarrh, 18 in every 1,000 men. 



For diarrhoea, 10 in every 1,000 men. 



For swollen fingers, 9 in every 1,000 men. 



For wounds (vulnera), 6 in every 1,000 men. 



For chronic rheumatism, 6 in every 1,000 men. 



The difference has been greatest in the cases treated for catarrh of the 

 air-passages, namely, from 6 to 16 in 1,000. The number of swollen fin- 

 gers was smallest in 1878, which was due in part to the fact that the 

 number of line-fishermen was smaller that year than in the others, but 

 when compared with the two preceding years it must of course be at- 

 tributed principally to the attention paid to the need of speedy treat- 

 ment of the cuts which produce the inflammation ; and when 1878 is 

 compared with the two following years, it appears as if the so-called 

 wound- varnish, whose distribution was opposed by all the doctors, has 

 played an important part in securing the low number of this and a part 

 of the following year. If we compare the number of swollen fingers 

 with the number of line-fishermen, who are most afflicted by them, we 

 shall see that there were, in 1876, 29 cases to every 1,000 line-fishermen; 

 in 1877, 26 cases to every 1,000 line-fishermen ; in 1878, 20 cases to every 

 1,000 line-fishermen; in 1879, 23 cases to every 1,000 line-fishermen; 

 and in 1880, 28 cases to every 1,000 line-fishermen. 



I think, therefore, that the attention not only of the fishermen, but 

 ^Iso of the chemists, should be urgently directed to this important mat- 

 ter, since the wound-dressing which the royal apothecary, Ditten, dis- 

 tributed gratis in 1878 and part of 1879 was not entirely satisfactory. 



Table V. 



