Operations. - During the year I performed it number of minor surgical operations successfully, and when not absent visiting the various reserves, I have attended to all office calls personally.

General Remarks. - I have also to report that the Indians of my district are in a more prosperous condition, a better class of houses being erected by them; they are also adopting the ways of the white man more and more; large numbers of them are being employed at the mines, in the lumber camps, and at the fisheries, for which they receive good wages, thus enabling them to purchase food and clothing sufficient for in their want; the hunting has also been very good, rabbits especially being very plentiful.

I have, & c.,
THOS. HANSON, M.D.,
Medical Officer.
MANITOBA SUPERINTENDENCY,
MEDICAL REPORT,
WINNIPEG, 21st August, 1896.

The Honourable
The Superintendent General of Indian Affairs,
Ottawa.

SIR, - I have the honour to report that the general health of the Indians under my medical superintendency, consisting of the reserves in the Indian agencies of Messrs. Muckle, Mackay, Martineau, Reader and Ogletree, during the last year, has been fairly good; no general epidemics or contagious diseases except phthisis and various scrofulous affections so common to the Indian having occurred, and even with regard to these diseases I notice a marked decrease in their prevalence since I first inspected these reserves, especially where the agents, teachers and missionaries have taken pains to inculcate in section tied out of season the now known character of these diseases and the sanitary regulations necessary for their prevention. I notice this especially in the agency of Angus Mackay, at Berens River, where his estimable wife, who, as medical dispensary, is indefatigable in her care of the health of the Indians of that reserve, and aided by the agent, whose general kindness and regard for the sick and afflicted cannot be exceeded, does excellent work in continually urging the observance of cleanliness and other health-preserving regulations. The missionary, Mr. Mclachilin, and the teachers have also assisted in drawing attention to the printed sanitary regulations I had circulated. Also at Fisher's River I noticed an improvement, and at Norway House Reserve, where scrofula and consumption were very prevalent, a marked change for the better has taken place, which I ascribe not a little to the exertions of Mr. Strath, teacher and dispenser. Though not a qualified medical man, he has gone through a course of studies in Dublin, and under the practical tuition of his late father, a medical man, possesses a really good general knowledge of medicine and surgery. Also, his mechanical genius and love of gardening, as well as the tidiness and industry both of himself and his estimable wife, are a daily lesson in themselves to the Indian population around them.

Deaths. - The deaths that occurred during last year were from general causes, such as consumption and scrofula, the careless management of children by parents, especially during the teething of infancy, and in young men and others by exposure to wet and cold in the spring of the year, when trapping and muskrat-hunting, many dying from bronchitis, pneumonia and other inflammatory diseases.

Calisthenics. - The teaching of calisthenics so beneficial in developing the chest and guarding against consumption and other diseases, should form part of the duties of all the teachers, as I have found it carried out only by two or three.