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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 12TH JANUARY, 1895.
In the meantime I called on several native doctors in different parts of the town, and sent for others to come to me, and their evidence was to the effect that there had been some cases of bubonic plague during the last 6 weeks, but that the latest they had heard of occurred about 10 days ago; they could not take me to see a case, but were willing to keep any affected person, who might consult them at their dispensaries, for me to see, if I would wait in the neighbourhood, and pay for a coffin should the patient die after seeing me.
In consequence of the report from Shek Lung, I visited that town with Dr. KÜHNE, Mr. BOURNE and Interpreter QUINCEY. At the place of embarkation on the N. of the town, I was an object of interest to the crowd of boatmen, &c.; they were evidently inspired by some fear, as one of them shouted-"Don't go too near, as he will drag you to him, and cut you in two," this being the treatment accorded to their countrymen by the foreign doctors in Hongkong, according to pamphlets circulated in this and other towns, during the epidemic in Hongkong.
At Shek Lung, a large, dirty, and overcrowded town, we were followed by a large crowd, principally of yelling children, and the demeanour of the inhabitants was sullen and unfriendly.
On arrival at the house of Dr. MAK, the children were kept outside, but the men followed us in, and insisted on remaining during the interview.
Dr. MÄK, a Christian Chinese medical practitioner who was for 6 years First Assistant to Dr. KERR at the Mission Hospital at Canton, informed us that the case he had reported to Dr. KÜHNE, was the only one he had had personal knowledge of, but that he heard that it still prevailed, and here he consulted his friends among the crowd, and stated that they were of the same opinion; but on going more deeply into this evidence, I concluded that it was of very little value, and I then offered a reward of $10 if any one would take Interpreter QUINCEY to see a case, but without result, so, as in the case of Tung Kun, I formed the opinion that it did not exist in epidemic form.
I next made investigations along the delta from Tung Kun to Tai-ping-Hü, the last town on this route towards Hongkong, and found that plague did not exist. At Tai-ping-Hü, I learned that many persons returned from Hongkong during the epidemic and died, but they did not communicate the disease to others.
At Canton and in Fatshan, a large town 10 miles S.W. of Canton, a few cases have been reported to exist by the intelligence officers of the Consulate as lately as 10 days ago, but no case can be discovered now.
The conclusions I draw from this enquiry are ——
1. That there have been sporadic cases of the disease during November and part of December
in Canton, Fatshan, Shek Lung and Tung Kun.
2. That no cases have been found during the last fortnight by anybody.
3. That all those who reported the cases in December can find none now.
4. That it is evident that the poison lingers in the district, but whether it will again cause an epidemic will depend on the sanitary surroundings and climatic conditions which it will encounter.
The whole of the drains in Canton are cleaned every third year, and they have just been cleaned in accordance with this custom. The Chinese also attach much importance to the rain which has recently fallen, but it was evident after an inspection of the houses in the parts of Canton from which the greatest number of cases came last year, and of those in the other towns visited, that no reliance can be placed on their sanitary condition to ward off another epidemic should the other conditions be favourable.
Many of the rumours of the prevalence of plague in various parts of the Province with which I dealt during my enquiry, on close investigation, have proved to be due to diseases other than plague, the confusion arising from the fact that the Chinese bave no specific nomenclature for bubonic plague, but employed the terms "Wen-yik" and "Shih-cheng" which embrace any suddenly fatal epidemic disease.
In closing this report, I have the honour to bring to your notice the kind manner in which the mission was received by Dr. KüнNE and the great trouble he took to help us in every way.
I also met with all possible help from Mr. BOURNE, the Vice-Consul at Canton; his knowledge of the country, people, and language enabled me to overcome many difficulties and to accomplish my mission in a very much shorter time than would otherwise have been necessary.
Interpreter W. QUINCEY was also a valuable assistant and displayed great intelligence and tact- in the performance of his duties.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
Longkong, 7th January, 1895.
SINCLAIR WESTCOTT,
Surgeon-Major, A.M.S.