674 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 12TH NOVEMBER, 1879.
This evidence was not noticed by the Gaol Commissioners in their Report, but, of course, for that Dr. AYRES is in no degree responsible.
9. That the rattan in use in the Hongkong Gaol is a severer instrument than the cat appears to be also the opinion of Dr. WELLS and Dr. O'BRIEN; and, indeed, on the ground that it is too heavy a weapon and cuts too deep into the muscular tissues, they recommend a return, not to the knotted cat, but to a cat without any knots whatever. Of the rattan of the Hongkong Gaol they say:-
C
*
*
*
*
"It is generally forty-seven inches in length, but there is no regulation as to length.
The ave- rage circumference is two inches.
We consider the 'rattan' too heavy a weapon, and its effects are very likely to go deep into the cellular and muscular tissues, probably "producing loss of substance by sloughing, and thus for a long time delaying the healing of the wounds."
10. These gentlemen support their opinion as to the great severity with which the floggings with the rattan have been conducted by referring to some cases that came under their observation, one in which a prisoner flogged with the rattan on the 11th of May, 1878, was found, on the 3rd of June, to be suffering from “ a secondary abscess that had formed over the left hip joint." Another case they describe in which the wounds were not completely healed in six months"
•
"A man who had been punished with 36 strokes of the rattan on the breech on the 1st March, "1878, was examined on the 14th May. The wounds were not healed; there must have been slough- "ing from the evident loss of substance. On the examination on the 3rd of June, the wounds were not then healed though the ulcerated surface was on a level with the surrounding parts and looked 'healthy. Dr. O'BRIEN saw this man early in September; the wounds then were not completely healed."
They refer to the case of another prisoner "who was flogged about a month ago, in whom the left "buttock healed rapidly but the right sloughed and a large ulcer remains, which will take some time
to heal."
66
11. Having themselves been witnesses of those serious results, it is not surprising that Dr. WELLS and Dr. O'BRIEN should recommend that so severe a weapon should be abandoned. In lieu of this heavy instrument they recommend a cat "without any knots." The "cat" hitherto used in Hong- kong gaol had "nine tails" with knots worked on each "tail." They recommend in the case of prisoners under eighteen years of age that the flogging should be on the breech, but with a cat with only six tails and in the case of prisoners under thirteen years of age that a birch be used. In the case of all other prisoners sentenced to be flogged they recommend that the flogging should be on the back, but with important modifications from the former system, namely, that there should be a thick canvas covering to protect the loins and a thick canvas collar to prevent injury to the neck. By means of these canvas protections they say the blows will fall only on the muscles covering the shoulder blades and the intermediate spinal space."
12. Of the recommendation of the Medical Board I should be prepared (if flogging on the back were to be re-introduced) to support the substitution of a cat without any knots whatever for the more severe and injurious instrument hitherto used. I should support their recommendation with respect to prisoners under eighteen years of age being flogged only on the breech with a cat without knots or with a birch. But I cannot approve, even with the well intended protections they suggest, of flogging any orientals on "the shoulder blades and the intermediate spinal space.' Therefore, as flogging on the breech or the upper part of the thighs alone should be allowed, it will obviously be necessary to use a rattan and not to permit the use of even the modified cat recommended by the Committee.
31
13. As pointed out by the Colonial Surgeon in his minute upon the report of the prisoners sentenced by the Supreme Court since 1873 to flogging on the back the Medical Board had only seen two: and as to the medical records in the gaol of the other cases of men flogged, Dr. AYRES says it had never been the custom before his time to make such records. Of the Chinese that he had himself seen flogged since his arrival in Hongkong in 1873, he reiterates the statement he originally made, "I am "sure of my diagnosis, as far as the congestion of the lungs is concerned."
14. Of the two cases of Moк A-KWAI and LEUNG A-LOI, the Colonial Surgeon says in the same minute:-
"MOK A-KWAI released from the gaol in a dying condition, and LEUNG A-LOI still in gaol suffer- "ing from phthisis were both when they entered healty powerful muscular men, presenting no indications whatever of hereditary disease.
* * * * * *
"To what then can the disease they were attacked with the attributed? I cannot myself regard "it otherwise than as caused by the punishment they had received; both of them were horribly marked, "their backs having sloughed from the extensive bruising."
15. Whilst there is no doubt whatever that the facts before the Medical Board as to floggings with the rattan two inches in circumference were sufficiently numerous and conclusive to warrant them in recommending the abandonment of that too heavy and severe weapon, and the substitution of the lighter instrument of a cat without knots, it is equally clear that the evidence they were able to obtain