7
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 9TH APRIL, 1864.
123
principally during the month of August. Thus deducting 26 from 41 we have only 15 deaths to account for. By this delus- tion the death ratio is at once reduced within ordinary limits. I do not believe that the vessel in which the prisoners were confined had much to do with their sickness and death. The cause must be looked for in a different quarter, and I am of opinion that it was principally due to the following circumstances :
1. Most of the prisoners had been confined in Victoria Gaol for some time before their removal to Stone Cutters' Island. They had been carefully guarded from sun, rain and any but the most wholesome diet, as long sentence prisoners did not work on the roads.
2. On arriving at Stone Cutter's Island they were sent on shore to work and were necessarily exposel more or less to sun and rain, and freely partook of the wild pineapples and sugar cane which grew abundantly on the ishund.
3. The work which they performed was cutting roads and turning over and levelling the soil. Whether correctly or otherwise, such labor was pronounced to have been a fertile cause of disease in the only days of this Colony, is supposed to have been partially so at Kowloon, and was most probably so also at Stone Cutter's Island.
The greatest care was taken to have the Hulk freely ventilated and kept clean and wholesome, and I venture to assert that the thermometer never attained the same elevation, nor the ozonometer never indicated the same foulness of the atmos- phere on the lower deck of the Royal Saxon, as might have been observed any night of the preceding year, in the long rooms in the old Gaol, occupied by the same Chinese Prisoners, who were then eminently healthy.
V. THE LOCK HOSPITAL.
The results of the working of Ordinance No. 12 of 1857, by which this Institution was established continue to be very satisfactory.
Table VII. affords most instructive information on this subject.
It is unnecessary for me to reiterate my already frequently expressed opinion (vide previous Annual Reports) as to the importance of taking every possible means of controlling the spread of veneral disease among disciplined men. Nor is it necessary for me to repeat here that I consider this disease a danger of much greater gravity to the European constitution than the climate itself. I shall limit myself to repeating that the Ordinance and the periodical examination have enabled us to effect much good in reference to the Police; and I believe that both the Military and Naval Authorities have marked the great benefit accruing to their men. The table conveys the following information: that during the six years the Ordinance has been in force 1,994 infected women have been segregated from the localities in which they could convey infection and that during a total of 53,977 days; or in other words, supposing that every infected woman would only convey the disease to one man during each day she was diseased, we have at least 53,977 cases of diseased prevented, or at all events 53,977 opportu- nities of conveying disease have been prevented.
Table VIII. gives fuller details as to the character of the diseases, and their average duration during every month of the year 1883.
In every respect the Ordinance work well and only requires extended action to effect all that could have been hoped from it by its framers.
Table IX. is an approximative estimate of the Mortality among Foreign Residents in Hongkong during the last six years. The data from which it is compiled are furnished to me by the Registrar General as regards the Number of Residents and by the Sextons of the two Cemeteries as regards the deaths, excluding in both cases Military, and Naval and Merchant Seamen, as well as burials from the Hospitals. Supposing the data to be correct, the result is not so satisfactory in reference to the climate of Hongkong as in the previous year. It would however be unfair to omit all mention of an important piece of statistical information afforded me by the Sheriff, viz: that at least one third of the residents change every year; and it is notorious that as soon as an European becomes attacked by any climatic disease of a serious character, he leaves the country if at all able to do so. This fact must materially affect all attempts at statistical observation, still it is probable that the com- parative ratio will prove tolerably near the truth, as this exodus of the Foreign population must tell equally or nearly so every
year.
Table X. gives the usual information regarding the work performed by the Inspector of Nuisances attached to this Department.
Table XI. shows the annual mean state of the atmosphere during the year 1863, as recorded at the Government Civil Hospital, which fully corroborates all that has been affirmed in reference to the severity of the past year.
J. I. MURRAY, M.D., Colonial Surgeon.
MONTH.
1-THE POLICE.
TABLE shewing the Admissions into Hospital and Deaths during the Year 1863.
EUROPEANS.
COLOURED,
CHINESE.
TOTAL. TOTAL.
Admissions. Deaths. Admissions. Deaths. Admissions. Deaths. Admissions. Deaths.
January, February,
11
28
3
42
7
10
1
17
March,
26
84
April,
11
25
1
37
May,
14
22
37
June,
13
1
21
35
July,
9
26
38
August,
15
00
39
September,
9
1
20
October,
25
November,
8
19
27
December,
8
21
29
Total,
120
265
6
12
307
12