304.
Enclosure 2.
Report on the Lock Hospital.
GOVERNMENT LOCK HOSPITAL,
HONGKONG, 17th January, 1886.
SIR, I have the honour to forward the Annual Report on the work done under the Contagious Diseases Ordinances in 1885.
2. During the past year, 417 examinations were made at Wántsai, and 12,561 at this hospital; and 411 women were detained for treatment.
3. The cases most commonly met were leucorrhoea, ulceration and abrasion of the os uteri; next in frequency were gonorrhea and soft sores; and lastly, a few cases of secondary syphilis, and one of hard chancre.
4. The following are the maximum and the minimum number of registered women examined at this Establishment and at Wántsai for the last three years :-
1883,. 1884.. 1885...........
.256 in October; 235 in ..261 in November; 227 in
....265 in April; 233 in
February,
August. December.
5. Compared with 1884, there were more admissions this year, as shown in the subjoined table:
Number of examinations.
Gonorrhoea.
Leucorrhoea.
Soft Sores.
SYPHILIS.
Primary.
Hard
And Cutane-
ous
Chancre Erup-
tion.
Secondary.
Ulceration & abrasion]
of os Uteri.
Labial Abscess.
Warts.
women admitted.
No. of registered
Free from disease.
1884.
12,522
100 72 65
1885.
12,454
67 168 38
www
1
1
4
41
1
2
19
286 12,236
* These were all extirpated, and the women were not detained.
93 | 40*! 367 12,087
6. The increase, however, was not of a serious character; on the contrary there have been less gonorrhea and soft sores, and a diminution of complaints.
7. A good many cases of warts were observed, and all were extirpated immediately without necessitating the confinement in the hospital of the women so affected.
8. The disproportion in the number of those alleged to have conveyed infection and in those found actually to be diseased, is again very striking (as shown in Table I), and well worthy of consideration.
9. Excluding, as in the previous report, all the less serious cases such as gonorrhea, under which is included also simple urethritis, which after all cannot be taken as a sure criterion of the amount of disease existing in a place, as it is often caused more by men's own fault, and reckoning only soft sores and syphilis, as is done in Table II, we arrive at this result; of the 37 women accused, 8 were found to be diseased.
10. It is obvious that the majority of the men did not keep company with those who were under medical inspection.
11. An instance corroborating this assertion occurred last August to a sailor from one of Her Majesty's Ships, who was infected in a registered brothel, but, on investigation, it was proved that he got the disease from a woman who was a stranger there, and had no right to frequent the house. For this reason, the mistress of the brothel was prosecuted and punished by a fine.
12. The amount of venereal disease in a Colony like Hongkong with a large but variable floating population, composed of people from different parts of the world, must necessarily vary.
13. I have heard of men, who although they were diseased, did not hesitate to frequent brothels. 14. It would conduce to the better preservation of the public health, if it were widely known that by Ordinance 10 of 1867, a heavy penalty may be inflicted by the Magistrate on men who behave in such a disgraceful manner.
15. The Officers of Her Majesty's Navy, of the French and, I believe, of all other foreign men-of- war, have been unremitting in helping to check the spread of disease. Their crews are regularly inspected by the Surgeons, previously to leave being granted to them to come on shore.
16. I regret that their praise-worthy efforts were not fully rewarded by having none of the Sailors diseased.
17. I do not see why, with the assistance of the various authorities, and with hygienic laws better understood and practised by the women, disease should not be reduced to a mere fraction.
18. Some of the women presented themselves at the hospital of their own free will, the moment they perceived they were infected.
19. Soon after I took charge of this Establishment, it became manifest to me, as it must have been to all physicians, that the adoption of the same form of the return as is in use in the army and navy, leads to omissions, inaccuracy, and confusion.