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810.-Trees do a great deal of harm in drainage, do they not?
A. The roots work through into the drains sometimes.
811.—I am afraid you will have plenty of trouble here that way. A.-Good brick and cement are generally proof against them.
20th February.
Mr. COOPER, Sanitary Surveyor, again attended and handed in a plan showing the rainfall of Hongkong, also copy of an analysis of charcoal-wood, peat, and animal.
EVIDENCE OF MR. R. K. LEIGH, CIVIL ENGINEER.
By the Chairman.
812. We wish you to give us some evidence as to the state of the drainage in the Western part of Victoria, and also your opinion, if you have no objection, as to the cause of the fever. But first, have you had fever yourself?
A.--No, I have never had fever.
813. Have any of your household had it?
A. I returned from England four months ago, and I have now got my third boy. I live in Westbourne Villa, the same house as Mr. DANBY. Only my boy lives in the house, the chair coolies do not stay there. One boy had fever twice. I took his tem- perature and found it 102 deg.
814.--Can you describe the nature of the fever?
A. He came to me shaking and generally looking debilitated.
815.-How long did an attack last?
A. He asked for leave at the end of the second day and I said he could go away if he could get a substitute. He then got another boy. Both of them had been with me before at the Peak and never been ill. The second got fever in his turn and then the other came back and got it again, and now I have got my third boy, who seems to be proof.
816.-You say the boys had shivering?
A. Yes; the boy came up to me in a trembling way and said "Have got fever.' Thinking it might be an excuse I took his temperature and found it was 102.
817.-Did he go away immediately or had you any opportunity of observing him?
A. No, he went right away.
818. You don't know if it was followed by sweating?
A.-No.
819. Was there any eruption?
A. There was none apparent when he went away.
—
By Dr. Jordan.
820. Did he complain of any diarrhoea?
A.-No.