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Q.-Suppose a Cholera patient had died on board twenty-four hours before her arrival here. Would you keep the ship in quarantine?
A.-No, I should not. There is no use. What is the good of quaranteening a ship when you have perhaps one hundred junks, at any rate a great many, coming in from Amoy or other ports on the mainland at the same time. Quaran- tine has been tried in every shape and form and has been found to be absolutely useless.
Q.
A.
Is there any reason then why we should put ships in quarantine here?
The only reason is to consider the prejudices of foreign nations. Q.-You say then that everybody from a ship in which there was actual cholera should be allowed to go free?
A. Yes. Provided they were not sick, and as we have no place to put them. Q.-Notwithstanding the sanitary conditions or otherwise of this place?
A. We cannot help that. My opinion is that quarantine is useless. It is no good whatever to quarantine a vessel for two days. If quarantine is adopted at all it ought to be for a sufficient time to make absolutely certain that there is no possibility for the disease to break out again. That might lead to an indefinite period of quarantine.
The Colonial Surgeon.
Q.--Have you ever seen a case of cholera that you could attribute to contagion from another patient?
A.--Directly from another, no.
Dr. HARTIGAN then withdrew.
The Chairman--Dr. Ho KAI is a medical man who knows more about the Chinese than any of us. We should be glad of your opinion?
Dr. Ho KAI-I think that from what I have seen and heard my opinion is against the quarantine regulations altogether. They have been of no use. But with regard to small-pox it is totally useless. The disease is an endemic disease here and is preventable. The risk run by not having quarantine regulations would be very small, and improved sanitation in the Colony, and enforced vaccination, would do away with any danger from that source.
Q.--You would make vaccination compulsory?
A. Certainly upon infants, and on grown-up people whenever practicable. Q. What about the Chinese?
A. The Chinese, as far as I know, are convinced of the desirability and usefulness of vaccination, and I think that a local ordinance introducing enforced vaccination or re-vaccination of men who arrive in the Colony would be a success. I do not think there would be any opposition to it. The Chinese hospital, as you know, have adopted vaccination entirely. They know its value well, and every year they send round two or three men to the mainland of China to perform vaccination. That shows that the Hongkong Chinese at all events are perfectly convinced of the usefulness of vaccination.
Q-Is there any place where adult vaccination is made compulsory? Could you go further than making it compulsory in the case of infants?
A.—I would do it for the protection of the port. If they refused to submit I should say, "Well, then you cannot go ashore." That is all. We have as much right to protect ourselves as anybody else.