314
The following table gives the total admissions to Hospital, and deaths in the Force for the last ten years:
Admissions.
Deaths.
1883;
599
10
1884,
486
7
1885,
495
9
1886,
602
14
1887,
619
9
1888,
657 ...
15
1889,
590....
14
1890,
582
7
1891,
570
7
1892,
496
TROOPS.
There was a very great increase in the number of Troops in the Colony last year, 42 added to the White troops, and 764 to the Black troops, due chiefly to the arrival of the new Hongkong Regiment. There was a good deal of sickness amongst this Regiment during their first summer, but they have greatly improved and now for a long time have suffered very little from climatic causes. The Europeans still suffer very much and the average of sickness and deaths among them increase year by
year.
Table IV gives the average strength, sickness and mortality amongst White and Black Troops. The accommodation for the troops has not increased in proportion to their numbers. The barracks are mostly old, and the additional accommodation seems to consist of Chinese houses that have been renovated and improved in the lower levels; though many additional out-stations have been added and a Sanitarium at the Peak. The new Regiment are in a camp composed of matsheds at Kowloon. The following table gives the sickness and mortality among the troops for the past ten years :-
Admissions. .....1,105.......................
.1,097....
Deaths.
.10
1883,
1884,
1885,
..12
1886,
... 24
.1,607.
9
1887,
.1,749.....
1888,
14
.....1,485...
.21
1889,
J. ....
.1,732.....
1890,
..16
..1,915..........................
.15
1891,
.1,851...............
.17
1892,
2,844...
.31
The addition of 812 unacclimatized troops have to be considered and I think there will be a considerable improvement in 1893. The average strength for 1891 was 1,552 men, for 1892, 2,370.
GOVERNMENT CIVIL HOSPITAL.
The Superintendent in his report brings to notice some deficiencies in the Hospital accommodation which I hope will in part be remedied during the present year. I would greatly prefer to have had an entirely new Hospital as was at first intended, but in the old days those who knew the requirements of the peculiar climate of Hongkong were not allowed any voice in the matter, a plan for a new Hospital was sent out from Home at a cost of $250,000. The plan of the Hospital was quite unsuit- able for our sickliest season, the summer months, and the cost beyond our means. We were, therefore, obliged to meet the emergency as best we could. My predecessors had been fighting for a new Hospital for five years before I came and had not Providence helped by blowing down the old Hospital and burning down its substitute, we might have still been in a great deal worse condition than we are
now.
The accommodation in the old building used for a Hospital was not equal to that of the wing now used for Fever and Venereal cases. The admissions were about half the number and the deaths considerably more.