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months of the year is a matter which must be carefully put on record, and it strikes me the day is not far off when Great Britain will rue the day the Contagious Diseases Act was abolished. Many more out-patients were attended than usual because we had only room for admission of urgent venereal cases. The opium question in India was standing on a perilous footing for some time until the Com- mission was fortunately appointed which has had no hesitation in jumping on the absurd views of those people who pity the "poor degraded Indian. I trust that in the interests of every Colony in the East the British Government will soon see the necessity of appointing a Commission to take evidence on and judge the contagious diseases question on its merits. The most noticeable fact about the alcohol plague was that during the trying summer when passing the low class "pubs" in Queen's Road the places were practically deserted, so I conclude that a lot of the drinking must have been done privately.
5. I am glad to say that the morphia injection trade appears to me to have received a severe check from the legislation made to prevent it. I noticed extremely few cases during the plague epidemic where one saw numerous marks of injection and only one case where they were very apparent and had caused troubled. In this patient the numerous punctures on the front of the thigh had produced an eczematous condition of the skin and a femoral bubo in the right groin. He was sent in as a case of plague, but a careful examination soon led one to conclude that the bubo was the result of the irrita- tion. Most exemplary penalties were imposed on the people caught by the Police, and there seems reason to hope that the practice will never again reach the huge dimensions in Hongkong to which this pernicious habit bad attained. I have a notion, however, that instead of its reaching the Chinese brain by the hypodermic method it is introduced by the stomach. In any case it will now be extre- mely difficult to keep morphia from the Chinese.
6. Another point that merits attention is the increase of tubercular disease amongst the Chinese here. During last year we had many more cases of phthisis admitted than usual, and the deaths from phthisis and general tuberculosis were numerous. During the plague epidemic a great number of sick were brought up to Hospital for examination who were suffering from every kind of disease, and perhaps this seive action accounts for part of the increase in tubercular cases, but in my opinion it does not account for all. There is, in my mind, no doubt that tubercle is increasing here, and I am afraid it will keep on increasing, as no disinfecting process is at present possible when one considers the primitive methods of disposal of expectoration at present in use amongst the natives in Hongkong. The carrying out of the new laws anent overcrowding will undoubtedly have a beneficial effect so far as tubercle is concerned, whilst the efforts at house scavenging and disinfection which have been inaugurated since the plague epidemic are also bound to assist in the direction of prevention of this disease.
7. I have already mentioned to you the desirability of having a medical inspection of ricksha and chair coolies before they receive licences. Many of those poor wretches are physically incapable of doing hard work and woe betide some of them when they get drunken Jacks as fares. I have seen many evidently suffering from cardiac and respiratory disease who at the end of a short journey are fitter for the hospital ward than for running between the shafts of a public vehicle. By granting licences only to those who are certified as physically able for their work the public would be greatly benefited and it would also be a kindness to the weaker coolies who ought to try to procure lighter work. Medical examination need not take up much time and could quite easily be done, say, by the Medical Officer of Health.
8. What to do with many of our sick and indigent Chinese is daily becoming a serious question. Without making Hongkong the dumping ground of the Kwangtung Province, I think it quite possible to have some institution where "chronics" might have a tub or some sound food. The Chinese community might be asked to supply the funds for running the place, and some responsible Government officer should be placed in charge. The number of maimed Chinese patients who do not want to leave the Government Civil Hospital is occasionally large, and I hope that next time any of our local philanthropists are "on the job" they will establish a charity fund for use in these cases; then one can begin to speak about charity.
1. GOVERNMENT CIVIL HOSPITAL.
HOSPITAL BUILDINGS.
9. The ravages of white ants have again caused great trouble in the lower block of the Hospital more especially in Wards XII, XIV and XVI; and I think that the possibility of replacing the wooden beams by iron ones should be seriously considered whenever repairs are again wanted. If these wards require to be shut up at a busy time of the year great inconvenience is caused.
Ward VII, the old female ward, has been slightly altered and fitted up as an operating theatre, a boon which can only be appreciated by those who had to operate under the old system in the wards, where proper arrangements for operations could not possibly be made. A few more instruments are, however, wanted to further perfect arrangements.