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Dr. ATKINSON.—We have one Chinaman at the hospital, U I KAI, I think he is competent to undertake one of these dispensaries. We have had him in training for six years. I think he would be willing to take $60 a month. He does not get that from
Us.
THE PRESIDENT.-We thought they would be useful for giving notices of deaths and diseases in their districts.
Dr. ATKINSON.--They would be very useful to visit the Chinese in their districts and report on every death that occurred and to call the attention of the medical officer to it if there were any suspicious circumstances, but they would require to be under strict rules. They must not have too much power, because they are not to be trusted. At least, that is the opinion I have formed from the stamp of men they have had at the Alice Memorial Hospital. I do not think they can be trusted in an independent position of this sort; they must be strictly supervised.
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Mr. MCCONACHIE.-Do not you think it would be the better plan to try one of these dispensaries at Kowloon? It might be situated near the Police Station, where it could be looked after by the Inspector.
Dr. ATKINSON.-I do not think the Inspector would be of any use in the supervi- sion of a dispensary. Drugs would probably be disappearing in small quantities and the dispensers would be charging the Chinese who came for medicines. You would have to make a strict rule that, say, ten cents was the maximum charge, and that the dispensers were not to have an unlimited supply of drugs, but only stated quantities from the Civil Hospital. I think it would be better to try one in the town.
THE PRESIDENT.-Do you think they should pay for these medicines?
Dr. ATKINSON.-I think they would appreciate it more if a few cents were charged. That is the experience of Dr. WENYON at Fatshan; he gets a little for the medicine and and his hospital is self-supporting.
Mr. THURBURN.-He makes them pay something for admission, too?
Dr. ATKINSON.-Yes; he said it was absurd to make everything of that sort free, and he says they appreciate it more.
Mr. MCCONACHIE.-There is no place over at Kowloon where the natives could get European medicines?
Mr. THURBURN.-I think that is one of the things the Secretary of State spoke about; he was very much struck by the fact that there was no medical man over at Kowloon at all.
Dr. ATKINSON. One of the medical officers of the Department might live at Kowloon. There is nothing to prevent that. The Medical Officer of Health might be told that he was to live over there and he might come over early enough for his duties on this side. I can see it is an important point, now that it has been raised.
Mr. THURBURN.--You have read of the arrangements Dr. Lowson made at the end of the plague epidemic for the removal of people who are attacked by plague and wish to leave the Colony?
Dr. ATKINSON.—Yes; so far as I am acquainted with the disease known as bubonic plague, to which I presume this question refers, it seems to me the condition of patients suffering from this disease practically prohibits, from a medical point of view, such removal. I should not like to take the responsibility, with a man who was suffering from an acute disease like the plague, of saying he is fit to make the journey from Hongkong to Canton, ·
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