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Q-He was not ?
A-He was rather thin but was otherwise healthy. His heart was healthy.
Q-Looking at the man at the time you saw him, and allowing for all the symptoms that set in, in your opinion was that man a fit person to receive corporal punishment?
A-I think I would have passed him.
Hon. Commander HASTINGS-Did Dr. MARQUES go round with you and hand over the patients on the 1st June?
A-No.
Q-You had to go on the medical history of the cases?
books.
A-Yes. He showed me some of the work, but I was busy; he showed me the
Q-What minimum interval should elapse between two floggings?
A-I should think a fortnight at least.
Q--That is presuming the first flogging is of six strokes?
A-And presuming, of course, that nothing very serious happened.
Q-Are you of opinion that the hospital warders are qualified for their duties as warders?
A-No, they are not.
Q-Or nursing generally?
A-No.
Q-Why did you personally dress the wounds of the man that died ?
A-They were rather bad and I was using a special preparation brought from the Government Civil Hospital, and I dressed the wounds with it in the morning.
Q-The dressing he had before was apparently all right?
A-Oh, yes.
Q-Is the absence of a bed any hardship for an ordinary Chinese prisoner?
A-I really do not know; one associates beds with a hospital. The Chinese always like to lie upon a hard surface. Even in the Alice Memorial Hospital they have iron bedsteads with wooden planks. Of course, when a bed is raised above the floor there is more free ventilation.
Q--And it is more convenient for a doctor to treat a patient?
A--Yes. These men would like better if they were on a mattress--on a proper bedstead, but they have never complained about it.
Q--Would an opium smoker stand a flogging worse than a man who was not an opium smoker?
A--I do not think so, it depends. If he is an excessive opium smoker and a very thin man I suppose he would in that case; that is a man who smokes to excess.
Q-Do you know if the man who died on the 2nd was an opium smoker?
A-I do not know.
Q-You did not know about the rattan being soaked?
A-I am almost sure it is not soaked.