[ vn]
to stand up in, another room contained a boarding on which lay two poor creatures half-dead, and one corpse, while the floor, which was of earth, was covered with pools. of urine. The next room contained what the attendants asserted to be two corpses, but on examination one of them was found to be alive, a fact which the coolie who discovered it greeted with an oath, and other rooms contained miserable and emaciated creatures, unable to speak or move, whose rags had apparently never been changed since their admission, and whom the necessities of nature had reduced to an inexpress- ibly sickening condition.
The doctor had not been there to-day nor yesterday, nobody knew when he would come, he comes "sometimes." No record is kept of deaths, but of admissions a record is "sometimes" also kept. Three slips of paper were at last produced as the entire records of the place, they referred to three patients. The keeper "could not remember" the names of any particular cases.
I must repeat that I hardly complain of the filth and wretchdness of the place, compared with the horrible indifference as to whether these poor creatures die or live. The place itself is quite capable of affording accommodation quite as good as the class of people it is intended for could have in their own homes. But in their own homes there would at least be some person to give them a draught of water, and to perform the commonest offices of humanity for them, and a man would not be allowed to lie for hours, supposed to be dead, because nobody had cared to find out whether he was dead or alive.
If there is any means of compelling it, I think that each Emigration House should keep its books in English, that a European inspector should daily visit each house and order the removal of the sick, his pay being reimbursed to the Government, that the managers of the emigration should be made to engage suitable premises for the recep- tion of such sick, and the resident services of a Chinese doctor, and that the hospital so formed should be under daily European inspection, all at the expense of the emi- gration, which, I believe, can afford it perfectly well.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
ALFRED LISTER,
Acting Registrar General.
P.S.-I visited this so-called hospital with Mr. LISTER yesterday. I quite agree with everything he has said. It is impossible for me to convey in words the impression made on me by a picture of filth, misery, and neglect which I did not expect to find even in China.
FREDERICK STEWART,
(Memo. by Mr. Willcocks.)
23rd April, 1869.
According to your request I had a conversation with my teacher, relative to the "I-Ts'z,” i.e., native hospital.
I carefully avoided leading him to believe that the information would be made use of. Had he fancied for one moment that such would be the case, I should have got nothing from him. What I gathered was in ordinary conversation.
He represents a state of things, which, if true, ought not to exist in any civilized place.