SIR,
[ LII]
Appendix No. 14.
GOVERNMENT CIVIL HOSPITAL,
HONGKONG, 2nd March, 1895.
I have the honour to forward to you Dr. Lowson's report upon the late Plague epidemic in this Colony.
It reflects the greatest credit on its author for the care with which the records have been kept from the beginning, the practical way in which the symptoms, progress and treatment of the disease and its post mortem appearances have been treated, and the recommendations that have been made to prevent its occurrence in the future.
The necessity for remedying the results of faulty construction of the houses in the Chinese quarters, the want of ventilation, light and air in them, the impossibility of keeping them clean and wholesome, the inadequate water supply, the want of proper drainage, the overcrowded condition of the houses, the filthy condition of wells, the necessity for proper latrine accommodation, and the enormous amount of filth collected in the houses have now been fully revealed. I first called the attention of Government to the state of things I have mentioned in my report dated the 15th April, 1874, within six months of my arrival in this Colony. In this report I mentioned by name the streets and lanes, and the position of many gullies without a name in that portion of Taipingshan which has now been walled in, and the condition of filth in which I found the houses, also streets and alleys in other portions of the town; almost the same state of things was found in 1894. Yet a further special report was sent in by a Commission appointed to verify the statements made in iny report which was sent in in May 1875. In 1880 Mr. CHADWICK arrived with a Royal Commission to investigate the condition of things described, and his full report to the Secretary of State appeared in a Blue Book. Six years afterwards he again visited the Colony and expressed his surprise at finding how little had been done to remedy the state of things he had described, and again reported on them. Many laws have been made in the twenty years previous to 1894 to remedy the insanitary state of the Colony, but most have remained dead letters owing to the difficulties of enforcing them and the prejudices of the Chinese especially and other sections of the community.
Since 1874 the divisions of the City of Victoria inhabited by Chinese have increased more than three fold in size, and the new portions are in nearly as bad a condition as the old.
The labours of Hercules in cleansing the Augean stables were a trifle compared with that which the Government has to contend with in the near future in cleansing the City of Victoria and other inhabited portions of the Colony.
Another report from the Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board will describe the work done by those working under their supervision.
Dr. Lowson's report is a most interesting and valuable addition to medical literature, and will no doubt receive the commendations it deserves. He was most unsparing of himself during the progress of the epidemic and untiring in his efforts to render assistance to all who were working under his superintendence. The work done by him during this trying period cannot be too well recognised.
That the latrines are a source of propagating the infection as described by Dr. Lowson there is no doubt, and proof is afforded by the dates of the closing of the sur- rounding houses. I found on inquiry that during the end of May and the beginning of June, when the prevailing winds were from the east and north, the houses to the west and south of the latrines were closed and afterwards, when the prevailing winds were