Enclosures Nos. 1, 2, .
6 From the middle of February the cases began to increase. In the week ending 23rd February there were five cases reported, which increased to fourteen in the second week of March, and to twenty-four in the third week of April, the next week's returns showing sixty-five cases, the first week in May ninety-three, and the following week one hundred and twenty-eight. In the first week of June it reached two hundred and twelve, with two hundred and six deaths. The second, third, and fourth weeks in June the returns were one hundred and fifty-nine, one hundred and forty-five, and one hundred and fifty three, while the last week it sank to sixty.
By this time the people became seriously alarmed. Since the 11th May twenty-five Europeans had been attacked and nine had died. The public press published letters and articles that increased the alarm, which was intensified among the Chinese by the refusal, under your instructions, to permit the removal to Canton, as in 1854, of any person suffering from plague, even under conditions of regulated precaution. An exodus of the Chinese community ensued, which has had the result of paralysing certain works in the Colony and has caused the gravest inconvenience and loss. I addressed you on this subject by despatch No. 239 of the 29th ultimo. On the 7th ultimo the Chamber of Commerce addressed to the Government the letter of which, with my reply, I enclose a copy, and also of a' further letter of 24th June, of which a copy is also enclosed and which I propose to answer, giving them full information as to sanitary matters which is now being collated.
7. From the first I have watched the returns day by day with an anxious endeavour to satisfy myself if the very full facts submitted afforded ground for a workable theory as to the cause of the disease. How does it originate? How is it propagated? Is it a dirt disease, a drain disease, or is it caused by want of light and air? or by some atmospheric condition not yet grasped by scientific research? Is it infectious or contagious? Is it air-borne or propagated by vermin? The last theory holds water to a certain extent. for undoubtedly the advent of plague- stricken rats has been very frequently followed by cases of plague, and patients have been received in hospital with insect bites about the ankles, the serum from which was found to be swarming with plague bacilli. On the other hand a large number of the rats collected, against which vermin we have been waging war for the past eighteen months, have been found by the coolies engaged in collecting the city rubbish for removal, to whom the reward is a matter of great concern. These men,
I am informed, carry the rats sometimes about them until counted out to the Inspector, lest their prize should be appropriated by their fellows, yet none of these men have contracted the disease. Again the plague charts show an invariably rapid fall from the maximum plague rate to normal. The epidemic always ceasing in from three to four weeks. I attach a chart of plague cases in the years 1899, 1900 and 1901 that will show how constant is this condition of rapid recovery. This rather favours the theory that the epidemic is due to atmospheric condition. I have no reason to believe that the Sanitary Staff are not doing their duty faithfully, and if they are, then with the large powers given to the Medical Officer of Health there should not be in Hongkong a house unfit for habitation, nor should any house be permitted to continue in an insanitary state. At present there seems to be a preponderance of opinion among the community that the plague is attributable to overcrowding, insanitary dwellings, and a bad system of drainage. But while all or any of these conditions may contribute to the perpetuation of the disease, the fact remains that one of the worst districts in the Colony this year is at Hunghom, a newly built quarter on Kowloon peninsula of two-storied houses fronting streets 50 feet wide and inhabited by the best paid working men of the Chinese community-the workmen of the Whampoa Duck Company. I was so struck by this fact in apparent opposition to the various
Enclosures Nos. 4, 5 & 6
1899. 1900. 1901.
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