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Removal of the Sick and Dead.-Considerable improvements have been effected in the means of conveyance of the sick, an improved type of ambulance having been purchased and a permanent staff of coolies arranged for, to convey these ambulances to the Hospitals. A steam launch for the conveyance of the sick from the Wanchai districts to the Hospital at West Point was also employed during the later period of the epidemic. Dead bodies are conveyed in what are termed "dead-boxes," and I would suggest that some small covered-in hand-carts, capable of carrying two or three dead-boxes should be obtained, as complaints have been made that the dead-boxes are not always securely closed while being conveyed through the public streets and that the carrying coolies occasionally put the box down in some very public place, while resting. When the disease became rife in Wanchai the dead bodies were placed on board a cargo-boat hired for the purpose and towed round by a launch to the Mortuary at West Point.
Burial of the Dead.-This was carried out under the superintendence of one of the Board's Euro- pean Officers, all bodies being buried at the Kennedy Town Plague Cemetery, unless a special permit had been granted for burial elsewhere.
Disinfection of Infected Premises.--This work has been under the personal control of Inspector REIDIE, who spent the greater part of his leave in Europe last year in studying the different methods of disinfection in vogue in Glasgow (especially during the outbreak of Bubonic Fever in that city), in Edinburgh, and in Paris, and in examining the various forms of apparatus for this purpose which were exhibited at the Paris Exhibition. Inspector REIDIE was assisted by three European officers, eight coloured foreinen, three Chinese foremen, a staff of thirty trained coolies, and a varying number of other coolies for carrying purposes. The processes of disinfection consisted in the removal of all bed- ding, clothing, curtains, carpets and mats to the Steam Disinfecting Station, these articles being first tied up into bundles with large sheets of unbleached calico, and then put into baskets which are carried by coolies, Government clothing being supplied to temporarily replace the personal clothing of the occupants of the infected houses. The walls and floors of the premises are then sprayed with a one- in-a-thousand solution of perchloride of mercury, and the building then thoroughly fumigated with Chlorine obtained by the addition of dilute sulphuric acid to chloride of lime, the pots being placed as high up as possible, on a trestle or shelf, on account of the weight of this gas. Finally the floors are scrubbed with a solution of one of the coal tar preparations, the drains flushed, and the walls lime- washed, chloride of lime being added to the limewash in the proportion of 1 lb. to the gallon.
The people displaced from their homes during the above processes, which occupy about six hours, are at liberty to make use of the Board's matshed shelters, but the men usually prefer to proceed with their ordinary work, while the women remain in the street to watch their household goods, or seek shelter with a neighbour.
Closure of Premises.-In consequence of the occurrence of a number of cases (European and Native) in a block of buildings known as Beaconsfield Arcade and consisting of fourteen three-storey buildings, used as shops, offices and dwellings, I recommended the Board, on May 24th, to close the entire block as unfit for human habitation. The closing order was made on the following day and the entire premises were then thoroughly disinfected by the Officers of the Board. The walls were sprayed with a 1-in-1000 solution of corrosive sublimate, all the rooms and passages were fumigated with free chlorine; floor-boards were taken up and the rat-runs traced and treated with crude carbolic acid, all rat-holes being stopped with cement; soft wooden partitions and all rotten woodwork were removed and destroyed, and the floor-boards then saturated with the crude carbolic acid, while the drains and traps were treated with the same disinfectant; all illegal obstructions to light and ventila- tion were removed from the backyards and the whole block then thoroughly limewashed. In addition, the owner, at my suggestion, removed a number of drain-inlets, which were within the building, to the outside, and also removed most of the ceilings, leaving exposed the floor-joists which were then painted--the object of these alterations being to provide as few facilities as possible for the entry of rats into the building. The premises were finally released from the closing order on the 27th day of
June.
On the same date (May 25th) the Board declared the premises known as Nos. 15, 17, and 19 Peel Street and also No. 63 Wellington Street, unfit for human habitation, in consequence of the occurrence of several cases of Bubonic Fever in each of them, and the same processes of disinfection and cleansing were adopted, the premises being released on the 11th of July.
On the 27th day of June another building known as "Wild Dell," which is divided up into a number of sets of apartments, occupied by Europeans, was closed by order of the Board, for similar reasons, and was then thoroughly cleansed and disinfected; at the time of writing these premises have not been released from that order.
General Sanitary Precautions.-Chloride of lime was supplied to all the public latrines for use in the buckets, and the District Inspectors were instructed to see that it was freely used. The sewers on the lower levels were also flushed with sea-water, by means of the Fire Brigade engines.