838
Laboratory Attendant; Tailor.-Increase of salary in these cases is recom- mended because the Principal Civil Medical Officer reports that these men are very good servants, thoroughly conversant with their work, and unless they receive this small increase the Government will lose their services.
Amah, Maternity Hospital.--An additional Amah required for night work.
Rent of Temporary Quarters.—The Government Nursing Institute having been abolished owing to the decision of the Government to dispense with the services of the Private Nursing Sisters, the expenses in connection with "Stowford," formerly the institute and now occupied by the Nursing Sisters and Probationers, have been transferred to the Civil Hospital vote.
Victoria Hospital for Women and Children.-Provision of expenditure sanc- tioned generally in C. O. D. 28.
262
BACTERIOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT.
This is a new Department, presided over by a medical officer specially trained in bacteriology. Dr. HUNTER's work is that of a specialist, and it would be inconve- nient both for himself and the Medical Department if he were not placed in direct relation with the Government. As authority has not yet been obtained for the creation of a staff, provision has been made in the Estimates for certain temporary appointments which, if necessary, can be made permanent in 190t. They include a Laboratory Assistant, two Bacteriological Assistants, a Laboratory Attendant, and an office coolie. Dr. HUNTER reports that the most useful Laboratory Assistant for his purpose would be a qualified student of the Hongkong College of Medicine, to be paid at the rate of $100 rising to $150 a month. His duties will consist in the preparation of Danyz's virus and other sera, and he will be expected to assist generally in the conduct of the Laboratory. The Laboratory Attendant will be a Chinese boy at $15 a month, and he will be required to keep the apparatus clean and in order. The office coolie, at $7 a month, will keep the office clean and distribute messages.
The two Bacteriological Assistants will, like the Laboratory Assistant, be licentiates of the Chinese College of Medicine and will draw the same pay. It is hoped that next year it will not be necessary to secure the services of Japanese doctors for bacteriological work, as was done this year, if these two appointments are sanctioned. Dr. HUNTER states that unless these appointments are made it will be impossible to carry out some of the important measures proposed by Professor SIMPSON with regard to plague. Meanwhile, the engagement of two fully qualified Chinese licentiates, to whom, if the Secretary of State approves, these appointments will be offered, has been provisionally authorised, and they will join the temporary staff (paid this year as plague expenditure by the Sanitary
Board) as soon as the engagement with the Japanese doctors is terminate d.
A considerable portion of the estimated expenditure of this new Department is due to transfers from other Departments, and is therefore counterbalanced by corresponding reductions in other departmental estimates. The maintenance of the Public Mortuary and the Vaccine Institute has hitherto been paid for by the Medical Department, and the coolie and messenger provided for under the former of these two heads were formerly paid out of the plague vote. Much of the work done at the Mortuary is necessarily of a bacteriological nature, especially since ar- rangements have been made for examining rats, a work which will probably have to be carried on for some years to come. It is also understood, as regards the Vaccine Institute, that the Government Bacteriologist should undertake the production of vaccine lymph. The Institute is therefore appropriately placed under his charge.
In connection with the "Other Charges," Dr. HUNTER estimates that a sum of not less than $3,000 will be required to carry out Professor SIMPSON's scheme of the wholesale distribution of Danyz's virus for the destruction of rats; that $500 will be required for the preparation of protective plague vaccine (Haffkinisa-