HONGKONG.
REPORT ON THE HEALTH AND SANITARY CONDITION OF THE COLONY OF HONGKONG, FOR THE YEAR 1904.
Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor.
5
No. 1906
POPULATION.
The estimated population of the Colony for 1904 was 361,206. There were 1,205 births and. 6.118 deaths, 495 of these were from plague,
The birth-rate was 3.3 per 1,000, as compared with 3'17 in 1903.
The death-rate was 16-94 per 1,000, as compared with 18-9 in 1903.
The following figures will show the comparison of the death-rate in the Chinese and Non-Chinese during the past two years :-
1904.
1903.
Non-Chinese, Chinese,
16.6 per 1,000 19.1 per 1,000
12:48 per 1,000 17.18 per 1,000
PREVALENCE OF SICKNESS IN THE DEFFERENT SEASONS OF THE YEAR, AND
· GENERAL CHARACTER AS TO THE MILDNESS OR SEVERITY
OF THE DISEASES PREVAILING.
Small-pox.-There were 64 cases notified, as compared with 60 in 1903. The greater number of these, viz., 57, occurred in the first six months of the year; five were imported.
In the month of April handbills were published calling the attention of the Chinese to the fact that the disease was prevalent and free vaccination could be done at the Government Civil, the Alice Memorial and the Tung Wah Hospitals.
Cholera. A small outbreak occurred during the months of May, June and July in No. 2 Health District and was confined almost entirely to the coal coolies resident in this neighbourhood, at no time was the disease epidemic.
In all there were 41 cases notified during the year, as compared with 10 in 1903, and 460 in 1902.
Plague. This disease occurred in a much milder form than usual, 510 cases only being notified, as compared with 1,415 in 1903; this is the fewest number of cases we have had recorded in any one year since 1897.
The diminished prevalence of the disease is especially interesting, as it appears to have been very severe in Canton and the surrounding country, it was especially prevalent in Tong Kun District, at Fu Shan, about 40 miles east of Canton, up- wards of a hundred deaths had occurred by the beginning of April, indeed in some of the districts near Canton it was reported as causing more deaths than in any year since 1894. Early in April information was received that the disease was preva- lent near Swatow.
As will be seen from the following table the outbreak commenced in April, it reached its height in June, and a marked decline occurred as soon as the maximum mean daily temperature was reached..