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secretary of the Sanitary Board. He turned out to be wrong.
May 8th
I am diagnosed A. Hung as suffering from plague and isolated him
The identity of A. Hung was revealed in the Report to the Governor. He was a ward boy in presumably the Government Civil Hospital. He was admitted during Lowson's absence in Canton with the diagnosis of remittent fever but having seen him Lowson diagnosed it as plague. This then was the first case he saw in the Hong Kong Epidemic. Action had now to be taken as described in the following entry:
May 10th
Order from HE OAG for report on plague in Canton in morning Order an four Taler to visit Tung Wah where I found about 20 cases of bubonic plague Visited Tung Wah again with Ayres at 2:30 pm Sanitary Board at 4:00 pm Long Meeting Gave order to have Hygeia over in morning and prepare for epidemic Government proclaimed Colony suffering from plague
The Governor then was Sir William Robinson. He must have been away and the person acting for him, known as the Officer Administrating the Government, could be the General Officer Commanding. The Hygeia was a hospital ship moored in the harbour for the isolation of patients suffering from infectious diseases such as small-pox and cholera. The Tung Wah was the same hospital which still stands on its original site, on Po Yan Street in Sai Ying Pun District.
We will now follow the situation as it developed from the entries of the next few days:
May 11th
Hygeia over Sanitary Board in pm passing bye-laws 13 deaths from plague
May 12th
Some difficulty with moving patients but got them all over before 4 pm Saw all settled Rabbit and Guinea pig injected from A Hung 26 deaths reported from plague