December 11, 1895.]
THE DRAINAGE SYSTEM AND
FEVER.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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"Physician now seeks to protect himself from any approval of the smells under the old system by reference to a letter he wrote in 1886 in which he called attention to “the odoriferous and perfectly insanitary con- dition of the colony;" but no reference was made to that letter in his letter of the 26th November last, so that the reader had no opportunity of perusing the two in con- junction, and the opinions expressed in the later letter canuot therefore be considered modified by those expressed in the one of nine years ago. Moreover, if the colony was in a "perfectly insanitary condition in 1886 why blame the improvements which have since been effected as "the true cause of our
it may be considered objectionable, if the says he prefers the ships of a century ago to Hongkong Government tries to interfere those of the present day it must be assumed with it they may bring a hornet's nest about inter alia that he prefers sail to steam as their ears, for the subject is a delicate one a motive power; and so when "Physician' to handle and such a measure as the Licens expresses a preference for the system of ing of Private Vehicles Ordinance is little cal-drainage that preceded the present system culated to abate the practice; if the women he must be taken to express a preference are not allowed to keep carriages of their for the blue bricks which were its principal own they can hire them, and if the Govern- feature. The whole purport of the letter ment tries to meet that by making the livery was that the improved drainage system is stable keeper a judge of the morality of his a greater and more dangerous nuisance customers there would be a nice kettle of "than even its great promoter could have fish to fry. It is a mere matter of surmise, expected," and that "herein is the true however, that the Government has any cause of our present unhealthy condition." intention of prohibiting any particular class Whether it was, a logical inference from keeping vehicles. So far as can be gathered these expressions that "Physician" preferred from what transpired in the Legislative the old system, including its blue bricks, Council the Ordinance seems to have been is a point that must be left to the judgment of passed mainly for the purpose of showing the impartial reader. "Physician" also asks that the Government is master in the if we have never heard of any forms of low colony, but we believe it is not correct that fever arising from sewer-gas poisoning, not it is intended to follow it up with other necessarily fatal; never read of the lassitude, measures making the right to wear clothes mental nevetude, stunted growth, &c., the or eat food dependent on official licence. heritage of youth reared under such un- healthy conditions, although no so-called filth disease as diphtheria or putrid sore throat may be prevalent, but simply a general want of "tone" and lowering of the constitution? Some of these things we have heard and read of, some we have not, but they have no bearing on the matter, because the question was not whether Hongkong stenches were the cause of stunted growth, now mentioned for the first time, but whether they were the true cause of our present unhealthy con- dition," meaning the true cause of the prevalent fever. That was the position maintained by Physician" in his, first letter; his second leaves us in some doubt as to whether he has abandoned it or still maintains it, for he now indicts the present drainage system on the general ground of the noxiousness of sewer gas and not on the specific ground that it is the direct, true, and sole cause of the fever" which has been 'designated Dengue,' Influenza,' or low fever, according to the fancy of the medical man in attendance." We were very far from contering in our first ankle that the is sent drainage system is portier: all tim onreontention amounted to was that it is an improvement on the former system, and not. as we understood Physician to conteni, a rargad step.
We fully agree with Physician when he says - When von
have a beautiful glazed pipa half: choked with sewage emitting into the Incarest ventilator (probably in your own backyard) overpowering odours, when you have water-closets of the newest type with the latest designs in fushing apparatus approved by the P. W. D., turned into simple sewage receptacles and repositories, when you find house drains in excellent 'condition to look at, but acting as
perfect ventilators
Physician," in a second letter to the China Mail, takes exception to our criticism of his first letter, dated 26th November. With reference to the question of anonymity, our point was that when a scientific man professes to speak ex cathedra it is desirable that he should speak in his own name. Physician" in reply refers us to the medical journals and asks if we have never seen reports by "Our own correspondent" or "Commissioner" or unsigned leading articles in them. The reference has no applicability to the point under discussion and if it had the authority would tell against "Physician." The medical journals are written by medical men for medical men, no layman is allowed to contribute to their columns, and in theory they are not supposed to address the general public; consequently a writer in a medical journal and his readers are on the same plain, and if under those diremastrues were deemed desirable to carry on discussions anonymously the public would be marketed thereby. The case is cutirely different; when a doctor as such addresses the general public through a daily newspaper Thut in point of fact anonymity is the exception, not the rule, in medical journals; the leading articles and contributions by the regular staff, although unsigned, cannot he claimed as anonymous in the ordinary seuse of the word, because they are published om the editorial responsibility, and the reputa- tion, influence, aul success of the journal depend upon their character. However, if
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Physician" wishes to preserve his amouy- mity there is no more to be said in the matter except that his suggestion that we were aware of his identity at the time we wrote our first article is unfounded. The reports as to the name of the writer had not reached us at that time, nor had we formed any opinion of our own on the point. These reports give the name of one of our most respected medical men, who has rendered valuable public service to the colony and to whom we are glad to pay our tribute of respect, but none the less do we feel that his first letter was mistaken in its allegations and inferences and unsound in its policy; nor can we see that matters are at all mended by the second letter.
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Physician' says that he can find no- where in his previous letter that he deli- berately expressed a preference for porous blue bricks to glazed earthenware pipes as a material for making drains of If a man
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present unhealthy condition?" for if, as Physician says, the colony was in a per- fectly insanitary condition in 1886 it cannot be in any worse condition to-day, as nothing can become more than perfect.
INQUIRY INTO THE CONDITIONS OF BRITISH TRADE WITH CHINA.
We learn that Mr. Byron Brenan, Her Ma jesty's Consul at Canton, has been appointed by the home Government a special commissioner to inquire into the conditions of British trade at the treaty ports of China and also at Hong- kong and the possibilities of its development.
Mr. Brenan has already commenced his in- quiries and on Thursday had an interview at Government House with several gentlemen interested in trade.
THE
.
STRATHNEVIS" SAFE.
Messrs. Dodwell, Carlill & Co. inform us that they received a telegram on Monday morning from their Tacoma firm stating that news has been received by a sailing vessel which has ar- rived at Victoria, B.C., that she had spoken the Strathnevis on the 19th November, with her main shaft broken, and that she was making the best of her way back to Victoria under sail. The telegram adds that the Strathnevis was all well, and that there need not be any anxiety about her. Letters from the captain of the Strath- inexis were due at Theoma on the thing, and if there was anything of important in those let- ters the Tacoma Aru would again telegraph. The main shaft was broken in latitude 49.14 north and longitude 16127 west, and the sailing vessel spoke the Strancis in latitude 48.40 north and longitude 145 West.
RAILWAYS IN CHINA.
IMPERIAL DECREE. Au Imperial debreo was issued on the 6th stant in response to the memorials favouring the construction of railways presented by the War departant. It is to the effect that railways which are most important to trades should be constructed and that the Princes had already been ordered to draw up a plan for a railway from the capital to places in the neighbourhood. The Princes ordered Hu Wat-fau, Provincial Judge on account of the traps being
of Kwangsi, to make a report of the locality and "dry, I for one most certainly decline
the cost. The Judge in reply to the Throne to give the system unqualified approval. said that the distance from Tientsin, passing "Without an adequate water sup it is along the west bank of the Peiho to Lokaw "not and cannot be safe." But all these bridge, is 216 li, that the cost of the railway defects were present in a greater degree from the Peiho to Lokaw bridge would be about two million four hundred thousand taels, and under the old system, except as to the num- ber of water closets, and permission for the construction of these has only been given in a limited number of cases and under ex- ceptional conditions. A glazed pipe half choked with sewage is a less dangerous nuisance than a blue brick drain completely choked; and if the present system caunot be safe without an adequate water supply the old system was unsafe whether with or without an adequate water supply, for the drains then were constructed of porous materials and in many cases simply elongated cesspools.
were
that a plan had been drawn up. The Imperial decree says that the Judge who has prepared the report is the most suitable man to under. take the work, and that the cost of the railway is to be provided by the Board of Revenue and the Peiyang Squadron Administration. decree further says that the railway from Lo- kaw Bridge to Hankow, which will cost millions of dollars, should be undertaken by the rich mer chants, and if merchants can raise such a
The
large capital they are invited to found a com- pany to undertake the work without any moles- tation from the officers, and further that if the work is carried on properly and successfully they are to be rewarded by the Throne.
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