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by ladies from the Peak when they had to come to town for shopping purposes. The closing of the depot would therefore be a matter for regret apart altogether from the financial con- siderations affecting the Company, but as regards the milk supply of the colony we believe the private dairios ara now able to - meet all demands with entire satisfaction both as regards quality and quantity. The community will perforce have to rely upon thein for many months to come and if the Dairy Farm Company should then recommence business it would not be such an easy matter fo establish a connection as it was in the early days of the Company's history.
SUPREME COURT.
12th March.
IN ORIGINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE ION. W. M. GOODMAN (ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE).
CHAN LAI HUNG C. CHAN FUNG FIRM,
This was a claim for $7,000, being the ralne of goods belonging to the plaintiff and alleged to have been wrongfully converted by the defendant firm to their own use.
Mr. Robinson, instructed by Mr. Ewens, ap. plied that the plaintiff having failed to attend. the cause be struck out pursuant to sect. 61 (2) of the Code.
The Court being satisfied that the plaintiff had received notice of hearing, it was ordered that the cause be struck out, with costs in favour of the defendant.
CHARLES ST. GEORGE CLEVERLY г. LUM YAT AND THE HON, HO KAI AND WEI-A-YUK.
This was an application for a decree of final foreclosure against Lum Yat, the mortgagee, Some years ago Lum Yat mortgaged certain premises to the plaintiff by a second mortgage: he then obtained farther advances from Kwok Tun, whose interest later passed into the hands of Hon. Ho Kai and Wei-a-Yuk. These parties have already been foreclosed and the present application was to finally foreclose the mortgage. Hon. H. E. Pollock appeared in support of the application, and, after going into the various dornments and Registrar's certificates, his Lord- ship said -- I am satisfied the plaintiff is entitled to the order asked for, and decree final fore- closure accordingly.
HONGKONG SANITARY BOARD.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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of concreting the basements of houses over the dirt, the saturated ground should be first dug out and renewed, replaced by clean soil, and concrete laid over that. You were of opinion that the disturbing of auch soil would be fery dangerous and might sproad disease and the two medical members of the Board agreed with you. If that be the case it seems to me that the bricks and materials in the resumed area which have been embedded in the ground as foundations and those just above them should not be sold, but he removed and placed beyond anyone's reach I am, doar sir, yours faithfully..
“Hongkong. 2nd March, 1896.
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N, J. EDE
To the President of the Sanitary Board.f' The following minutes were attached.- The Health Officer-I agree.
The Acting Colonial Surgeon-The wood I understand is being burnt and it is only the bricks above the surface of the ground that are being sold. Seeing that all the houses were thoroughly disinfected and cleansed before the area was resumed, and also were completely deinded of all movable contents, only the bare walls and roof being left, and that they have beep exposed to atusqherif in- fluences for more than eighteen months. I consider the likelihood of any infection remaining as extremely in- probable,
The Acting Captain Superintendent of Police--Page all scientific statements I think the houses should be burnt and the materials dumped of Kellett's Pank.
The President-la the first place, before dealing with the important subject of this letter, I just point out
(a)
No material in the resume afea of Taipingshan below ground level has been sold.
(b) Mr. Ede's version of my opifiou regarding-the disturbing of the soil is misleading. The opinion ex- pressed was that if the soil was so bad as Mr. Ede fejre sented it to be. I thought it was less lighte to cause sease if concreted user than if it was distnibed during the se cupation of the houses within the four walls of which it was situated.
As regards the main subject of the letter, if the Board agree that any portion of the material in the houses in the resumed area of Taipingsllan is capuple of easily trans- mitting plague, the policy hitherto alpted by the Board of allowing the re-occupation of fumbers of vases throughout the city in which plague accurred during 194, 1895, and the present year requires serious consideration.
The houses in the resumed aren of Taipingshan have been cleaned, disinfected, newashel, practically gutted. and exposed to the action of the sun, light, and hir for upwards of eighteen months.
The houses in other parts of the city in which įdagne occurred have been cleansed, disinfectel, and limewashed, but their exposure to light, sun, ami air (a factor of great importance) has of necessity been far less perfect than has heen the case in resport of the houses in the resume) arca, nur has the wondwork torming a part of the structure of the buildings been removal.
[March 18, 1896.
results of the great fire of London, but as pointed out by. a recent writer there is no reason to believe that the plague would not have been eradicated from that city as it had been from other cities and towns without recourse to fire. The beneficial results of the fire so far as ridding the city of plague must therefore be looked upon as mainly con- fined. to the facilities it afforded for the immediate intro- duction of improved sanitation.
In view of the opinion expressed by some as regards the sale of building material in the resumed ares of Taiping- shan I would point out that—
(a) Early in 1895 the débris that existed in the area was collected and burnt.
(b) Before any material was sold, which did not occur til September, 1895, the light woodwork was removed from the houses for sale and burnt.
(c) Early this year, owing to the practical impossibility of preventing persons from stealing the wood left in the remaining houses, these houses were gutted and the wood- work burnt.
(d) No material has been sold below ground level. (e) As far as I have been able to ascertain no workman engage within the area has contracted plague.
Sporadic cases of plague occurred in April, 1895, and continued to occur, except during the mouth of October, throughout the year. Towards the end of January the number of cases considerably increased, and in February a still further increase took place.
Considering the overcrowded state of portions of the city in which the plague has occurred during this year, and the habits of the Chinese, the following quotation from the Local Government report previously referred to is important:- Dr. Petresco is dispored to assign the great outburst of plague in Vetlianka in December, 1878, to a sudden fall of temperature causing relatively greater crowding of the families in consequence of the more gare- ful exclusion of fresh air from the living rooms."
In conclusion I must state bat there appears to be no evidence that the existence of plague in the city at the the present time is in any way traceable to the re-opening of the houses in which plague occurred in 1894, or to the sale of building material in the resumed area of Taiping-
shan.
The evidence available leads one to the conclusion that so long as the present overcrowding of the poorer portions of the city exists and houses without sufficient supply of fresh air and light are allowed to be occupied, the accu- mulation of dirt and filth and consequent lowering of the vitality of the population wilFcontinue, and the periodical reappearance of plague can only be looked upon as the natural result of such a state of things.
The PRESIDENT-Has any member any reso- lution to more in connection with these papers? Mr. EDE-With reference to the question of the houses in which plague has existed and where plague has not recurred and the wood not been destroyed, I should say, as far as I understand the methods of the plague, that it would be desirable to burn, but unfortunately we cannot do it. But where you have wood that you can burn I should certainly be in
If therefore the houses in the resume area of Taiping-favour of doing it. Of course you cannot burn shan are still infected with plague, much more must that be the case in respect of the other houses in the city in which cases of plague have occurred,
If Mr. Ede's opinion is correct there is no alternative but to regnise the fact that in this city we have atıl have had for upwards of the past eighteen months many houses plague infected and liable at any moment to trans- mit the disease to their occupants.
It such a state of things has existed,fand considering that these houses in which cases of plague have occurred are in many instances occupied by from ten to twenty persons,
The PRESIDENT-I believe
the whole town down, and you cannot burn the houses which are inhabited, but I do not think the fact that yon cannot burn wood in houses that are inhabited should prevent your burning wood that you can spare. Of course I may be wrong. I am not a scientific man, but from A meeting of the Sanitary Board was held
what I have heard and read I believe it is the at the offices on the afternoon of the 12th March.
best thing to do. Hon. F. A. Cooper (Director of Public Works)
the Acting presided, and there were also present Hon. Commander W. C. H. Hastings (Acting Captain
that they are situated in crowded parts of the city inbalite Captain Superintendent of Police is not only in favour of burning the woodwork but Superintendent of Police), Dr. Atkinson (Acting by the poorer class, and that they are deprived of a ren- Colonial Surgeon), Dr. Clark (Medical Officer of sumable amount of fresh air and light, all conditions gene-removing the bricks as well. Health). Mr. N. J. Ede, and Mr. H. Mac-rally accepted as favouring the occurrence and spread of plague, is it to be supposed that only solitary cases of the Callum (Secretary). '
disease would occur? Surely it is more reasonable to expect that our experience would be similar to that of Dr. Cabiadis in Hillali and Bagdad, as recorded in the ninth annual report of the Local Government Board 1879-80. viz., that when plague enterol a house it seldom spared
MINUTES,
The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed.
THE SALE OF TAIPINGSHAN BUILDING MATERIALS.-IMPORTANT EXPLANA- TIONS BY THE PRESIDENT.
read from Mr. N. J. Ede :- -
The ACTING CAPTAIN SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE-I certainly think it would be a good thing to do so.
The ACTING Colonial SurGEON-From medical point of view I think it is extremely improbable that any infection remains in the its inmates and often carried them all off in a week's time.
resumed area of Taipingshan. We must be Such, however, has not been our experiance. On look-guided by experts in a matter of this nature The following letter to the President was ing through the statistics of plague cases during 1895 and aud Professor Kitasato in his "Report on the
the present year only twelve instances will be found of cases having been discovered in and traced to houses which investigation into the cause of the Plague
states with regard to his experiments with the were ebeet in 1894, and in only oup instance, viz., No. 2, Sheung Fung Lane, in which two cases have occurrel, bacillus ;—" Bacilli (plague) directly exposed to the sun were found to be entirely killed after has more than one case been discovered in or traced to any one of these houses. Nevertheless this is in accord
an exposure of three or four hours. Those left with the experience elsewhere. On page 39 of the above exposed to the air for a period varying from one mentioned report will be found the following, referring to
to thirty-six hours began to grow after the the plague in Mesopotamia, 1876-77- The most effectual means for the protection of a community against the prolapse of two days, whilst those that were thus agation of plague are the isolation of the sick, the destruc tion by fire of their clothes, and the whitewashing with lime and free ventilation of the domiciles in which cases of plague occur. The plague reappeared in only one out of 350 houses which hal been white washed after an outbreak of plague in them, whilst its reappearance in houses that had been herely abandoned for a time, after an attack of that disease, but which had not been white- washed, was of frequent occurrence."
DEAR SIR--I observe in to-day's Daily Press a notification of the sale by auction of the materials of some of the houses in the re- sumed area of Taipingshan. I would like the Sanitary Beard to recommend to the considera- tion of H.E. the Governor that no wood of any kind (if such there be) should be sold, but that it should be removed from the buildings and burnt within the area. I believe that plague can be easily transmitted by means of such wood, but though (as some think) that may not be 80, some of the timber that I personally saw a little time ago in that area was of the filthiest de- scription and not fit to nse for any purpose whatever. As regards the bricks, I submit that none of the foundations of the houses or any below, say, three feet from the surface of the ground should be sold. Ataconfidential meeting of the Sanitary Board a few days ago I expressed the opinion that instead of the present practice
Looking back to the epidemies of plague that raged over the greater part of England during the 13th and 16th centuries we find that the disease wae eradicated mainly by improved sanitation, and with one exception only, viz., that in the city of London, were the houses destroyed by fire. Great stress has, however, been laid on the beneficial
exposed for four days did not present a trace of growth even after one week from the time of inoculation." With regard to the disinfection of the houses in the infected area, this was most thoroughly done with chloric gas, the disinfec- tion being commenced on the 22nd June, 1894, and finished on the 3rd July. After this was finished 300 men of the "whitewash brigade entered and removed the cubicles, cook- lofts, windows, &c., and cleansed the houses. Not one of these men contracted the disease; this shows how thorough must have been the destruction of the bacilli even then, and when
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