Page
Jails 8, 1901.1
BRIDGE.
CHINA ÖVERLAND TRADE REPORT. exposed to public sight? Mr. May must be earned his spurs and possibly an unmerited stultit, ing himself in not patling into practice | inheritance of sickness from overwork —who
at he said in the Sanitary meeting. Tait for the purpose of identification that the
shall say? Yours, etc., bodies are brought at that particular gate? Cannot identification be made at the very spot. where they were found, and have them removed at once to the mortuary? What is the morta- ary built for
Why should this unnecessary and disgusting procession of
centre of the town ? Because, perhaps, Mr. May:
y wishes the public to be familiar with the sight and be free from panic. Very nice indeed!
TO THE EDITOR OF THE “DAILY PRESS.”
6th June, SIR,-Much has been said and written about plague, but, so far, no one has ever enough disease originated
hopeless P. Certainly not! So when i ontracted plague, why should it be mu to him that he is dying ?
473
There is one more thing I would like to mention. Mr. E. Osborne has been good enough to point out that the ambulances are not fortably (sic!) fitted up. They are not only uncomfortable. The thin covering isg nothing, and is worse than uséléss.
allowed to go to and fro in the dead-boxes be courage to say definitely how this dreadful patient is removed, say from Wanchai, to the
In the last sentence of Mr. May's statement, quoted above, he spoke of "how many pelice to prevent that being done." answer in the case of Old Bailey-only one
would European, of course) with strict orders to disallow dead bodies being placed at the gate, and stop the procession of dead-boxes.
Anyhow, somebody must be responsible for this objectionable practice of bringing corpses into the centre of the town when there is a mortuary to receive them.
The insertion of the above will greatly oblige. Yours, etc.,
VOX POPULI.
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season.
Prior to 1890, we had no plague-not even the troublesome mosquitoes and we could sleep being shut up in a curtain ; but since the intro- anywhere in the house without the necessity of duction of the "improved" drainage system at night, but also come out and attack people these mosquitoes have not only become annoying in the day-time. The sinking wells of our improved" drains are in fact the breeding. holes do not also breed plague. Rats live in holes of these insects, and heaven knows if these the drains, and they are the first to contract the plague as soon as the horrible disease is in among the rats, and proves that the plague owes This accounts for the wholesale death its existence to those stink-pots, or what they call sinking wells. When a rat is attacked by the disease, it comes out and dies in the house TO THE ADITOR OF THE “DAILY PRESS.” and transplants the plague-germs to the in- 4th June. mates. Whenever a dead rat is found in a SIE,--Amongst the plague scandals, "In-house, unless the occupants clear out at once, quirer" máy like to know that there is nothing more disgusting than the treatment of Chinese deaths. When a death occurs, no matter from what cause, if it is reported to the police, the corpse is removed to the Kennedy mortuary: if reported to the Registrar-General, an inspector of nuisances, whose scientific knowledge may be a little better than that of a common coolie, is sent by the Sanitary Board to examine the corpse before it is allowed to be coffined and taken out of the premises. In this way it is generally detained in the house for a whole day, and sometimes overnight, if, in the opinion of the inspector, the case is suspicious, before it can be buried. In hot weather like this, changes may have taken place in the body before the sanitary emissary can find time to visit it. I am sure the result of such delay is not very pleasant. The moment a report is received the M. O.H., or some one qualified to act for him, should go at once and decide the case on the spot-Yours, etc..
44
BETTER CIVILISATION.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE
“DAILY PREŠ8.” 5th June. SIE,At the present moment, asa community, we are in sore straits, but it is no use behaving like a lot of hysterical neurotic women. seems to me that something closely kin to a It carnival of panic"-to slightly alter Baron Milner's now famous phrase-reigns rampant in our midst. With a population several tens of thousands above that of 1894, we have considerably fewer deathes from plague, at a corresponding period of the year now, than then. Anyone who was in the Colony at that unforgettable time, and saw what was going on daily when matters were worst, must own that Chinese houses are much cleaner now than then: this fact is evidenced by the far fewer cartloads of filth disgorged from native tenements during the present year. Where is the good or the need of writing letters that are fuller of delusive rhetoric than of accurate fact? The Sanitary Board, in the opinion of not a few, is toiling manfully with its herculean task. The Augean stables-and they were not used
by Chinese were not cleaned in a day, Plague comes to stay, and cannot be incon- tinently rooted up. It will certainly remain with us until such times as the Chinese can be forced to lead a cleanlier and more sanitary existence. We must not forget that the disease is endemic in Yaunan. If we were as negligent as some quaking critics aver, our state would grow worse from year to year. Cold statistics, however—vide Dr. Clark's able report for 1900 -prove incontestably that this is not so.
What, however, does seem a most astounding thing is that the P.C.M.O.—I mean the officer holding the substantive appointment, not the acting man—should be absent from his post on extended leave at such a critical time. If I remember rightly, Dr. Atkinson was also away on leave in 1894, when Dr. Lowson deservedly
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of the
same
some one in that house is sure to contract the plague generally a servant of the family, since (1) servants' quarters are as a rule located at the back of the houses in the immediate vicinity of which dead rats (if there are any) are usually found, and (2) when a dead rat is found the duty to remove it naturally falls rats are the transmitting agents of plague. on the servant. This clearly shows that dead germs. It may be argued that when the epidemic made its first appearance in Hongkong so how was it that other parts of the town in 1894, it chiefly confined itself to Taipingshan, where all the drains were "improved" type were comparatively free of the disease? It should be remembered that Taipingshan was the dirtiest spot on the island, and was also most thickly populated. follows, therefore, that the drains in that T particular locality were the first to become choked and get out of order, and that was the Eden like garden of the plague. Macao has not adopted this "improved" drainage system, yet it was quite free of plague throughout 1894, and thousands of people from Hongkong, custody," and regarded her as a paradise of including the writer, docked to her for "safe health. Of course, she now suffers all the same, but I think she should thank Hongkong for it. It was said that plague originated in Canton, and came to Hongkong in 1894, but this is nothing but an excuse. How is it that it did not go to Macao ? Considering her geographical position she should have been infected before Ho gkong was, if the statement that plague was introduced from Canton is anything. There is not the shadow of doubt that the "improved" drainage system is is done away with the better. responsible for the plague, and the sooner it
a
plague hospital at noon on a bright, warm day, negotiate the journey. They break their journey it will take the coolies at least two hours to
rest and cool themselves, they would leave the as often as they please, and when they want to ambulance and the poor patient to take care of that the victim arrives at the hospital hälf themselves in the broiling sun, with the result cooked, his temperature having risen "some degrees en route. It is satisfactory to note, 500n be substituted, and I hope they will be however, that new and better ambulances will fitted with more suitable coverings-Yours, etc.,
FACTS.
THE RUMOURED CHINESE EXODUS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS.
5th June. issue of even date, re the exodus of the Chinese SIR-Referring to the leading article in your from this Colony. I doubt very much if they' are as much afraid of the epidemic as of the manner in which their sick and dead, plague- sanitary authorities. stricken or otherwise, are handled by the
I think some consideration should be shown to
As suggested by your correspondent" Seer,"
much to be thought of. them, though, in some respects, they are not
Legislative Council and on the Sanitary Board, There are Chinese representatives on the
mittees of the Tung Wah Hospital (both past and at the back of these gentlemen the com
the poor and ignorant. Why is their assistance and present), the latter being in daily touch with not availed of to allay the existing alarm? I would suggest that a commission, with the Police at the head, should be appointed amongst Registrar-General and Capt. Superintendent of these gentlemen, to thoroughly investigate into the existing circumstances, "and frame a new set of bye-laws for the suppression of the dreadful disease, with due regard both to the strict requirements of good sanitation and the feelings of the Chinese of every class. Thus chance to state his grievance, if he has any even the poorest voolle will be given a Sittings of the commission should be held in the Tang Wah Hospital, or in the office of the society recently formed by the leading Chinese with the sole object of rendering assistance to the Government in all matters concerning themselves. In the meantime, pending the appointment of the commis sion, call in luminaries not, of course, with a view to to help all these Chinese let them "run the government of a British colony," but to ascertain from them the grievances of the'r countrymen and find out the best means to stop the alarm, thereby protecting our own as well as their tradal
interests.
í
Now that plague has become endemic in Hongkong, the same state of affairs will revive year by year, and drastic measures alone will
doing no good, but causing a lot of unnecessary The sooner such measures as are practically alarm, are substituted by ones more suitable. for local purposes and to the point, the better. valuable space.-Yours, etc.,
Apologising for trespassing upon your
So much about the origin of plague. Now comes another question which should engage the serious attention of the medical men. When a patient is discovered he is removed to the hospital for treatment-I call it experiment, since no doctors can say posi-not improve matters. tively how a plague-patient should be treated. There is no known remedy. It will, therefore, be much better and more humane to allow the unfortunate victim to try his own method of doctoring. The way how a patient is removed from his or her house is sometimes most heart- rending. For instance, a girl is forced into the ambulance crying and yelling for her mother, and carried off to a strange place miles away from her home. The shock she receives is enough to kill her on the spot. As to grown- up people the sight of the ambulance alone will, more or less, hasten a man's death, as he knows only too well that he is suffering from plague and is being carried away to die.
Supposing a man is laid up with a high fever and calls in his medical adviser. He finds that his patient is suffering from a fatal disease, for which there is not much chance of recovery. Would he tell him straight that his case is
RIGHT.
PARSEES AND PLAGUE.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILYPRESS,” Canton, 3rd June. step whatever is taken by the trustees of the
SIR,-Another Parsee plague case, and no- Parses Charity Fund In Hongkong, who are, said to be the heads of the Community! We all read in your columns, with admiration, the. scathing remarks from the erudite i pen of.
Scratator," and learn with_burning shame- how poor R. M. Mehta died. If the hands.