J
August 26,/1901.]
too much, and therefore I agree with the report."
Copy of Mr. Osborne's minute dated 29.h August, 1899, on Report referred to in the Memorandum. According to Medical Officer of Health there are roughly 2,000 floors in each district and these floors are supposed to be visited during the afternoon once every two months.
"The Inspector's afternoon consists of two hours (2 to 4 p.m.) and his working days num- ber 252, as follows:-
Days in year Deduct 52 Sundays
"
52 Saturdays
9 Holidays
365
113
252
252 by 2=504 hours, 2,000 floors visited 6 times a year=12,000; visits, occupying 504 hours gives less than 24 minutes per visit. The figures need no comment. I consider each floor should be visited once a month, and that 15 minutes is not too much to allow to each visit. This would keep three Inspectors constantly employed all day thus."
Mr. OSBORNE-I don't propose to say any thing on this subject, because my only object in writing the memorandum was to elucidate the truth to some extent, in the hope that the commissioner, if he ever arrives, will give the same attention to that memorandum and to the reply to it as has been given to the other papers. With regard to the Principal Civil Medical Officer's remarks, I did not say I was forced into signing it. What I say is this: In nearly all the discussions at this Board, in public or in private, I certainly and I believe all the other hembers of the Board-have been in- fluenced to a very great extent by the position which the Government was to take up in re gard to the recommendation of the Board. It was on these libes and for that reason I signed that report. I signed it and agreed that the number of inspectors, should be fixed at twenty, because I felt sure that if we asked what we really wanted we would get none at all.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
when it states that for nineteen years the condition of Hongkong has remained practically as insanitary as when Mr. Chadwick came and reported on it (Par. 7), and asserts that so far as anything practically resulting, the Sanitary Commission of 1881 might never have .been appointed."
('nitialed) W.C. and F.H.M. COMMENTS ON MR. OSBORNE'S REMARKS. Far. 4-The plans for the sewerage of the City drawn by Mr. Cooper were submitted to and approved of by Mr. Chadwick. Those plans provided for flushing tanks. If they were not adequate, it is inconceivable that Mr. Chad- wick would have approved them. Whether or not subsequent experience has shown that additional fushing tänks are necessary is nihil ad rem,
Par. 4.--One of the statements in the Peti tion to which exception was taken in the Me- morandum is that "Ordinance 34 of 1899 was | enacted in an emasculated form, the more dras- tic remedies recommended by the Sanitary Board with a view to the betterment of the sanitary condition of the colony having been deleted therefrom."
That is hardly an accurate description of what really occurred.
The Bill was referred to the Board, and the Board "acquiesced "in certain modifications.
Par. 6. The statement in the Petition was that concreting of floors was not required till 1894. The remark now made practically admit that concreting was provided for.
Par. 6-In the first place the complaint in the Petition is that Mr. Chadwick's (and not the Board's) recommendation for an improve ment fund has not been carried out.
In the second place the writer does not attempt to show that even in 1950 was the Government in a financial position to endow such a fund.
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163
with overcrowding, house-drainage and food adulterations.”
In spite of Mr. Osborne's elaborate calçula- tions, there is not a word in the report about any extra inspectors for ordinary daily inspec. tion duty.
(Signed) W. Chatham.
F. H. MAT.
RATS AND INFECTION.
The results of interesting experiments by Dr. Clark with the virus contagieux of Professor Danyss were laid on the table. They were in the form of a report, and dealt with experiments which had been made on healthy rats fed with the virus. The report concluded :—“It will be seen that the period which may slapse between the date of infection varies from two days to twelve or thirteen days, and that not infrequently healthy rate will not touch the
dead bodies of the infected ones.
The proposal is to feed healthy rats on the virus and then to let them loose again, in the hope that they will die of the infection and that then other rats will feed on their dead bodies and will thus become themselves infected.
The objections to the proposal are that the rats may die in private dwellings and thus create a nuisance, and iu cny case no check cau be kept upon the experiment after once the rats Bre set free.
I am not therefore inclined to recommend the adoption of the proposal by the Government on any extensive scale, but if any owners of godown property desire to experiment in the matter, I have now a sufficient number of infected rats to be able to supply them with one or two for the purpose.
"It is very doubtful if rats can infect human beings in any way, as long as they are kept out of the dwelling-houses, and I think that the efforts both of the Government and of the house. holders would be best directed to securing this Par. 7-The remark does not disprove the end by keeping all drains and drain-fittings in accuracy of the statement in the Memorandum. perfect order, maintaining an impervious cover. Par. The report that it was thought, ing to all earth surfaces within the dwellings from the wording of the paragraph, was by the removal (as far as may be possible) of all particularly referred to was one from Major ceilings, wooden skirting-boards and lath-and- was forwarded to plaster partitions, and by avoiding the accu- Brown, R.A.M.C., which Government by the Board and found to bomulation of garbage within or in the neigh-
bourhood of the dwellings." exaggerated.
The PRESIDENT-As to the Government simply ignoring the recommendations of the Board, I would just point out that it is very 0 difficult easy to give advice, but it is thing sometimes to carry that advice out. We all know how ready the doctors are to order a man to Japan for the benefit of his health, but the man himself does not quite see how he is going to do it. The Board, of course, has been very ready with recommendations of all sorts, and the difficulty has been to find the means to carry out these recommendations. The state-stated that the Board did so contemplate. ment that has been prepared with regard to the petition, I think, shows amply that all the funds available are expended upon works, a great many of them of a sanitary nature. I
to lay on the table some comments propose on Mr. Osborne's statements in the paper which is before us.
Par. 9-It is not claimed in the Memor- andum that nuisances caused by hawkers do not exist.
Par. 10-Novertheless, the inference to be drawn from the statement in the Petition is that no latrine previously existed on the spot.
Par. 10-In the Memorandum it is not
Colonial Secretary's Office,
17th August, 1901. SIB, In reply to your letter of 14th instant, I am directed by His Excellency the Governor to inform you that your observations or the Memorandum concerning the Sanitary Con- dition of Hongkong should have been ad- dressed the Sanitary Board, who will no doubt through their Secretary bring under the notice of the Government any statements to which the Board may take exception.
2.-Should any statements have appeared in the correspondence referring to you individu. ally, His Excellency will be prepared to con- sider and inquire into any representation which you may wish to make in the matter.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant, (8d.) J. H. STEWart Lockhart,
Colonial Secretary,
E. OSBORNE, Esq.
The following statement of comments, signed by the President and Mr. May, was then laid on the table:---
COMMENT ON COVERING LETTER.
(1) The inference drawn does not logically flow from the premises. The true inference to be drawn is that the Board is in a messure responsible, namely, in so far as it has been entrusted with the exercise of certain powers.
(2) The Petition does-misrepresent laota, c.g..
An explanation of the Board's not making application for a latrine at the spot is merely hazarded.
Par. 10-That is so.
Par. 23-It is not a question of what houses were reported as unfit for human habitation, but of what action was taken on the reports.
The records at the Magistracy show that, with the exception of one single ground floor closed in 1898, uo premises were closed by order of the Magistrats till May, 1899.
That 4,149 nuisance notices in respect of insanitary properties were served is not in any sense pertinent to the question.
Par. 14-What is stated in the Memorandum is the fact.
The prosecutions referred to by Mr. Osborne were instituted under Órdinance 14 of 1845 for nuisances, and not for overcrowding and the insanitary condition aimed at in Ordinances 9 of 1867 and 7 of 1883, and the fines inflicted, as the records at the Magistracy will show, varied from 10 cents to a few dollars.
Par. 16-One of the signatories of the Memorandum visited Canton with Dr. Lowson when the plague had ceased here in 1804, for the express purpose of ascertaining whether the plague had ceased there. A visit to the City and the Canton Plague Hospit.l showed that it had.
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Par. 16-The fact remains that Mr. Osborne signed the report of the Select Committee appointed to consider the adequacy of the Sanitary Staff.
The signatories of that report (Dr. Atkinson, Dr. Clark, and Mr. Osborne) stated: "We also recommend the appointment of three widitional first class inspectors and two additional second class inspectors of nuisances, whose services will be mainly employed in connection
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The President : Please circulate. Person- ally I am not in favour of experiments of this nature, unless under thorough control, until their success has been fully demonstrated."
Dr. Atkinson minuted: The experience of Dr. Arthur Kransz does not lead him to the conclusion that has been drawn by Danysz, that the bacillus can be used as a means for the Were any wholesale extermination of rats. symptoms of Danysz's disenso seen in the dead rats?
Mr. Brewin : Where are these experiments being conducted ?”
ALLEGED OVERCROWDING.
The report of the Quarterly Inspecting Com. mittee for the second quarter of 1901 having been forwarded to Government, a minute was attached by the Colonial Secretary suggesting that Dr. Clark should be asked to report what steps had been taken to deal with the matters therein referred to, including the alleged over- crowding in Sheung Fung Lane.
Dr. Clark replied as follows :-
"B. There is no power to prevent the ob- |struction of private streets by merchandise.
·C. A summons has been applied for against the baker for allowing his men to sleep in a room in which food is stored.
E. The chimney has been repaired and the hole in the wall closed.
K. I attach a returu showing that the houses in this lare can legally accommodate 314 persons, and that 312) were actually found sleeping there. Some of the houses were slightly overcrowded and notices were served. with the result shown in the last column of the return."
The following minutes were appended :-
Dr. Atkinson : **This return demonstrates that on the 13th July last there were 184 per- sons occupying room for 149. In other words, there was 23 per cent, overcrowding."
Dr. Clark: "That is so, taking only the floors which had occupants in excess of the legal number.
Mr. OSBORNE-May I ask what inspeciąr visited Sheung Fang Lane-whether it was the inspector of the district or someone else?