December 16, 1901.]
THE CRISIS: TELEGRAMS.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.]
SHANGHAI, 12th December, 7.17 p.m. It is probable that the Imperial Court will really leave Kaifengfu on the 14th inst. Sheng ta-jen and Sir Robert Hart have been appointed junior guardians of the heir apparent, as a reward for their exertions in arranging for peace.
SHANGHAI, 13th December, 7.15 p.. Yung Lu has sent a secret despatch advising Director-General Sheng that the Imperial Court shall (sic) leave Kaifengfu to-morrow. Yung Lu says that he disregards possible personal danger, because delay means danger to the dynasty,
It appears that on the Empress Dowager's birthday the Secret Society men fired the Palace at Kaifengfu. Two buildings were gutted before the flames were extinguished.
HONGKONG SANITARY BOARD.
A meeting of the Sanitary Board was held on the 12th inst. in the Board Room. Present: Dr. J. M. Atkinson, Principal civil Medical Officer (President); Hon. A. W. Brewin, Registrar- General (Vice-President); Hon. W. Chatham, Director of Public Works; Dr. F. W. Clark,
Medical Officer of Health; Mr. E. Osborne, Mr.
Fang Wa Chin, and Mr. G. A. Woodcock (Secretary).
FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE.
Dr. CLARK reported that he had examined the whole of the animals in the Wong Nei chong Dairy Farm on the 30th ult, and that they were now free from foot-and-month diso.se. Twelve cows and one calf contracted the disease; the calf
died.
On the motion of the PRESIDENT, seconded
by Mr. CHATHAM, the premises were declared free from infection.
RATS AND PLAGUE,
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT,
no difficulties whatever should be permitted to block any reasonable measures which may be suggested for its extermination. I therefore beg to movo That the Government be asked to fix iron netting or other suitable contrivance over all the sewer and storm water gratings in Victoria, Tai Kok-tsui, Yaumati, aud Hung Hom before the end of next February, with a view to prevent the egress of rats from the drains." I think should be done before the end of February, herause we may assume that by the end of March or early in April we shall have a recrudescence of plague,
view to facilitating disenssion on this subject, I beg to second the resolution now before the
After a pause, Dr. CLARK said-With a
Board. I should have liked to hear the views
of the Director of Public Works, but it is necessary that the resolution should be seconded. I do not know what technical difficulties may be in the way, but I certainly think something should be done on the lines indicated.
choked in the even' of a rain-store and serious
i
477
matter. You don't propose to move an amend- ment, Mr. Chatham?
2
Mr. CHATHAM-No. The resolution was then put to the meeting and carried by a majority, Mr. Chatham and Mr. Brewin being the only dissentients.
À QUESTION OF CONSTRUCTION. Correspondence was laid on the table relativo to increasing the height of the floors of No. 21,
East Street.
Dr. CLARK said that another complaint ex- isted in the absence of a backyard to the property. Mr. BREWIN-This building is kept by a it is only occupied at night by the workmen tobacco merchant. It isn't a tenement house- and the shopkeeper and by the master. It is what is called a "hong," and I think that in the case of hongs and business premises, and in the case of buildings that have beou erected previous to the passing of the Public Health Ordinance, we should deal gently with the owners and be as careful as possible to see that these violations of the sanitary laws are not merely technical infringements but are actually injurious to the public health.
After further remarks Mr. BREWIN moved That the owner of this house be informed that
the measurements of the top floor must be reduced to one-half the floor area, and that otherwise the floors be permitted to remain as they are, so long as the house is occupied as a hong."
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Mr. FUNG WA CHUN seconded.
The PRESIDENT—I think this matter had
better bo referred to the next meeting of the Board, as the question of the provision of back yards has arisen, and the two had better be considered together.
This amendment was seconded by Mr.
OSBORNE and carried unanimously.
Mr. CHATHAM-I think. sir, we are all agreed that it is a very desirable precaution to take-to adopt means to coufine rats to the sewers and drains and prevent them obtaining access to dwellings, bu, as Mr Osborne rightly anticipated, there aro grave objections to at- tempting it by this means: Undoubtedly this netting must be of a very small mesh if you are going to prevent rats making their way through be great liability of these gratings becoming the openings, and consequently there would
damage being done by flooding to neighbouring property. This netting, too, could be easily removed, and the probability is that in many instances it would be stolen, and if not stolen, in any case it would be very speedily broken or damaged, so that you would be little better off in the end. In this connection, however, I may say that in one of the districts of the City I propose The SECRETARY submitted the report of Mr. to introduce a new form of inlet to the storm- Frank Browne, Government Analyst, upon the water drains and sewers, with the object of water supply. This bore that the Kowloon, preventing rats from making their way through Tytam, and Pokfulum services were all supply. done, and then to let the sanitary experts them. My intention is to have a few of theming water of excellent quality.
who are coming to the Colony see them, and
The mortality statistics showed that the ascertain whether they have any other sugges-death-rate within the Colony for the week tion to make. But to go in for a wholesale ended 3th November was 17.0 per 1,000 of the alteration of inlets throughout the City and population per aunum, as compared with 17.2 over in Kowloon is quite an extensive work and in the preceding week of the previous year. an expensive work; and I don't think it wise, in anticipation of the nearness of the visit of the experts to the Colony, to take such extensive measures. I an therefore opposed to the adoption of this proposal.
Mr. OSBORNE-If I may be allowed to add,
sir, in connection with the interference to tha
water flowing into the drains, we may remember that plague invariably breaks out in the close, muggy weather which generally comes at the end of March or the beginning of April, and that the disease is generally in full swing long before the heavy rains occur. Therefore, if there is anything in this rat theory, if we can prevent the rats from entering the dwellings from the drains, that will be accomplished before the rainy season sets in, and the netting can' then be removed. As regards waiting for the ex- perts, I quite anticipated that this objection would be raised, but I am sorry it was raised by a member of the Sanitary Board, because wait. ing for the experts means waiting for their report
Mr. OSBORNE The resolution standing in my name embodies a recommendation made to Government in August last by a committee of the Board consisting of Dr. Clark, Mr. May and myself, but concerning which nothing has yet been done. It is no mere theory, but an established fact, that some mysterious con- nection exists between rats and an outbreak of plague amongst human beings, and what ever this connection be, whether it lies in the inoculation of the human being by vermin from the rat or whether the explanation is to be found in any other direction, the undoubted fact remains that the presence in a dwelling of rats dead from plagne is an almost certain pre- cursor of an outbreak amongst its occupants; and, this being so, the obvious remedy would appear to be their extermination or at least their exclusion from human habitations. The destruc- tion of rats is being prosecuted at the rate of some 1,000 per week, which is satisfactory so far as it goes; but the committee, in making this recommendation, were of opinion that the work should in the meantime be supplemented by measures which would prevent their from drains. It is, I believe, generally admitted that the disease makes its first appearance amongst the drain and storm-water rats, and it is a fact, verified by eye-witnesses, that plague- stricken rats leave the drains and enter domestic dwellings. From personal observation I can state that in certain coolie-houses plague did not exist until the appearance of rats, and that the first victims, where several men slept in one room, consisted of those whose beds were nearest the dead body of the rat. The com- The PRESIDENT-I am strongly in favour of mittee therefore thought that if rats could be some action of the sort recommended by Mr. prevented from entering dwellings from drains Osborne, and I think it should be taken. It it would be a great point gained in our battle would not be an expensive experiment and it is against plague, and might also assist in exter-worthy of trial. The netting could be made of minating them altogether, as it is reasonable to assume they would inoculats one another. Objection no doubt will be made to the fixing of nettwork over street gullies, and we shall be told it will interfere with the free entrance of storm water; but difficulties such as this are not insurmountable, and in view of the universal and overwhelming evid- ence against the rat as a medium of infection,
egress
Mr. CHATHAM-No.
Mr. OSBORNE ('ntil we have discussed all their recommendations and that means that this will be at the expense of enormous loss of life in this Colony, and I think that we, as the Sanitary Board, ought to work indepen- dently of the experts and not postpone or put off anything we can do to-day.
It
a small enough, mesh to prevent rats leaving the drains and yet large enough not to be blocked by a small amount of debris. is an undoubted fact that there is some connection between rats and plague, but what that connection is has not yet been quite proved. Still, we ought to prevent, as far as possible, the rats getting out of the sewers into the houses, and this seems a simple
WATER ANALYSIS,
MORTALITY STATISTICS.
THE WORK OF THE CLEANSING GAUGS,
the
At the request of the PRESIDENT, the SECRE- TARY read the following return by Dr. Clark of the work done by the cleansing gan 18 691 houses have been during
past fortnight :-Altogether dealt with. The number of floors fumigat d has been 1506, and the number of floors cleaned 1545. On one day very little work could be done on account of the rain, and taking therefore Il working days, this represents 20 floors per gang per day. The work will, however, be done more rapidly in future, for it must be remembered that this
is
the first fortnight's work, and both the workers and the native inhabitants had to learn exactly what was wanted.
Mr. FUNG WA CHUN-Are the Chinese
allowed to cleanse their houses themselves after fumigation?
Dr. CLARK-Yes, under supervision. This was all the public business.
The Japanese commercial commissioner at Vladivostock mentions in his report to the Government that on the completion of the Siberian and the Chinese Eastern Railway a great expansion of shipping traffic in the Far East will be witnessed. It would seem that general attention is now directed to this subject, for since the beginning of this year a large number of foreign visitors have arrived at Vladivostock overland and by sea. The Russian authorities are very anxious that the shipping traffic in the neighbouring sea shall not fall into the hands of foreigners, and are earnestly endeavouring to promote the mer- cantile marine of their own country. As a step in this direction it is proposed to place the two new steamers of the Chinese Eastern Railway Company-Manchuria and Nonni-on the line between Vladivostock and America A Russian newspaper comments in its leading article that the inauguration of a direct route to America is urgent.
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