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literature to which it has given birth, I do not think that anyone in the world would be the -loser. The parts of Yunnan to which access could be gained by rail from the Northern Shan States are not those which it would be of any advantage to us to tap: the building of a railway through them to the upper waters of the Yangtze in Szechuen is, if not a physical impossibility, at any rate sɔ speculative and so enormously costly an undertaking, that neither the Home Government, nor the Indian Govern- ment, nor any Company or Syndicate, could conceivably undertake it. The idea that if it were built the wealth of Szechnen would stream down a single metre-gauge line, many miles of which would have to scale the mountains by a rack, to Rangoon, while great arterial rivers flow through the heart of the province of Sze. chuen itself, which are quite competent to convey its trade to and from the sea, is one, as it seems to me, in the present stage of Central Asian evolution, almost of midsummer madness. Why we should even carry our present railway at the extra cost of considerably over half a million sterling to the Kunlon Ferry, across which the entire Chino-Burmese trade is success- fully transported in two dug-outs, and amounts to less than 100 tons a year, is beyond by comprehension. For my own part, there- fore, I cannot advise that in the pursuit of
wo should fanciful political ambitions Indian money to spreadeagle our railways over foreign countries and remote continents: while all the time there is lying the most splendid and lucrative field of investment at our doors. There is a good deal to be done within range of our own perch, before we begin to flap our wings in distant firmament. I do not say that there are
no political reasons which could justify such a venture. But such reasons, to be decisive, must be overwhelmingly strong; while their strength would be manifestly en- hanced could they be reinforced by financial arguments, which in the present case are con- spicuously lacking. For my own part, therefore, I would sooner see this flourishing country overspread with a network of lines, bringing waste lands under cultivation, increasing popu- lation, developing security, and expanding trade, than I would push out tentacles into the unknown. The Burma Railways Compary al- ready, after paying its full toll to Government, hands over to its shareholders a dividenel of nearly 5 per cent., and this upon the whole of its lines, which include several hundreds of miles of railroad which at present do not pay their way, There are abundant projects in this country which would return a certain 10 per cent., if not more. Let us take some of them in hand, and link up the various parts of Burma itself, before we jump out into space without any clear iden of where we are going to land.
PLAGUE AND SANITATION.
In view of the local interest in the question indicated by the above title, we reproduce in full a leading article by the last number to hand of the Times of India :—
Thongh many of the conclusions arrived at by the Plague Commission have been before the public for some time, an important separate memorandum by the President, Professor Fraser, has not yet received the general atten. tion it deserves. The subject of the memoran- dum is " The Influence of Insanitary Conditions npon the Extension and Virulence of Plague in India"; and in the course of it Professor Fraser disagrees with certain of the conclusions of the majority of his colleagues upon the Commission. Our purpose is to indicate briefly the views held by the President, and the reasons upon which he bases them. The whole purport of the memorandum is to emphasise the conten- tion that conditions existing within dwellings should be carefully differentiated from the general conditions of any district; and that it is upon insanitary conditions within dwellings that the spread and virulence of plague depends. Professor Fraser holds,, in short, that India can best grapple with plague by aiming at “ merely elementary reform in the conditions and immediate surroundings of dwelling-houses." His initial demonstration, by excerpts from the evidence of witnesses, that the urban and rural sanitation of the country is in an unsatisfactory condition, is unfortunately beyond controversy. But he only accords discriminating acceptance
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[January 18, 1902.
to the late Surgeon General Harvey's dictum | factor in the extension of the disease, and even that plagae is "a diseas of filth, a disease of its fatality, is the vitiation of air in dwellings. dirt, and a disease of poverty." He maintains that a distinction must be drawn between the effects of sewage and pollution in open ground in residential neighbourhoods, and insanitary conditions insile dwellings. The scavengers of Bombay, for instance, though working amid After Poona filth, were very little affected. had been made cleaner than it had ever been in the memony of living man," it suffered its worst visitation of plague. From these and many similar facts, Professor Fraser finds himself in agreement with Colonel Weir's assertion that "the view of associating this disease with dirt in the sense of refuse is utterly wrong." He holds that plague is chiefly propagated by insufficient ventilation and light, ovor crowding, dampuess, a polluted atmosphere, and, to a less extent, uncleanliness, within houses.
It was to these causes, he argues, that the cases occurring among certain classes of chiefly due. They occurred rich natives wer in big houses badly ventilated. Conversely, the remarkable immunity among Europeans is ascribed by him to the good ventilation of their dwellings; while the mortality among their servants arose from the miserable quarters in which they were housed. The immunity in ovacuation camps was due to good ventilation; and where evacuation camps failed they were generally overcrowded and badly ventilated. Unpollifted air and sunlight saved the dwellers reasons the in most camps. To the same singular freedom from attack noticed among attendants in plague hospitals is ascribed.
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It is upon these premisses that Professor Fraser bases his main thesis, which is that sanitary improvement of dwellings would render the suppression of plagus possible by practicable and relatively simple measures. Ho does not go so far as to say that the removal of air pollution and other fo-tering agencies from dwelling-honses would entirely eradicate plague. That would be an untenable proposition if applied to an infectious disease, produced by a specific micro-organism; and there is a'so the ubiquitous rat to be reckoned with. But he maintains that if these fundamental and of extension were predominating canses removed, other necessary measures could be so far applied that the suppression of a widespread epidemic would no longer be an almost hopeless task. The minimal sanitary requirements for dwellings are that each room should be provid- ed with a window for the admission of air and daylight; and that each house and its immediate surroundings should be kept reasonably free from all causes of air-pollution. Les urgent measures are the discontinuanco of the practice of stalling cattle in dwelling- houses, and the abandonment of the application of cow-dung to floors and interior walls. These are not impossible ideals. They are less difficult, for instance, than the improvement in water supply necessary for lessening cholera. "Pure air, the chief requirement for the extinction and prevention of plague, is," observes Professor Fraser, everywhere ob- tainable." Much sanitary reform has been An interesting portion of the memorandum effected since plagne first visited India; but thore has been a noticeable absence of any deals with the supposed connection between the incidence of plagne and the conditions of general effort to improve the permanent venti- climate and the geological character of the soil. lation of dwelling-houses, probably because Professor Griesbach disposed of the geological financial difficulties and the opposition of the Professor Fraser is not aspect of the question by pointing out that people were feared. plague occurs "practically in all soils," and inclined to rate the financial difficulties too that some of that the disease is primarily a soil disease is highly. He urges, moreover,
the money now spent upon such paliatives certainly borne out neither by experiment nor
Into the technical discussion disinfection and the removal of filth observation."
the upon plague in its relation to variations of might be more profitably devoted to climate, in which the views of Professor Moosessential measures to which he pins his opposi. of Bombay, Dr. Buchan, F.R.S., and Professor tion of the people; for he regards as note Hunter Stewart, are sat forth, we have not worthy the remark of the witness who told space to enter. It way be said generally that the Commission that the chief cause of the their opinions lead Professor Fraser to the prevailing absence of windows and other that: "the conclusion that the variations in climatic permanant openings in houses
people did not undertand its importance conditions encountered in India hire only a slight effect; but, in so far as that effect is before, and no one took any interest in it. His operative, its influence is prejudicial in the hope is that when the native population more interior and not the exterior of dwellings. fully realise the importance of air and daylight And Plague, therefore, may be said to be practically as preventives of plague, they will facilitate the independent of climate, and in places where its improvement he considers so desirable.
until these reforms are carried out, plague will bacillus could not exist long on the surface or
To the vague hope a little below the surface of the ground in the probably remain with us.
"of its own open air, it survives mainly amid the protective that it will some day disappear conditions of defective dwellings. Among accord" he declines to subscribe. When plague these, filth can only be accepted as a subsidiary epidemics have completely died out in past causative condition. Overcowding
centuries in particular areas, the present facili- ties for inter-communication did not exist. operativo cause, because it increases the
Our modern environment has increased the vitiation of the atmosphere within houses. This, by the way, is one of the points upon penalty exacted from us for our insanitation. which Professor Fraser is at variance with his It is apparently vain to hope that plague will dio away," except as a result of wise and colleagues. He considers that overcrowding mainly conduces to the spread of plague, prudent measures of prevention. because it accentuates the conditions produced by defective ventilation: and he holds that the fact that the persous brought together are within the range of infection is of secondary importance. His colleagues disagree with him, because "plague may occur in houses whose atmosphere is quite untainted"; but the exam- ples they quote in support of their view are analysed and rebutted by him. We cannot examine in detail the discussion by Professor Fraser of the conditions within dwellings, which in bis belief increase the extension and vira- louce of plague. It may be noted, however, that he lays great stress upon the required moisture and warmth provided in unventilated rooms; that he urges that earth and cow-dung frors increase the vitality and virulence of plague bacilli; that he points out that insuffi- ciently lighted and ventilated dwellings so affect individuals as to increase their suscepti bility to plague, and that the influence of insufficient sunlight operates in the same direc- tion. These are contentions that are not likely to be disputed. In recapitulating his arguments Professor Fraser admits the gravely important share in propagating plague contributed by rats; but he insists that the preponderating
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HONGKONG.
The police report that cargo-boat No. 301 sank in the Harbour close to the shore opposite Tenng Man Lane, drowning one of the fokis, who was asleep in the cabin
During the last quarter two samples of milk and two of beer have been examined under the Sale of Food and Drugs Ordinance. One of the former was found to be adulterated.
The China Merchants' steamer Fushun, which was recently gutted by fire at Canton, after undergoing repairs at Kowloon locks, left the Harbour under her own steam for the North. As we have already intimated, the steamer is to be used by the company as a store-
hulk.
Mr. H. II. J. Gomperts has been appointed President on the Land Court in succession to Mr. H. E. Pollock, K.C., and r, H. L. Dennys has been appointed a member of the Cou t. Mr. E. A. Irving has been appointed a member of the Governing Body of Queen's College vice Sir J. W. Carrington, C.M.G, resigned.