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No. 27.
38
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
The Colonial Surgeon's Report, with Returns on the Sanitary Condition of the Colony for the past year, is published for general information.
By Order,
W. H. ALEXANDER, Acting Colonial Secretary.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 2nd March, 1863.
VICTORIA, HONGKONG, 6th February, 1863.
It is my pleasing duty, in drawing up my fourth annual Report on the health of this Colony, to record several important sanitary improvements which have been inaugurated during the past year, and to present statistical information of the most satisfactory character. So satisfactory indeed has the health of the Colony been during the past year, that but for the fact of the occurrence of a similar state of matters during each of the three years immediately preceding, it might well be considered exceptional in its character; it is to be hoped that a permanent improvement in the sanitary condition of Hongkong has been the result of the many sanitary reforms that have taken place.
Situated on the very edge of the Tropics it is not to be expected that its sanitary condition can ever be equal to that of a well-regulated European town, added to which the continual intercourse with the mainland of China and neighbouring countries where no attention is paid to sanitary regulations, must expose it to epidemics of contagious disease. It is not therefore remarkable to find cases of Small-pox occurring both in Spring and Autumn, more especially when it is remembered that the Chinese are in the habit of employing inoculation in a most reckless manner and which indeed they prefer to the safer and milder practice of vaccination. Small-pox became a perfect scourge in the North of China last Spring, and at the same time Cholera was reported as raging at Singapore, Saigon, and Manila—in a short time it appeared in Shanghai, and in the towns further North, where it produced great havoc, and ultimately visited Japan. For a time our Colony continued quite free from the disease, although cases were reported as occurring as near us as Macao and Whampoa.
The Government most judiciously appointed a Health Officer to board every vessel arriving in the harbor and at the same time erected a quarantine station on the small island adjoining Green Island. To this station three vessels infected with Small-pox were ordered.
At most two or three isolated cases of Cholera occurred in the Colony, of which two proved fatal in the Seaman's Hospital. But one of our Institutions, viz.: the Gaol, proved an exception to the general immunity, for there an epidemic of the disease in its most malignant form broke out on the 17th of October, continuing for three weeks, during which time 25 cases occurred of which 13 terminated fatally. Singularly enough this epidemic was entirely limited to the Chinese prisoners and occurred principally among the long sentence men. The European prisoners, who were then occupying the new buildings, suffered at the same time from an epidemic of acute Dysentery, which fortunately in no case had a fatal result. Every preparation was made for meeting the disease in an efficient manner had it appeared in an epidemic form in the Town, but there is great reason for thankfulness that no such disastrous result followed, and possibly the great care with which the prevalence of the disease in Gaol was kept a secret beyond its walls had something to do with this result.
It only remains for me, before entering into details in reference to the various institutions which come officially under my cognizance, to record the appointment of a Committee for sanitary purposes; to the result of its labors and the report it may forward to Government, those interested in the health of this Colony may safely look with confidence.
I. THE POLICE.
This body is remarkable for its extreme healthiness as the following tables will illustrate:
Table I. shews the admissions into and the deaths in the Hospital of Members of the Police Force during every month of 1862.
Table II. shews the rate per cent of sickness and mortality of the Force during the same year.
It will be noted that the mortality is slightly in excess of 1861, but not to such a degree as to call for comment.
It is important to record that a second year's experience of the system of monthly examination for the detection of venereal disease has continued to be crowned with success. The numbers so affected being palpably less and more easily treated than was the case in years preceding the adoption of the system.
The Force does not appear to be peculiarly liable to any special class of disease, but the number of men taken into Hospital either for observation or for feigned diseases is considerable, and it is not always possible to detect the imposture without submitting the men to a day's observation.