# Extracts from 327
A letter from the Superintendent of the Government Civil Hospital, dated the 20th November 1886, addressed to the Colonial Surgeon.
My sole reason for declining to undertake extra work was ill health.
During my fourteen years in Hong Kong, I have placed no limit to my exertions on behalf of the Government, but these exertions have left their mark upon me, and I have also suffered severely from climatic disease. The stress of work in the Hospital now takes effect upon me much more readily than in past years.