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The Colonial Surgeon—I should treat it as an infectious disease, though I should not fear to go amongst it myself. Though there is a certain amount of contagion, I doubt whether it is very great. I should have no fear of nursing or attending a patient suffering from it. There is more trouble in being afraid of the thing. If you imagine you are going to get it, you probably will get it.
Mr Humphreys—You would not like to live in the house or district where it prevailed?
The Colonial Surgeon—I should not like to live in the house.
The President—Have you any further questions, Mr Francis?
Mr Francis—I want to ascertain whether these deaths have been known to the authorities and whether they have been covering it up. It has not certainly been brought before the Sanitary Board. How is it attention has not been called to so many deaths occurring in the same neighbourhood in so very short a time? It is careless.
The President—So far as covering up the disease is concerned, I can say there has been absolutely no attempt to cover it up, and directly the Government became aware this plague was in the neighbourhood, they communicated at once with the Sanitary Board, and I have just read the report of De Ayres and Dr Lowson. It was only today the Government became aware of the fact that this plague is in Hongkong. With regard to carelessness, that also I cannot accept. I do not see where any carelessness has been shown. If a death is registered from fever, it is impossible to know by intuition that it was from plague.
And as these deaths were registered from various causes, no suspicion was excited until it was noticed there were many from one street, and then, when inquiries were made, it was found that not only had people died in that street, but that people had been removed from that street to the Tung Wah Hospital.
Mr Francis—How is it the Tung Wah people did not report the cause of death?
The President—They have reported what they considered the cause. Whether they were correct or not is a matter of opinion.
The Colonial Surgeon—I think the outbreak began about the beginning of this week. An Inspector had instructions to go through the houses in Bonham Strand, and if he found a case, he was to report it to me. But he could not find one. I think we did all we could. It was at my request the Government applied to Canton for information; and as we were not quite satisfied, De Lowson proposed going up. Since he has been back, these cases have been coming in. One case came in on Saturday, one of our own men. I could not say it was the plague; the symptoms were very modified, but still there were slight symptoms tending that way, and the disease could not be accounted for otherwise. Dr Lowson, when he saw it after his return from Canton, said there was no doubt it was the same. Now, after four days, the man is delirious.
The Captain Superintendent of Police—I may say that these rumours of numerous deaths are greatly exaggerated. I was informed the day before yesterday that no less than forty people had died in Tank Lane. I made inquiries and I found the number of deaths was five. Two of them were children who died from convulsions. At the same time, I got a return from the Registrar General and found it tallied with my report. The scare in Bonham Strand was also found to be entirely unfounded.
The Colonial Surgeon—It was stated sixteen people had died in Tank Lane yesterday. You see how the thing becomes exaggerated.
The President—It seems to me what we ought to do now is not to discuss what is past, but what we are to do now we have this plague in our midst. Under the Public Health Ordinance, it is possible for the Governor in Council to declare any part of the colony infected by an epidemic, and I think perhaps that would be the most effective way of dealing with this, to declare the city of Victoria infected. The publication of this proclamation empowers the Board to make certain by-laws. In the report I have just read from the Colonial Surgeon and De Lowson, certain recommendations are made which appear to me to meet the difficulty. I do not know what members of the Board think of it. Perhaps they would like me to read the recommendations again.
Mr Humphreys—One thing we should be careful not to do is to make a scare of it.
The Colonial Surgeon—All I can recommend to the European community is to see that their back premises are in good order, a thing most of them are very careless about.
Dr Lowson (who was called upon by the President to give his opinion in the matter) said—Well, I went up on Friday night to Canton. I may say this report is not very complete. I only wrote it on the spur of the moment with Dr Ayres to let you have something to go upon this afternoon. On Sunday, I went with Dr Rennie to the infected districts and to the Chinese hospital, which was very well run, and where I saw a lot of cases—I should say between seventy and a hundred, including the dead bodies. I took careful notice of the symptoms and got a few facts from one doctor there and also from the manager of the institution. As Dr Ayres says, one of the attendants has been infected. At first, I was told, the mortality in the district was 30 per cent.; it afterwards fell to 30, but when I was there, it had gone up again to 55 or 60 per cent. At this hospital, from six o'clock the previous evening to the time I was there, there had been 36 cases, of which 22 had died. While there, the doctor said to me, 'Oh, I hear you have just got some cases in Hongkong now.' I said, 'I think you are mistaken.' But when I came back on Monday, I asked Mr Sercombe Smith if any cases had been heard of, and I remember Mr Rannie then told me what had been done by Dr Ayres and himself about sending an Inspector round the houses to find out. About midnight on Monday, the sisters asked me to see one of our boys who was ill. His appearance struck me at once as being peculiar, and I said I thought this was the plague. I isolated him. After seeing a few cases, I had absolutely no doubt then that it was plague. I went with Dr Ayres to see the case. Dr Ayres was a little doubtful at first, but after seeing the other cases at the Tung Wah, there is no doubt about it. I went to the Tung Wah this morning and saw more cases than there are now; some have died or the patients have been removed. I also saw some of the bodies which were being removed from the dead-house at the Tung Wah, and the great probability was they had died from that disease, as they had the same appearance as those I saw at Canton. Personally, I think—and most of the authorities say the same—that poison is probably developed from atmospheric conditions underneath the houses in a certain district, and that it is caused simply by poverty and dirt. In the ordinary sense, the disease is not infectious or contagious, but if healthy persons remain in the same atmosphere as infected persons for a certain time, there is a good probability of their catching the disease. The hospital at Canton was very nicely arranged, with plenty of fresh air, and the attendants took care to smell something in bags—sandalwood and aromatic substances—and they would not let these things go all the time I was with them, so that there is no doubt they are frightened of the disease, although they said no attendant had caught it. There is no doubt that by allowing these cases to stop down in Taipingshan and allowing them to accumulate, there must be a danger to the community, and that is why I suggest the Hygeia should be brought over at once and all possible danger removed. If all possible precaution is taken, nobody can be blamed if the thing goes on, but if the measures I have suggested are not carried out properly and efficiently, then you may have more of the disease, unless the rain comes. I believe a few days' good rain, which would wash out the filth, would also wash out the poison. It is probably more chemical than bacterial.
Mr Francis—What do you think should be done under section 33 of the Health Ordinance? Do you think any special measures should be taken with reference to the disposal of the dead?
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