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Dr. Ho KAL.-Dr. HARTIGAN is referring to the question of sanitary engineering; if you can save a building from destruction and make it fit for habitation, save it.
The CHAIRMAN.-I understand Dr. AYRES and Surgeon-Colonel PRESTON to say decidedly that the houses are infected so thoroughly that they cannot be disinfected.
The COLONIAL SURGEON.-There is this evidence in support of what I say: that in the empty houses, totally empty, where these soldiers now on the Hygeia went, they caught the plague in clearing out the filth.
Dr. HARTIGAN.-They were disturbing the filth. That does not prove that the bacilli were in the soil, but somewhere about the house. If you get a case of plague anywhere, say here in the Bank among the coolies below, therefore according to what you say the ground here must be infected.
Surgeon-Colonel PRESTON-You cannot compare a building like the Hong-kong and Shanghai Bank with insanitary buildings like those in Tai-ping-shan.
The COLONIAL SURGEON.-No, for nothing can get through the Bank floors to impregnate the soil; you can clean them all thoroughly. What we are talking about is nothing like this; you cannot clean the porous tile floors.
Dr. HARTIGAN. Then they are not in accordance with the requirements of the Public Health Act, and what I say is, make them so, and use disinfectants to counteract the pollution that has already taken place.
The COLONIAL SURGEON.-The sub-soil is a mass of pollution from the old drains.
The CHAIRMAN.-What about the bricks?
The COLONIAL SURGEON.-They are blue bricks perfectly porous and simply soft and rotten; you can pick holes in them with your bare fingers.
Mr. TURNER. Can you not say whether disinfectants would render the soil harmless?
The COLONIAL SURGEON.-Professor KITASATO is at work now on the question whether the bacillus can be exterminated from the soil in that way.
Mr. TURNER. You have yet to prove whether it is in the soil or not.
The COLONIAL SURGEON.-How did the sewer rats get it?
Mr. TURNER. Then it must be all over, all along Queen's Road, the Hongkong Hotel, and so on.
The COLONIAL SURGEON.-Yes, I say the sub-soil is poisonous all over.
Dr. HARTIGAN.-Well, but is it with the plague bacillus?
The COLONIAL SURGEON.-More than ten per cent. of the Tai-ping-shan houses are simply draining into the sub-soil, and you may clean the houses or do what you like, but whatever you do the soil under them is still bad.
The CHAIRMAN.-Then even without the occurrence of the plague, you would still advise total destruction?
The COLONIAL SURGEON.-Yes.
Surgeon-Colonel PRESTON agreed.
The Acting Director of Public Works put a series of questions, in reply to which Surgeon-Colonel PRESTON said:-Before Tai-ping-shan, the walled-in part, can be again inhabited the houses should be burnt, the roofs and floors thrown into the ground floor and burnt, and the brickwork afterwards pulled down and removed. The bricks thus purified by fire, could be used again with perfect safety. As to removing the soil which has been infected, I cannot say how far that is advisable;
to some extent it is unavoidable in rebuilding, but I think it would be better not to do more than necessary for that purpose. I would certainly disinfect such soil, probably quicklime put on the surface would do. Afterwards it would be quite safe in my opinion to build on the ground again, but first it would be better to let it remain fallow a considerable time-twelve months would be certainly on the safe side.
The COLONIAL SURGEON.-It would be two years before the houses were rebuilt.
Surgeon-Colonel PRESTON.-If the soil is removed, I can hardly say whether it could be used to make building sites elsewhere; I should say clear it away altogether. Throwing it into the sea would not kill the bacilli, as they were found in excreta of plague patients in the sea water bacilli were not killed. If the infected soil is used, after being disinfected, on the Praya Reclamation, ten feet below the surface, that would be quite safe. I can hardly say how many inhabitants per acre of land should be allowed in Tai-ping-shan; in England any number over a thousand per acre is regarded as overcrowding, and here I should certainly say there should not be more. One cannot be too careful, and it is best to be on the safe side, and make 1,000 the limit. I think three hundred cubic feet of air space is very little indeed. As to superficial area, the soldiers in Barracks are allowed 75 to 80 square feet, but the Chinese are accustomed to much less; they all live huddled together. I think, however, it would be well to lay down an enactment providing a minimum floor area of 40 feet. If they had less than that it would certainly be unhealthy. I should certainly recommend that the Tai-ping-shan type of building be abolished altogether.
The COLONIAL SURGEON said the recommendation of the Permanent Committee was 21 square feet of floor area giving about 300 cubic feet of air space per inhabitant. He did not think so much of the nominal air space as of the superficial area, because there were draughts enough to ventilate these houses properly, and they got so much fresh air. Another point of absolute necessity was the abolition of basement dwellings.
In reply to a series of questions put by the Acting Director of Public Works, Dr. HARTIGAN said:-I heartily concur with Surgeon-Colonel PRESTON in the opinion that prevention of surface-crowding should form an element in the system of reconstruction. In London, the 'overcrowded' parts have been found to contain 1,800 inhabitants to the acre, and I certainly would not allow that here. I am certainly of opinion that the number per acre should be less here than the minimum allowed in England. I think 300 feet of air space all that it is practicably possible to give here, or that it will be about sufficient here. As to floor area, it is hard to say, but supposing everything else is perfectly in accordance with sanitary requirements, drains good, sub-soil pure and clean, &c., and the Public Health Act carried out in every other way, I think 300 cubic feet of air space and 21 square feet of floor area would be perfectly healthy for the Chinese, according to the way they are accustomed to live. I think the Public Health Act is of itself sufficient to insure health; if it had been carried out all along, we should never have had this trouble. I know no way to disinfect the sub-soil, except as far as may be done by putting lime on the surface. To disinfect the soil itself, the only thing I know is perchloride of mercury and I do not know whether such disinfection is practicable. I do not think it necessary to dig up the infected ground, as you have drained the sub-soil you have got it in proper order; it is sufficient if it is thoroughly re-drained. I think it would be safe to allow the land to be re-occupied after four months. The woodwork of the partitions and cubicles should certainly be removed, but not the roof, which could be disinfected with the walls, I do not see any difficulty in having that done efficiently; I say it can be done. The roof is plain open timber, accessible to the fumes of disinfectants. I certainly am of the opinion that back-to-back houses, such as are usual in the Colony, should be prohibited. I do not approve of the style of house where there is a long narrow passage from front to back with a row of cubicles occupying all the space, and only one window at the end; the centre and back parts must be deprived of light and air, and must be unhealthy. If you have an open area at the back it is better, but the middle part is still not good; the whole system is bad. With such long, narrow passages, usually blocked to a great extent, the portion in the middle cannot be anything else but dark and unventilated. Even with an alley twelve feet wide at the back and a street say twenty feet wide in front, this style would still be unhealthy. As to the ground on which the houses are built, I say--leave it alone. I would not stir it at all except when necessary for building purposes. The bottom floor of each house should have a space between it and the ground, and the ground itself should be covered with chunam or concrete. Of course, with the ordinary floor the houses have at present, the soil is saturated with filth, but I doubt if it would do any good to turn it up; fire and disinfectants are all that I should recommend for the soil. I certainly do not mean to leave the ground in its present condition,
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