Extract from the Hong Kong Telegraph, dated 26th. August 1903.
measures lay, and it behoved him, who could not divest himself of the responsibility that rested upon the shoulders of every Governor, o look closely after the welfare of the com. munity, to see how far in the coming year they could be in a position to forestall the dis- ease that, as sure as the sun would rise on the morrow, would be upon us next spring. God grant that it might not be so, but he was afraid, His Excellency said, that it would be so. Sections 22 and 23 of the memorandum showed tn how many ways plague had been disseminat- ed, and the point that was in his mind-grop- ing in the dark as he supposed most of our savants were was that probably it was pro- pagated by insects to a very great extent; and if that was so then to his mind the insects to attack in dealing with the prevention of plague were the insects in the house-the bed-bug and the flea. They were going to spend next year $30,000 on disinfectants and $30,000 on coolie bire. If they could establish tanks for boiling the furniture--the bed-boards--as they bad done in the district of which he spoke, and, as Dr. Atkinson and Dr. Pearse knew, if they could give the people an opportunity of themselves boiling that primitive fumi- ture, it would be money well expended; and it was a question worth considering
whether some of the money that was go- ing to be put in limewashing would not be better expended by providing tanks and boiling water. What they had to aim at was efficiency and economy. They would find from the last report of Dr. Hunter for whose co- operation he was very grateful all through in this matter that those bugs in which plague had been found lived in a'3'or 4 per cent. Jeyes' Auid, when totally immersed, for about 15 minutes; and even in the strongest solution for about 50 seconds. In that case they would have to consider whether the process of disin- fection by an ordinary coolie with a solution of Teyes' fluid, which might or might not be of that strength, of that furniture, would be so effective as if they got the people themselves to do it and dip the furniture into boiling water. Of course it was a simple matter. There was nothing heroic about it, but it might save money and lives-certainly the former. It was a question also whether more good or injury was done by the limewashing of a room not open to sunlight and' without a fireplace and leaving the walls in a wet condition. He thanked them for the opportunity they had given him of carrying out this experiment. He had already expressed his gratitude to Mr. Fung Wa Chun for the assistance he had afforded him. Then he knew they had been considering the question of local hospitals. Now, the local hospital that he established in Third Street was a very primitive affair, but there was no doubt in his own mind that if Incal hospitals were established and properly looked after-because he did not pretend to say that this hospital was :roperly looked after with all the appliances of a local hospital and all the nourishment that the patients required and were able to take-if a few
I such hospitals were established he hoped and believed that they would reduce the disinclination of the people to go to Kennedy- town, which, they must remember, had a very ominous name for the ordinary Chinese; and if they could only spread the system of kaifongs or street committees they might get from them the same hearty assistance that he gratefully acknowledged he got from the committees of the Western district. They would find in the return what was perhaps the only real, trustworthy census that had ever been taken here; every man, woman and child living in every one of those 614 floors appeared in the census; and they had to remember that that had not been done by him or by Inspector Gidley, who had worked for him, but the Kai- fongs worked it out themselves and presented it to them. It showed in the first place what he thought they had not known before--the real proportion of people living in that district and the prevalence of overcrowding from the point of view of public health, Still in considering all the sanitary matters they must not forget that the ultimate result of the new Ordinance must be to double the rent of every floor. He thought he was right in saying that a house which, built under the old Ordinance would, cost $2,000, would now cost $2,5co. It would cost 25 per cent. more to build and it would accommodate only three- fifths of the inhabitants. The effect of the new law therefore would be to very largely increase the expenses of house rent to the poor people of the town and increase also the expenses of labour, for labour would bear all the increased expenses in the future. Therefore in carrying out sanitary measures it behoved them for the sake of the people who had to pay the piper to try to obtain co-operation that would give them the same or better results with the saving of a great deal of money. That could only be done by approaching those people with sympathy, and he was sure it
I would always meet with a response from them, and he saw no reason why it should not be tried. They had a neucleus in that district, and they might possibly try it in that district. He commended it to them, and again be thanked them for having given him the opport- unity of trying this, one of the most interesting experiences he had ever had in his life.
DR. ATKINSON'S REPLY. Hon. Dr. Atkinson said that consideration of the question of establishing tanks all over the City was deferred until the present meeting had heen held, but it would be entered into seriously at the meeting of the Sanitary Board on Thurs- day, and the result of the discussion would be communicated to the Government at the earliest moment. Personally, Dr. Atkinson thought the establishment of tanks all over the Colony was rather too big an order almost to com- mence at once, and he suggested that probably a better scheme would be to introduce it slowly, and, in the first instance, to try to get em- ployers of labour-the Cotton Mills, and so on -to establish tanks of the kind mentioned for their workmen, because, since they had been so useful in the experimental block, and, as
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