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INFANT WELFARE IN HONGKONG.
(ur [-R. (tallifer).
There are eight establishments of the Chinese
Dispensaries in the Colony
side and four on the Kowloon side.
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four on the Hongkong
Instituted some 20
years ago, they represent a continuing movement by the
enlightened Chinese towards a better care, under European
methods only, of women and children. They are free
outpatient departments, each in charge of a Chinese Doctor
trained in Western methods: the majority of these doctors
hold diplomas of the old Hongkeng College of medicine,
out of which the University grew. With each doctor is a
clerk: their duty is to take all possible steps to
encourage women and children to attend the dispensaries,
and at the same time to accustom the community especially
the lower sections of it to the ideas of Western
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Hygiene, against the enforcement of these western methods
in time of epidemic. They work in close touch with the
Sanitary Department continuously: and have done excellent
work in the way of removing the fears and the prejudices
which naturally hamper the work of such a department among
the native community. The line of attack was to secure
the confidence of the women and children through the
Chinese themselves; some 100,000 cases a year ( I speak from memory) are treated by the Dispensaries now, and the
number is growing. As the number grows, so does the
work of the Sanitary Department become simpler.
The hospitals the Government Civil Hospital
and the two large Chinese Hospitals, the Tungwa and the
Kwongwa
are of course always open to women and children
as to others: but the objection to becoming an inpatient
anywhere is even greater than was the objection to
treatment