1841-1886
STATE OF HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
Enclosure 2. in No. 18.
THE COLONIAL SURGEON'S REPORT FOR 1858.
259
121
Civil Hospital, Victoria, 3rd March 1859.
THE universally lamented and untimely death of my friend, the late Colonial Surgeon, has imposed upon me the duty of making this report, a duty which will be but very imperfectly fulfilled on account of the short period I have held the office, and in consequence of my time having been so fully occupied, in the practice of my profession and other duties.
I would call the attention of the Government to the fact, that one most important source of information which would make the Colonial Surgeon's Report of much more value than it is at present, is entirely wanting to him. There is no proper registration of deaths in this colony, and therefore when it is asked what percentage of the inhabitants of this island die from climatic diseases, and what form do these diseases assume, only a general and imperfect answer can be given. And yet it is of great importance that this answer should be as perfect and comprehensive as possible, for it is daily more and more satisfactorily proved that a very great proportion of the diseases to which men fall victims are owing to causes which are entirely preventable by human means, and which only need to be made evident in order that they may be got rid of.
I would submit that it is highly desirable, and at the same time very feasible, that the same system of registration of deaths should be established here as is in use in England, and that interment of the body should not be allowed to take place until the sexton has received a proper form of certificate of death, filled up and signed by the medical attendant of the deceased.
Of course this should not be insisted upon in the case of the Chinese, nor perhaps in that of the Portuguese inhabitants of the colony, as all the former and many of the latter are not attended by duly qualified medical men, and those who do attend them would not be able to fill up the certificates in a satisfactory manner.
Were the registration of the causes of death properly carried out, we should in a few years be in possession of a body of statistics which might prove of the greatest value.
That the sanitary condition of this colony stands in great need of improvement has been more than once pointed out in previous Colonial Surgeons' Reports; but I am moved to insist upon this necessity the more pressingly in the present report, in consequence of the colony having been visited during the year by one of the most terrible of those "preventable diseases," whose ravages, if not entirely owing to, are at least most fearfully aggravated and extended by neglect of proper drainage and cleanliness, the evil results of which must act with double force in a community so crowded together as that of Victoria, and in a climate so favourable to the decomposition of animal and vegetable products.
I am happy to learn that steps are to be taken to remedy the defects at present existing. Previously to last autumn, no well-authenticated case of cholera was recorded to have happened in Hong Kong, and so confident were the medical practitioners of the immunity of the place, that it was at first thought by them that the cases of the disease at first reported were in fact merely severe cases of diarrhoea. But it soon became only too evident that the disease amongst us was the true Asiatic cholera, for no single symptom was wanting, and it destroyed its victims in an equally short space of time.
As was to be predicted of it, the disease first attacked the worst lodged and worst fed part of the community, the Chinese, then some Indian servants, and then the European seamen both on shore and afloat, and at the same time some of the soldiers of the garrison and the prisoners in the gaol. Finally, in three cases it attacked the higher class of European inhabitants of the colony, and in one of these cases proved fatal.
At the same time the Portuguese in Macao suffered severely from the disease, and cases occurred in the forces at Canton and in some of the men-of-war in the river.
The disease afterwards visited the east coast, reached Shanghai, and it is also reported raged with great virulence over a great part of the Japanese empire.
What percentage of the Chinese population of Hong Kong was attacked by the disease, and what proportion of those attacked died, it has been impossible to ascertain. It is well known, however, that a very considerable number were carried off by it. For instance, it was reported that as many as 1,400 were destroyed by the disease at Aberdeen.
The late Colonial Surgeon attempted to procure information about the disease from the Chinese medical practitioners of the place, and many reports were sent in to him; but these, except that they prove that the disease was wide spread, are comparatively valueless. Some boast of having saved two-thirds and others three-fourths of their patients; but in these numbers most probably many cases of the simple diarrhoea which accompanies cholera, and is supposed to be its first stage, were doubtless included.
The remedies they advise for it are numerous, but they are all derived from the vegetable kingdom, and not likely to prove beneficial.
Their disquisitions as to the nature and cause of the disease are as vague and unsatisfactory as those of their European brethren.
The following is an approximate estimate of the number of cases of cholera which occurred among the white population afloat and ashore:--
Localities. Cases. Deaths. Military Hospital 29 14 Naval Hospital " $ Civil Hospital 13 5 Gaol 3 2 Seamen's Hospital, St. Francis' Hospital, and private patients 23 10 Total 75 94 is incorrect; it should be a number that gives a mortality rate of 45.33% Mortality 45.33%Page 259
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