Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
PAPERS RELATING TO
Table C. shows the number of men diseased during the year. The number of police admitted to hospital for venereal disease is less than in 1874. The admissions to the Government Civil Hospital on this count are about the same. The military show a slight increase. The navy has suffered most, but of the 177 seamen admitted into the naval hospital with venereal disease, 82 had not contracted the disease in Hong Kong. The seamen are, for the most part, new to the place, ignorant of the whereabouts of the licensed brothels, and are often picked up by sly prostitutes in the streets, and by the boatwomen, and to this must be attributed the excess in disease among them. The soldiers and police are resident in the town, and know their way about, and therefore show best the results of the work done under this Ordinance.
Table E. shows the character of the disease, and though there has been a slight increase this year as compared with last, there is nothing like the number of cases in former years.
Table D. shows the cause and the number of women admitted into the Lock Hospital; only 46 cases of syphilis were admitted this year, as compared with 68 in 1874. Of the 46 admitted 22 were complicated with gonorrhoea, as compared with 42 last year.
Table F. shows the number of unlicensed prostitutes apprehended and convicted, 33 in number, of whom 9 were found to be diseased.
No cases of typhoid fever have been brought into hospital from the brothels, which have much improved in cleanliness, and the number each is capable of holding being given when I inspect the houses before they are licensed prevents overcrowding. Inspectors now thoroughly understand what is required of them, and it will be their fault if any brothel gets into its former filthy state without being reported.
Sanitation.
I have little to add to the Report I made last year on this subject. The state of things remains much the same, yet, as much as could be done under existing Ordinances has been done, 1,340 people have been fined, nearly 200 more than last year, but the fines are less in the total amount by $300. The scavenging contractors have themselves been a very great nuisance and have been repeatedly summoned for neglecting their duties in not looking after the drain traps, and for improper modes of removing rubbish, &c. &c. Latrines at places of public resort, such as theatres, hotels, &c., require much looking after, and are greatly neglected by those in charge of the places. Pigs, cows, and goats are no longer allowed to be kept in dwelling rooms of houses in densely populated districts, and many other nuisances are got rid of, such as the preparation of sharks' fins in private houses and other manufactures, which by their abominable stench are a great nuisance to the immediate neighbourhood.