is powerless, which does not appear to be generally known. In the manuals for the guidance of Health Officers, it is distinctly stated in the event of disinfecting properties being required where dry earth is used, a disinfectant powder, not a liquid, must be employed. I have frequently inspected the system at the Gaol which works as well as can be expected, though the Gaol main drain requires as much flushing as ever, for all the urine which contains by far the major portion of the putrifactive matters excreted from the human body is thrown down the drain as also the washings of the dry earth buckets after they have been emptied into the tubs which coolies carry away.
Two floggings took place in the Gaol this year, one resulted in the death of the warder who administered it, who fell down and died a few seconds after of heart disease, his death being probably hastened by the exertion he had just undergone. He was a powerfully built native of Goa, and no one was aware that anything was the matter with him.
There were only two deaths this year among the prisoners, though some have been released whose recovery was impossible. Many prisoners have to be sent into the Hospital as soon as admitted to Gaol, among the Europeans this is generally caused by their being in an advanced stage of Alcoholic poisoning; with the Chinese the causes are various and the prisoners principally belong to the beggar class, worn out, decrepit or deformed. I enclose a list of those sent at once to the Hospital on admission to Gaol. There are many old men in the Gaol whom it is impossible to punish further than depriving them of their liberty, otherwise they are better off than they would be outside.
Kidnappers appear to resemble the man-eating tiger in being old and worn out before taking to the practice; they are generally old men and women unfit for hard work. There is one old lady in the Gaol at present for unlawful detention, whose sentence is two years simple imprisonment; she is eighty years old, all but stone blind, has not a single tooth in her head, cannot walk without assistance, and appears to be quite childish.
One case of Small-pox occurred in the Gaol; it was a prisoner who had been detained over a year. How he contracted the disease I cannot say; he was removed to the Tung Wah Hospital Small-pox Wards. His case became confluent and he died. No other case occurred.
I enclose a list of the Opium Smokers, using one mace or more daily. Of those that smoked less, no note was taken. In all cases, the habit was entirely ignored and no sedatives or stimulants allowed. It occurred to me at the latter part of the year to have these men weighed every week for the first month to see what improvement they made. If they made any, the result was that all gained weight, some rapidly and enormously, so that ignoring the habit and breaking it off at once does no harm so long as they are fairly well fed. One old man weighing 80 pounds, looking as miserable in condition as he well could, who had been a smoker for 38 years, whose daily consumption of opium was five drams or mace, which is a little less than a dram being 58.7 grains, increased his weight by 8 lbs in the first four weeks with no other treatment than the regulation diet. The average weight of a Chinaman in these parts is about 113 lbs. All along, I have been astonished at the small effect shown by opium smokers, of the use of the drug even in large quantities.
I have not been able to trace any disease the opium smokers have been suffering from as caused by this habit. The debility which they suffer from is most assuredly caused by want of proper nourishment, which I think is sufficiently proved by the rapidity with which they increase in weight when simply given a fair quantity of good food. Surprised at what appeared to me little short of marvellous after what I have seen among opium eaters, I asked Mr. MCCALLUM to analyse the different forms of opium in use among the Chinese here, also to make other preparations of opium and submit to an old opium smoker and his friends and an opium merchant, who was connected with one of the opium firms, for their opinions. The result of these experiments is embodied in the report made by Mr. MCCALLUM, which I enclose. The opium smoker in this report recognises no difference between the opium supplied by the Opium Farmer containing 7 per cent. of morphia, the same opium with 15 per cent. of morphia added to it, and the same opium with all the morphia extracted. The opium expert is very much muddled in his opinions and only judges the opium by its appearance and its behaviour when burnt in the pipe. An opium pipe takes an infinity of trouble to prepare. Three long inhalations at most exhaust it; the flavour of the smoke is but small, there is nothing aromatic about it, and the effect produced seems about as much as would be obtained from smoking a piece of paper. I have watched a European smoke 32 grains of the opium supplied by the Opium Farmer containing 7 per cent. of morphia; this quantity was smoked in one hour under the superintendence of an old opium smoker. The effects were nil as far as this gentleman was concerned, although he was unaccustomed to the use of opium in any form. It had no effect on his senses, on his pulse, or on his temperature, and he was quite disgusted at not becoming even drowsy or having the delightful dreams he anticipated. It will be seen in Mr. MCCALLUM's report that the opium smoker got through an amount of opium in twelve hours that contained morphia to the amount of 20 grains. Yet he and his friends smoke opium from which all the morphia is extracted, and with as much gratification as that containing even an excess of morphia, and pronounce it equally good. What is it then in the opium that gives the pleasure and what does the harm? If the man had but swallowed one-tenth of the amount of opium containing morphia that he smoked, it would have killed him. I, like Mr. MCCALLUM, have visited opium dens of both high and low class. I have also had many opportunities of seeing opium smokers of the better class in their own houses, but I have never seen any smoker who was not as easily roused as any ordinary sleeper and as quickly wide awake. It is customary among the Chinese to offer the opium pipe to a visitor in the same