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Only 14 cases of plague were sent to the Public Mortuary as compared with 79, 248, and 36 in the three previous years.
The dispensary at Tai Po market treated 393 people as compared with 307 in 1915. At the Railway dispensary at Tai Po 249 people were treated.
The British schools and the missionary establishments have been visited regularly and the conditions found were very satisfactory. All the scholars of these various schools were vaccinated by us or privately during the month of December.
POLICE FORCE.
The health of all the ranks has been very satisfactory and malaria amongst those in the New Territories has diminished considerably.
I have to thank the Force for the courtesy and consideration shown me on all occasions and for their help during the vaccination rush in December.
KOWLOON DISPENSARY.
The work is increasing steadily and a satisfactory feature of the increase is that the Chinese aversion to Western medicine is obviously becoming less and less marked.
The following figures give the percentages of the different races attending the Dispensary:
1st half 1916 2nd half 1916 Chinese 23.80 33.93 Indian 57.59 41.53 Other Races 18.61 24.54The Chinese are mainly of the coolie class from Yaumati and Hung Hom and it is extremely satisfactory to note that at least three times the number attend now as did four years ago.
During the year 86 serious cases of illness, mainly severe injuries, were removed by ambulance to the hospitals in Victoria and 59 ambulance cases were removed to the Kwong Wa Hospital.
In addition to the figures already given for the dispensary, 115 people attended as cholera suspects and 5,522 came to be vaccinated, so that 12,726 people actually came to my house during the year.
The number of prescriptions dispensed shows an increase of 600—5,334 as compared with 4,734 during 1915.