# M 4
# LEGISLATION.
Three new By-laws were passed by the Board :—
1. By-law defining Cerebro-Spinal Fever to be included in the Epidemic, Endemic, Contagious or Infectious Diseases.
2. By-law regarding the notification of Cerebro-Spinal Fever by legally qualified medical practitioners.
3. By-law regarding the disinfection of the premises in which a case of Cerebro-Spinal Fever has occurred.
# CEMETERIES AND CREMATORIA.
No new cemeteries were opened in 1918.
During the year there were 1,099 exhumations, viz., various cemeteries 253; from Mount Caroline Cemetery 846. The number of exhumations in 1917 was 768.
# DISEASES.
The most noteworthy infectious disease was Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis, which made its first known appearance in the Colony soon after the beginning of the year. There were 1,235 cases recorded spread over different races as follows:- Europeans 6, Chinese and Japanese 1,215, Indian 2, Portuguese 12. For various reasons, considerable popular alarm was felt, and as a result the Rockefeller Institute of New York was asked to send an expert in the disease to advise on the best methods of prevention and treatment. Dr. Olitsky, Lieutenant, United States Army, was sent and arrived in the Colony on the 5th May. He duly proceeded to study the disease on the spot and a summary of his researches and recommendations was published under the title of Report on the Investigations of the Outbreak of Epidemic Meningitis in Hongkong by First Lieutenant Peter K. Olitsky, M. R. C., U. S. A., of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York, in October. As advised by him the systematic manufacture of anti-meningococcic serum was undertaken and such serum is now available.
The other diseases notified during the year were:- plague 266, enteric fever 348, small-pox 32, diphtheria 115, puerperal fever 11, para-typhoid fever 2, scarlet fever 3, and relapsing fever 1.
# POPULATION.
The last census was undertaken in 1911, but the usual methods of calculating normal increases of population are hardly reliable as, during political disturbances on the mainland, the tendency for Chinese to seek asylum here brings about very wide fluctuations,
The estimate of the white population for 1917 has been adopted unchanged and the Chinese population has been estimated at 548,000.