M 54
Bubonic Plague, spread by the bites of rat fleas seeking blood and driven by hunger to bite human beings because their natural hosts, the rats, have died, will naturally be more prevalent in crowded than in uncrowded houses.
Tuberculosis is, par excellence, a disease whose spread is favoured by overcrowding combined with want of light and free ventilation.
The Tubercle Bacillus is killed by dessication, but the sputum of a Phthisical person can be dried to such a degree that it can be blown about in the form of dust without killing the bacilli.
Sunlight and bright diffused daylight rapidly kill these parasites.
Unfortunately, the Chinese houses of this Colony are not constructed to permit the action of these natural disinfecting agents.
The present Public Health and Buildings Ordinance has effected a great improvement in the type of Chinese tenement houses.
With regard to plague prevention, we find now better paved ground surfaces, absence of hollow walls and ceilings in houses built since 1903. This means that rat infestation of houses is less likely than formerly.
The prevalence of this disease in the Colony since its first discovery here in 1894 suggests that the new building laws have had some good result. The following table shows the numbers of plague cases notified in the Colony since 1894.
Year Cases Year Cases 1894 5,000* 1908 1,073 1895 44 1909 135 1896 1,204 1910 25 1897 21 1911 269 1898 1,320 1912 1,857 1899 1,486 1913 408 1900 1,087 1914 2,146 1901 1,651 1915 144 1902 572 1916 39 1903 1,415 1917 38 1904 510 1918 266 1905 272 1919 464 1906 893 1920 138 1907 240 1921 150*This is an estimate and is probably much too low.