M (1) 9
IV. GENERAL REMARKS,
The year 1924 was free from any serious outbreak of infectious disease, the epidemic of small-pox which commenced during the last three months of 1923 reached its highest in January and then rapidly declined. The figures are :--
1923 September ... 29 cases
October ... ... 165
November ... ... 407
1924 January ... ... 433
February ... ... 255
March... ... ... 137
April ... ... ... 47
May ... ... ... 28
Plague.--For the first time for many years the Colony was entirely free from plague throughout a whole year. Bodies of rats were systematically examined at the Public Mortuaries, 89,822 at Victoria and 37,583 at Kowloon. No infected rats were found.
Beri-beri.-As in the previous year beri-beri was very prevalent, 141 cases were treated at the Government Civil Hospital, 848 at the Tung Wah Hospital, and 994 at Kwong Wah Hospital making a total of 1983. During the month of June my attention was called by Dr. Paterson the Medical Officer of the Gaol to the fact that there were several cases of beri-beri in the Victoria Gaol. The first case noticed was that of a man who had been a prisoner for 5 years and 10 months. As the result of this case Dr. Paterson examined all the inmates of the prison and found that no less than 200 showed slight signs of the disease while 54 showed marked signs and of the latter 6 were admitted to the prison hospital.
The following table shows the length of time these 54 had been in prison :--
1 had been in prison 14 years. 1 9 " 7 5 " 1 2 " 15 over 1 year. 21 over 100 days. 59(No further text is reflowed or re-organised beyond this point as it appears to be a table or list that was not fully captured or correctly ordered by the OCR.)