# Chapter IV.
# PUBLIC HEALTH.
In the absence of some general system of registration of sickness, the only sources of information available for gauging the state of the public health in this Colony are the returns relating to deaths, the notifications of infectious diseases and the records of Government and Chinese hospitals. Judging from the death returns the health of the Colony was better than that of the previous year. The crude death rate was 22.11 per mille as compared with 24.74 for 1932.
2. Respiratory diseases accounted for 41.93 per cent of the total deaths; the percentage for 1932 was 43.05. The principal diseases causing death were broncho-pneumonia, pulmonary tuberculosis, bronchitis, pneumonia, infantile diarrhoea and diarrhoea.
3. The overcrowded houses, the expectorating habits of the people, and poverty furnish sufficient explanation for the prevalence of respiratory troubles.
4. Pulmonary Tuberculosis. This disease continues to rank second to broncho-pneumonia as the principal cause of death. It is probable that some of the cases of the latter were of tuberculous origin.
5. The total number of deaths was 2,225; that for 1932 was 2,042. The death rate per mille was 2.71 as compared with 2.54 for the previous year.
6. There is need for more hospital or infirmary accommodation for tuberculosis patients, especially for those of the poorer classes.
7. Malaria.-Owing to efficient drainage methods this disease has disappeared from the greater part of the urban districts. It still persists, however, in the suburbs and in the rural areas. There are parts of the New Territories where the spleen rate exceeds 75 per cent.
8. Malaria not being a notifiable disease the incidence figures are unknown. The cases admitted to the Government Hospitals numbered 482 as compared to 334 in the previous year. The percentage of deaths to cases admitted was 1.66. Among the Chinese Hospitals there were 925 admissions with a case mortality rate of 2.51 per cent.
9. The total number of deaths attributed to this disease was 414, giving a death rate of 0.50 per mille over the whole population. The low death rate is, of course, due to the fact...