M 55
228. Moreover, the premises acquired from the Tung Wah Hospital Committee are in a dilapidated and dangerous condition and steps will have to be taken in 1940 to demolish them or to effect very costly repairs; hence every effort has to be made to prevent undue overcrowding.
229. Medical treatment consisted chiefly of weekly intramuscular injections of the iodised esters of chaulmoogra oil, the average attendance which was voluntary being forty-nine.
230. Two births took place and with the written consent of the mothers the babies were removed to homes outside the settlement where it is hoped that they will grow up free from the disease.
231. below: -
The numbers of cases dealt with can be seen from the table given
Table XXXV.
Remaining at the end of 1938133 Admitted during 1939295 Transferred to Shek Lung Asylum100 Transferred to Ching Wei Settlement40 Transferred to Pakhoi Settlement25 Escaped67 Died21 Discharged3 Remaining at end of 1939172(A) Prisons.
VII. PRISONS AND MENTAL HOSPITAL.
232. The admissions to the Hong Kong Prison during 1939 numbered 11,964. In addition, 1,428 were admitted to Lai Chi Kok Female Prison. Sixty-three deaths, not including eleven legal executions, were recorded in the male prison and none took place in the female prison. Over one third of these deaths were due to tuberculosis, mostly of the pulmonary type.
233. Overcrowding of the Hong Kong Prison was a serious feature, about twice the number of prisoners being accommodated than the prison was designed to hold.
234. Certain improvements were effected in connexion with the disposal of human wastes.
Further details are included in appendix VII.
235. 922 boys were admitted to the remand home for boys in 1939 and 141 girls were admitted to the corresponding home for girls.
236. Both the homes were visited regularly by Government medical officers.
(B) Mental Hospital.
237. The occupation of Canton by the Japanese Army and the closing of the river to shipping towards the end of 1938 made it impossible to transfer Chinese nationals from the Mental Hospital to the Fong Chuen Insane Asylum in Canton. It should be explained that the Mental Hospital in Hong Kong has a very limited capacity and is intended for Hong Kong citizens only, foreign patients and Chinese nationals being transferred as often as may be necessary to their country of origin or to Canton.)