COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPI-NUT TO
30
REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE RECORD OFFICE, LONDON}
PUBLIC
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 133
23
246.
No. 7.—Summary of Rarunx No. 6
TOTAL KOMBER
NAMES OF HARBORS AND BATE.
for VESSELS
NUMBER OF PERSONS ON Board.
ADULTS.
TOTAL
POPC LA-
CHILDREN.
AT EACH PLACE
Men.
Women. Beyn,
Girls.
TION AT EACH PLACE.
Victoria,
1,950
7,287
2,772
Aberdeen and Ap-li-chow,
2,448 1,348 13,855
424
2,092
809
683
101
4,130
Show-ke-wan and Shai-wan,
682
2,206
1,203
834
621
4.854
Stanley and Shek-o,
389
2,207
753
723
433
4,115
3,145 13,870
5,627
4,003
2,783
26,984
No. 47.
CECIL C. SMITH, Registrar General,
Registrar General's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 2nd February, 1867.
CLASS OF SCHOOL
Government,
St. Paul's College,
Roman Catholic, ....
Roman Catholic Reformatory,
Diocesan Female Training,
London Mission,
Foundling Hospital,
Basel Mission, Mosque Garden,*. Chinese, General,-
Chinese, Private,
No. 8-EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS.
Xo. OF
SCHOOLS.
NUMBER OF FOREIGN SCHOLARS.
NUNDER OP NATIVE SCHOLARS,
Boys.
Girls.
Воуа.
Girls.
13
578
45
33
109
205
53
10
70
1
47
36
2
3
3
18
18
306
13
60
TOTAL,....
103
98
1,213
367
* Private Schools supported by voluntary contribution.
Registrar General's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 2nd February, 1867.
125
247.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION,
The Colonial Surgeon's Report, with Returns on the Sanitary Condition of the Colony for the Year 1866, is published for general information.
By Order,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 18th March, 1867.
W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary.
CECIL C. SMITH, Registrar General.
VICTORIA, HONGxono, 23rd February, 1887.
The Year 1866, the subject of my Eighth Annual Report, has been generally considered the mildest and most healthy year the Colony has passed through for a very long period. That opinion I am happy to say is supported by statistics. From Table XI it appears that only 74 Residents have died during the year, bringing the ratio of mortality as low as 3.50 per cent, a very remarkable result when compared with the average number of deaths during the past nine years as exhibited in the Table. A year so remarkably healthy having succeeded what may not inaptly be termed the pestilential year of 1863 appears to favor the theory to which I alluded in my last year's Report namely that the Meteorological wave is not of the usual undulating character, gradually rising to a maximum and as gradually attaining the minimum, but which if capable of being presented to the eye on paper would appear rather as a zig-zag figure, which having attained the maximum, suddenly drops to a minimum. Then assuming this theory to be correct and that the salubrity of Hongkong follows this wave in some degree, we may fairly infer that the unhealthiness would gradually increase up to a certain year, when its maximum would be again attained and the following year would in like manner be as healthy as the one which has just terminated. I do not profess to hars arrived at any very definite conclusions on the subject and rather mention it as a matter to be followed out by others. What I have stated has appeared to me the legitimate result of observations extending over a period of more than 20 years.
Notwithstanding the remarkable healthiness of the past year I regret to say that yellow fever or pseudo-yellow fever, has been even more prevalent than in 1885. In the Gaol alone 533 cases were admitted to treatment, but of this number 32 only terminated fatally. The Civil Hospital was not so fortunate, there of 53 patients admitted 30 died, but the difference in the two cases may be explained by the fact that most of the patients when admitted to the Civil Hospital were in a nearly moribund condition. In consequence of my last year's Report on this disease His Excellency the Governor appointed a commission consisting of myself and the Principal Military and Naval Surgeons, to enquire into the nature and probable cause of this disease and to devise means for arresting its progress. As the Report of this committee was published in the Government Gazette of the 12th May 1866, it is unnecessary for me to do more than refer to it here. Suffice it to say that the general conclusions at which the committee arrived corroborated to a great extent the statements I had made in my own Report. Last year's experience of such a large number of cases has not induced me to alter my opinion and the only alteration mada in the treatment has consisted in adding diuretics to the mercurial course. I am happy to say that up to this time we continue free from any sign of the epidemie this year.
Small pox began rather later than usual, the first case occurring in February, but on the other hand it extended further on in the season, a case having been recorded in April and two singular isolated cases in August.
It has been for long a point under discussion whether Hydrophobia occurs in Hongkong. A very sad case of a gentlemas well known in the Colony, who had been bitten by a dog snd subsequently died, was narrowly watched by myself and several other practitioners throughout the course of the nialady, but even after a careful Post Mortem examination, the case remained obscure and I believe that the majority of my professional brethren were of opinion that a strong mental impression had more to do with the fatel result than Rabies. A feeling of terror appeared to seize the community and had an epidemic of hydrophobin occurred I should not have been the least surprised, as it was, several cases were reported amongst the military, but as I had no opportunity of examining closely into their details, and as the existing excitement was not conducive to arriving at dispassionate conclusions, I am compelled, as far as my own opinion is concerned, to let my antecedent impressions retain their full force. That hydrophobia has occurred in Hongkong cannot be doubted, but that it is of extremely rare occurrence appears to me equally evident. My few remaining observations had best be made when treating of the condition of the various Institutions of which it is my duty to take cognizance in my Annual Report.
I. THE POLICE.
This Force has undergone considerable weeding during the past year. It is no longer called upon to act as a chaingang guard, a mode of employment which appeared to be very demoralizing in its tendency, and its duties are now limited to the preservation of the Public Peace. Whether from these or other causes the health of the Force has been much better in 1866 than in the preceding year, and although the total number of men employed was somewhat less than in the year 1885 it will be seen from Table I and II that both the mortality and sickorss were less than the average, the death rate being only 1.78 per cent and the rate of sickness 90.08. With efficient officers and the splendid accommodation with which the Force is now provided, it ought to retain that preeminence in health for which it has always been characterized.