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2217
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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Reference:-
GO. 537.
95
dirt. It is I believe admitted to contain no disinfect-
ing properties so that this expenditure, generally
recognised as an ignorant mistake, is continued in
violation of common sense.
Com, ulsory limewashing should be abolished, and in its
place I suggest that more effort he directed towards
the destruction of rats, and ordinary cleanliness.
The most effective method of destroying rats is to
starve them in their runs, involving the removal of
ceilings and the effective closing of runs with coment
mortar mixed with broken glass. There should be no
openings in walls on ground floors for rats to enter
from streets and lanes. Drains from ground floors should
not be led through walls as now, but through the door
cill so that when the door is closed the rat is
excluded.
Ordinary cleansing I believe to be the most effective
preventive of plague. Short simple instructions should
be posted in Chinese houses requiring rat runs to be
closed and rooms cleansed, every house inspected say
once a month at a fixed hour on a fixed day, the
contents of the room placed in the centre, obstructions
to light and air removed. The Inspector should examine
punctually at the time appointed and grant a certificate
that the room is clean. Following the Inspector should
come the cleansing gangs to cleanse those floors which
the Inspector has not passed. I venture to say that if
this procedure were adopted, within a few months thers
would be few floors left for the cleansing gangs to
deal with.
Tanks as at present (but more of them) should perambul-
ate the streets daily containing plain boiling water-
37
RECORD OFFICE,
OUT PERMISSION ON
F THE PUBLIC
REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHICALLY WITH COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH HOT TO BE
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