PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
kwimumim EFFEC.O. 882
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| PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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So completely satisfied am I of the incalculable benefit that has resulted to the Colony from the Ordinance under discussion, that I shall be glad to see its provisions extended to both the so-called purely Chinese houses and to that still more fertile source of infection, the boat population.
Both Military and Naval Officers concur with me in estimating very highly the advantage of the Ordinance as affecting the health of their men of which I have re- ceived numerous proofs.
Dr. Home, the present Deputy Inspector and Principal Military Medical Officer, who had experience of the Colony prior to the introduction of the Ordinance, writes:-- "On behalf of the Army Medical Officers stationed here I have pleasure in expressing to you the great advantage we have derived from the excellent sanitary arrangements in force in regard to prostitution. Venereal disease, from being, but a few years ago, one of the most common causes of unfitness for duty here, has now become of compara- tively rare occurrence.”
Dr. Sexton, Assistant Surgeon of H.M.'s 5th Bombay Light Infantry, made the following statement last May:-" Among 427 men, the total strength of the detachment at present quartered at Hongkong, only 4 cases of venereal disease have occurred during the months of March and April, 1882; that is to say, at the rate of two cases, or 0.5 per month. No less remarkable is the mild form under which the disease' presents itself; that it has become extremely amenable to treatment is best evidenced by the fact that the average number of days under treatment of each case only amounted to 8.5; a result almost unprecedented in the statistical history of this disease."
COLONIAL SURGEON'S REPORT FOR 1884.
This table points out, further, that the duration of treatment has steadily dimin- ished up to last year. The increased ratio I believe to be referable to two causes, viz. : the return from Shanghai and the North of many badly diseased women, and some im- perfections in the Ordinance, which the women have discovered and by which they are enabled to evade the Inspector of Brothels.
SIR,
(APPENDIX TO) COLONIAL SURGEON'S REPORT FOR 1868.
Royal Naval Hospital, Hongkong, February 14, 1869. In compliance with your wishes, I herewith send you the following information relative to the prevalence of syphilis amongst the ships of war at this port.
Since my appointment to H.M.S. "Melville" in October last, 38 cases of primary and 20 of secondary syphilis have been treated; they were all contracted either in Japan, Shanghai, or Singapore, and not in one instance can I trace the disease to infection at Hongkong.
By referring to the Nosological Returns from 1st January till the date of my ap- pointment (9 months), I find that 43 cases of primary and 15 of secondary syphilis were admitted into hospital, but I am unable to inform you exactly where the disease was contracted; most probably in Japan, as the majority of the patients belonged to the "Rodney," which had visited Yokohama, where the crew got leave, and suffered much from syphilis subsequently.
GEO. BIRNIE HILL,
Dr. J. I. Murray, Colonial Surgeon.
Staff Surgeon in Charge.
COLONIAL SURGEON'S REPORT FOR 1889.
Lately the Contagious Diseases Acts have been brought somewhat prominently before public notice, singularly enough by an association of "earnest and pertinacious ladies, who are banded together with the avowed object of procuring the repeal of these Acts." It therefore behoves those who are, like myself, greatly in favour of their ex- tension, and who possess unusual opportunities of judging of their working, to come forward and express their convictions. I need not, therefore, hesitate to record, in this Official Report, the result of about twelve years daily supervision of the System of Inspection and Control, as carried out in this Colony.
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It appears to me that the questions of most importance to be answered are:-
1.-Does syphilitic disease left unchecked inflict serious injury not only on the individual affected but on generations unborn?
2. Is it possible by any legislative means to check the spread of this fearful scourge?
3-How far can legislative interference be applied to the male as well as to the female sex?
4. What has beer, in this Colony, the sanitary result of such interference? It will not be necessary to dilate on the first point. It is unfortunately too well known how the victims of this loathsome disease are lowered in their moral and physical condition; how from symptom to symptom they may, after years of misery, sink finally into a premature grave. But it is not perhaps so well known that the wide-spread scrofulous and consumptive taint of the human race is traced by some men of science to syphilitic poison. Nor is it sufficiently recognized how such a poison, coursing through the system, renders the infected person immeasurably more liable to and less able to resist the inroad of other diseases. This is a subject particularly important to the resi- dents of tropical climates; for, could the united experience of medical practitioners in the tropics be reduced to a statistical form, it would prove not a little startling to find how large a proportion of the mortality and invaliding could be traced directly, or re- motely, to syphilitic disease.
That it is possible to a great extent to reduce, if not entirely prevent, the spread of this disease by legislative measures is a fact generally admitted by all unprejudiced persons. A most notable instance of this power was seen some years ago in Malta, where, up to 1859, a strict system of supervision and personal inspection was main- tained, and the disease was in consequence almost unknown. The system was then abandoned, as it was found to be a traditional abuse of power" which at last was resisted by the peculiar class of persons concerned, and Malta, for a time, and until the passing of an Ordinance, became as bad as any other garrison town in respect to con- tagious disease. The same result cannot be shown in Hongkong, but I shall be able presently to point out the great improvement that has resulted from legislative interfer- ence, not only in reducing the extent, but also the malignity of the disease.
The great outcry against the Contagious Diseases Acts now (for the old plea of the immorality of licensing vice has been partly abandoned) is that they deal unfairly in the case of the two sexes and, as the present opponents of these Acts say, punish the com- paratively innocent female and let her more guilty partner in iniquity go free. This is a great mistake on their part, for these Acts are not introduced for the purpose of punishment, but with the sole object of restricting the extent of contagion, and curing the disease. Moreover, in this Colony at least, the Acts are, as far as practicable, applied to the male sex equally. Thus, before leave is granted to seamen of the Royal Navy, they all undergo medical inspection, and are detained on board if found diseased. By a very slight outlay a similar inspection might be made of all merchant seamen, and I hope still to see that this will be considered to be one of the duties of the Health Officer or Officers of the Port. The whole of the Police Force undergo a similar examination once every month, and certainly the garrison might be equally examined. (Sir H. Storks recommends that the men should be examined at least once in seven days.) Lastly, as if to meet the objections of those who consider these Acts as one-sided, it is specially provided in our local Ordinance that all scamen known to be diseased, residing in any boarding house, must, under a heavy penalty, be reported to the Harbour Master for the purpose of transference to hospital. There only remain, therefore, the higher class of transgressors against whom it is more difficult to proceed; and, as if to balance this, the numerous Portuguese and European prostitutes who now frequent the Colony appear to be equally exempted from all interference on the part of the Executive. And here a very important question presents itself, viz., whether disease has increased among the class of young men who formerly frequented the native establishments. For my own part, I am inclined to the opinion that it has so increased, but I am, not prepared with statistics on this subject.
Lastly, I come to consider the question of the sanitary result of legislative inter ference in this Colony, and I am glad to be able to point to some very substantial
benefits.
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*
In 1850 I wrote, "Both among Naval and Military invalids the syphilitic amount to nearly 25 per cent. of the whole, and this is very nearly the same proportion in the Government Civil Hospital. In one ship numbering in all 523 hands, of which 300