PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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133
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
HONG KONG
Encl. 7 in No. 13.
120
REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PAST AND PRESENT
Enclosure 7 in No. 15.
RETURN of the MORTALITY amongst the CHINESE, during the Year 1849.
City of Victoria
·
Dead bodies of Chinese found exposed in Victoris, sodĮ
buried by Police
Number of Chinese died in Government Civil Hospital
Total in Victoria.
•
Aberdeen
Stanley and vicinity
Tytam-took
Shek-o.
Sai-Wan
Show-ke-wan and vicinity.
Taui-che-muy and vicinity
Soo-koan-poo
Population
each Ploce.
Died in Colony.
Died at of
Total.
Colony.
13,087
29 28
19
14
40
40
10
10
63
64
857
1
1
1,050
10
78
1
247
2
145
438
213
903
STATE OF HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS. 121
were cleared of 20,000 inhabitants, under the superintendence of Dr. Duncan, the medical officer of health. The last epidemic preceding the clearance carried off 500 of these people; while the "cholera, which broke out during the time the forced change in residence was in pro- gress, slew the comparatively small number of 94.”
Vague conjectures deduced from immediate impressions on the mind, and the fruit of start- ling occurrences, receive too often more credence than statements suggested by a careful examination of facts. Some sudden death, or the rapid succession of deaths in a small com- munity, where every event is patent, creates impressions of insalubriousness, which the best digested and most striking record of opposing facts fails to eradicate; while a fow instances of longevity are, by the same vague rule, pointed to as evidences of local and sanitary perfection. The trails that come out of a statistical inquiry show the apparent evidences of evil to be but a rapid and temporary succession of generally unfrequent events; and of the good, a para- It is found as if there were a doxical and almost invariable contradiction of themselves. special compensating tendency in nature in this respect-that the most striking instances of longevity occur in communities in which the average duration of life is the shortest.
The following Tables afford the Colonial Surgeon's statistics of disease and death in Hong
1849. Kong for the year
TABLE NO. 1-A monthly numerical Abstract of Disease and Death in the Police of Hong Kong in 1849.
HONG KOVIL
Encl. 8 in No. 15.
Dead bodies of Chinese found exposed in villages, and)
buried by Police.
Total in villages
Grand Total
39
2
40
101
3
104
It is necessary to remark, that no record of deaths has been kept by the Police during the year, and that although only 14 deaths have been specified in the Census returns for Victoria, doubtless many more occurred, as the population is very migratory, and of most who left the Colony and died on the main land, no record or remembrance would be left. The number of dead bodies found exposed, and buried by the Police, is a proof of the friendless state of a great part of the Chinese population, and it is ressonable to presume that all who had the means would, in serious sickness, remove them- selves to their native places.
The Returns from the villages may be considered more accurate, as the inhabitants are more settled.
C. Mar, Superintendent of Police,
(True copy).
(Signed)
W. CAINE, Colonial Secretary.
Enclosure 8 in No. 15.
REPORT of the COLONIAL SURGEON on the Diseases and Climate of Hong Kong, 1849.
ANY one who will stop to reflect will, I think, readily admit that in collecting informa- tion from statistics involving small numbers, the inquiry is pursued under every circumstance of disadvantage, which can only be corrected by extending it over a series of years.
A
In a population so limited as that of Hong Kong, it is impossible to draw any accurate inference touching the relative proportion of death to life, or of disease to health, from the computations of one or two years. If a certain peculiarity is found to be repeated for several years, and to bear a certain and uniform relation to fixed numbers, or if the same peculiarity be in excess one year and the reverse the next, yet, should it establish a uniform average for several years, it can hereafter be predicted to be a property of the numbers in question. "Even in a population like that of London, it would be rashness to determine that a certain number of casualties, for example, of a given kind, were peculiar to the pursuits and habits of the people, because a fixed relative number of them to the population were computed in one year. faithful statistical record of such events having now been taken for a series of years, it can be predicted, as an undeniable peculiarity of that population, that it is liable to a certain number of defined casualties. An isolated statistical fact is like a stone hewn ready for the builder- it has no obviously defined purpose until it occupies its place in the superstructure it is destined for. Accumulated and well-collated statistics faithfully reveal the social, the political, and sanitary condition of a people. No statistical records are absolutely correct in numbers, yet they are always the nearest possible approximation to truth. He who has never reflected on the subject can have no conception of their vast utility, or the wide range of their influence. They warn us from concealed dangers, and suggest remedies for evils that have worked their ills in secret; they uproot erroneous conceptions of the mind, that guide us to destruction, and they enable us to walk through life in the broad daylight of truth. The Registrar-General, instructed by the information in his office, has been able to point an unerring hand to the sources of the late pestilence in England, " by which we have lost in all Britain more lives than we have lost in battle since the days of Marlborough ;" and he is as certain of the power of eradicating and preventing this scourge, by purifying the sewers and cesspools, as that the disease hydrophobia has, by police regulations, "become a permanent blank in London nosology." By the same means, he indicated that between 30,000 and 40,000 inhabitants of Liverpool lived în noisome deus called cellars, elaborating pestilence, and practising every vice. In 1849, 4,700 cellars.
Months.
Europeana
Number of Bick.
Number of Deaths.
Indians and Chinem.
Kumber of Sick.
Total of
Number of Deaths.
Bick.
Total of Dosths.
January.
2
13
21
February
March
4
11
15
22
15
9
April.
5
May.
8
June
10
July .
B
2
6
December
2
10 7
9
Total number of Deaths :-
Indians Europeans
3 6
August September October. November
The foregoing Table exhibits every quarter as presenting throughout the year a pretty uni-
form rate of sickness, the last being numerically the most exempt.
In January the prevailing diseases were intermittent fever, common catarrh, and acute rheumatism.
it
In February the character of disease was very variable, yet intermittent fever prevailed; was of a very mild type, and very amenable to treatment.
In March and April there was a considerable abatement in the number of cases of ferer; In the former mouth the' records of the and diseases were again very mixed in character.
civil hospital account for three deaths amongst Chinese found destitute in the streels.
In May there was a slight recurrence of intermittent fever, and a few cases of continued fever occurred; both of a very mild and curable type. There were in this month two deaths; one from empyema, and the other from peritonitis; both policemen,
In June intermittent fevers again prevailed. There was one case of small-pox, and dysentery began to show itself.
In July remittent fevers prevailed; there were also cases of acute hepatitis and splenitis, showing the commencement of visceral diseases destined to terminate their carcer in dysentery. The month of August was remarkable for the number of cases of dysentery, from which there were three deaths; in every instance the victims of this disease had previously suffered from, and been under treatment for, either remittent or intermittent fever.
In September remittent fever was the prevailing disease. In this month one European died
of delirium tremens, and an Indian and European of dysentery,
In October acute rheumatism, remittent fever, and dysentery prevailed.
In November and December remittent fever, dysentery, and common catarrh were the diseases of the most frequent occurrence. At this time every form of disease began to abats in
the severity of its character, and fresh cases became less numerous. One Indian policeman, under treatment during October, died of valvular disease of the heart in November,
97
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