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Reference
133
9
HONG NG.
122
REPORTS EXIBITING THE PAST AND PRESENT
TABLE NO. 2.-A Record of the Diseases treated in the Government Civil Hospital
Diar toes.
Abec Anasarca.
Burma.
Bladder, inflammation of
Cates not enumerated
Constipation
Contusion
in 1949.
Coors. Deaths.
1
Disesore.
Brought forward
Hepatitis Hemoptysis.
Hæmorrhoids
Hernia, humorous
Heart, disease of.
Iritis.
Mesenteric disease.
Paralysis
Phthisia
}
Cases. Deaiba,
140
13
·
2
2
3
11
Catarrh
Delirium tremens
•
Diarrhoea.
·
*
•
Dislocation of hip
ji Pryalism
+
*
Dysentery, acute
Epilepsy
ŒEdema Empyema
+
•
Fever, continued.
intermittent
remittent.
"
Gastritis Gonorrhoea Gout
+
•
Syphilis, primary
Small-pox
Ulcers
Wounds
10
་
Suicule attempted by cutting)
1
the thrust
Curried forward.
1.10
13
Total
195
18
Peritonitis
Rheumatism, acute
Scorbutes
Scrofula
Splenitis
•
Per centage of deaths to cases, 9-23.
The reasons admitted into the civil hospital are chiefly policemen, but there are also included officers of the Supreme Court, the gaol, and the servants of the harbour-master, besides cases of destitution found by the police, and persons wounded in affrays.
Amongst the diseases, fevers of various types, and of these the remittent is the chief, and dysentery are the most numerous.
In every instance the malignant ferer which has appeared in this colony has been described to be of the remittent form, and certainly it is the prevailing disorder. During the last year it was mild in its character, of short duration, and very am nable to treatment. Dysentery pre- sents a peculiar aspect in this climate, and is very diffrent from the disease described generally by eastern medical writers. It is certainly engendered in many instances by malaria. It is of all dis ases iu China the most intraclable; it will not bear the severe antiphlogistic and mercurial system of treatnunt pursued in India. It is most insidionts in its progress, giving rise to no prominent or distressing symptom, except the frequent tenesmus. Digestion, sleep, and mental vigour are in most cases unimpaired, while the disease treacherously advances, con- suming imperceptibly the body and strength. Abscess of the liver, or sphacelus of the intes- tines, are its last, almost unperceived, and fatal symptoms. In Her Majesty's navy stationed here the disease has not been so common as usual, yet it evinced greater intensity than it ordinarily assumes in Hong Kong. My friend Dr. Harland, in writing to me of his experience in the merchant seamen's hospital, speaks of dysentery as follows:-" It has been very pre- Out of 43 cases, acute and valent during the last year, and unusually difficult to cure. chronic, there were 17 deaths, and to these must be added five other fatal cases of dysentery supervening on other diseases; so that the deaths from dysentery alone have exceeded one- half the whole number of deaths during the year." In the 95th Regiment, the number of deaths from this disease was 10, but the large number of 91 deaths is stated to have arisen from intermittent fever, and it may be rasoiably suspected that some of these were compli- cated with dysentery.
Rheumatism stands next in the record of the most frequent diseases. Although less fatal, it is hardly less intractable than dysentery. In most of the cases which have come under my obervation I could trace their early origin to venereal taint. The vicissitudes of this climate favour the development and progress of the disease, and it is rarely eradicated without the influence of a decided and prolonged change of climate. In the squadron stationed in this harbour it has proved a distressing and unmanageable disease. In the seamen's hospital those of rheumatisni were 14-35 per cent, of all the cases treated.
The foregoing record does not indicate accurately the number of venereal cases. Many patients suffering from other diseases, and admitted into hospital on account of the latter, were also suffering from venereal disease. It presents itself in this place in a form of peculiar viru- lence and malignity, such as, I believe, is rarely witnessed. It is difficult to account for its uncommon severity; it may be that it accumulates intensity from its prolonged and undisturbed existence in the unhappy creatures who are the sources of it. All purely contagious diseases sem to change their peculiar characteristics in transmission from the Chinese and Malay race to the European. This is the case with the cow-pox, the small-rox, and the itch, which acquire in their transmission distinct and peculiar characteristics, and much intensity. I have been so convinced of this fact that I have long since used in vaccination the virus 1 have obtained from
STATE OF HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS. 123
England. The following remarks of Dr. Harland will show the prevalence of venereal disease amongst the merchant seamen :—“ Venereal diseases," he says, “*including syphilis, gonorrhea, strictures, and rheumatism, are 23-28 per cent, of all the cases admitted.” This number, how- ever, does not include those cases which have occurred in patients admitted under other more serious diseases, and I feel sure that I am speaking within bounds when I say that at least one- half of all the cases admitted apply for treatment of some form or other of venereal, chiefly gonorrhea and stricture." In the Bag ship “ Hastings,” in a crew of 600 men, upwards of 100 cases occurred. Many of the most active sailors of the squadron, who contracted primary affections here last winter, were invalided in the course of the summer and autumn, in cou❤ sequence of secondary symptoms having supervened. The other diseases enumerated require no special notice.
TABLE No, 3.—Showing the Number of Policemen, their Wives and Children, actually Sick ia 1819, the Number of Deaths, and Proportion of Deaths to Sickness.
HONG YON
The Number of Police, &c., birk.
Europeos.
Judians, Chinese.
The Number
of Wuch and Children Sick.
Total Number of Penous Sick.
Total Number of Deaths,
Proportion of Deaths to Persons Sick.
61
109
171
9
¡w Crat. 5.26
In this and the succeeding table the gaol-guard are this year, as formerly, included in the number of the policemen.
TABLE NO. 4.--Showing the Fixed Number of Policeinen, their Wives and Children, the Number of Deaths, and the Proportion of Deaths to Strength.
Deaths to
Proportion of
Strength.
Average Number of Police Employed.
Indians. Europeau,
Chiatre.
Women and Chi.dren,
Total Number uf Persons.
Total Number of Deaths.
1er Cent
30
96
24
16
166
9
5-42
In comparing the two preceding tables, it will be observed that the cases of sickness exceeded the strength. This is to be accounted for in two ways: first, the same individuals will at different times come under treatment for different diseases, and thus each man may represent more than one case of sickness; secondly, the police force is liable to frequent chauges, so much so that, were all the individuals reckoned who hare beca in the service, the averages above would be struck against nearly double the strength.
When the class of persons who compose the police are considered, their habits, and the exposed nature of their duties, the above table shows a most gratifying result. The average mortality in the city of Liverpool is only a fraction below the above numbers.
TABLE NO. 5.—Exhibiting the Comparative Amount of Sickness and Death in cach Month, amongst the Police in the several Months of 1847, 1849, and 1843.
April
Number of Cases of Sicknew and Deaths,
Mouth.
1847
1849
1849
Cases
Deaths.
CaseL
Deaths
Cases
Deaths.
January
47
1
32
15
February
46
47
22
March.
31
55
15
22
42
38
56
20
35
63
17
46
78
20
36
77
19
14
71
7
26
57
9
November.
37
36
1
13
December .
57
36
9
Total
461
6
650
84
170
9
May
June
July
August. September October
The preceding table would have shown a striking resemblance in numbers betwixt 1847 and 1849, if the figures relating to "cases" in the former year had been correct. Cases pro- longed from month to month are repeated in the reckoning of each month in 1847, whilst in 1848 and 1849 the admissions alone are in the calculations of each month,
R 2
98
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