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No. 39.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

The following Report of the Colonial Surgeon, with Returns annexed for the Year 1868, is published for general information.

By Command,

Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 2nd April, 1869.

J. GARDINER Austin, Colonial Secretary,

VICTORIA, HONGxoxa, 20th February, 1809.

My Tenth Annual Report, on the Sanitary condition of the Colony, need embrace little more than the satisfactory Tables which neenpany it. No year, within the limits of my own experience, or that of any of the residents of the city, has been so exempt from epidemies, or the occurrence of cases of purely tropical disease, and although the Table records the death of no less than forty-three of our number, during the year 1sts, it is satisfactory to know that it is the smallest number ever yet registered, and I have little doubt that, hand I the means of giving the particulars of each case, very few of them would be traceable to elimatic influence. Whether Hongkong owes the steady decreuse, since 1863, in the death rate of its inhabitants, until in 1868 that rate was less than 2 per cent, to the state of cleanliness and other sanitary measures which have been progressively caforced, or rather to an undulatory change in the climate itself, which reduced the average temperature of the past year below that within the recollection of the earliest sojourner among us, is a question I am not prepared to answer. The fact remains undoubted that a steadily diminished rate of mortality has been recorded, ever since the year 1863-from 6.32 per cent to 1.00 per cents rate below that of London, which in the last Report is stated to smount to 25 per 1,000. Small Pox, which may be considered endemic to Hongkong in the cold season, did not, as far as I am aware, visit the town during the winter of 1867-68; during the present winter only three cases of that disease have been admitted into the Government Civil Hospital; some few cases have occurred in the city, and some admissions have taken place at the Seamen's Hospital

In the month of April the arrival of the American steamer Warrior from Mauritius with fever on board, created no little sensation. Careful examination into the subject was made by me, in conjunction with the Principal Naval and Military Me dical Officers, and we were unanimous as to the necessity of placing that vessel, and any future arrivals with the same malady on board, in quarantine. Subsequent observation here, and confirmatory information received from the Government of Mauritius, have satisfied us that no such precaution is necessary for the future, and that the so called "Mauritius Fever" is not a contagious disease. There is no doubt, however, that this Government was fully justified in the precautionary measures taken in the interest of the Public. The crew of the Warrior had all suffered from the fever, and several were under ita influence at the time of their arrival in Port. Subsequently, some of them were admitted into the Government Civil Hospital, where the disease was more easily studied, and its type seen to be reinittent or intermittent, with great enlargement of the spleen in most cases. But in no instance was the disease communicated to other patients in Hospital, although there existed unrestrain- ed intercourse, after a time, between them.

Partly as a consequence of the alarm created by the arrival of the steamer Warrior, an important addition has been made to the Medical Staff of the Colony, in the appointment of a paid, and therefore responsible Health Officer of the Port, and Examiner of Emigrants.

Whatever farther information I may possess, in regard to the vital statistics of this Colony during the past year, will be found recorded when remarking on the various institutions which it is my duty to bring under review in my Annual Report.

I. THE POLICE

Numerically this Force has increased by more than one tenth within the last year-ho European and Chinese elemente being greater: the Indian slightly less. While the rate of sickness has much increased, the death rate has diminished, and in both respects the Returns compare favorably with those of the Troops in Garrison.

Table I-Shows the number of admissions into, and deaths in, the Hospital, of members of the Police Force, during every month of 1808. It will be seen that the greatest number of admissions took place in August, and not in October, as usually happens.

Table II Shews the rate per cont of sickness and mortality of the Force during the same year, to be smaller than that of the Civil Population,

Table III,-Kindly furnished to me by Dr. Hoffernan, Deputy Inspector General of Hospitals, and Principal Military Medical Officer, gives a comparative Return of the health of the Troops serving in Hongkong. It is very satisfactory to and that the rate of sickness is diminished by nearly one third, and the rate of mortality is only one half what it was in the pre- ceding year, during which a great improvement in the health of the Garrison had taken place, in comparison with previous

years.

Table XV,-Shews the number of cases of contagious disease occurring among the Police, during the last eight years, with a classification of the special nature of the disease. The figures are not quite so satisfactory as they were when I made up my Report for 1807, as there appears to be an increase of disease among the men, this increase is, however, entirely limited

to the European portion of the Force, but is very considerable,

* Vide Colonial Surgeon's Report for the year 1800.