1874 — Page 243

The buildings now used as the Government Civil Hospital, though the best that could be obtained, kre by no means satisfactory; being situated in the centre of the Town and surrounded by buildings, they will be very hot in the summer, and will hardly get a breath of air. There is no ground attached to them, and in many other ways they are unsuitable; besides Government has to pay a very high rent or them and it is therefore to be hoped that the building of the new Hospital will be proceeded with me speedily' as possible.

TUNG WA HOSPITAL.

There is little more to say concerning this Institution than has been said in previous Reports. All that can be said for the Tung Wa Hospital is, that it is kept fairly clean, the patients get good dood, and, according to Chinese ideas, very comfortable accommodation. The one great good that this Hospital does is vaccination, which it has greatly assisted in spreading; 1,246 were vaccinated this year.

VICTORIA GAOL.

Table VII shows the actual number of Hospital cases. Table VIII. the number of prisoners treated in their cells. The Hospital consists of seven small wards only capable of holding two patients in each ward, so none but the worst cases are taken into Hospital, and even this accommodation is only for men; all women becoming seriously sick have to be sent to the Civil Hospital. There has been only one death in the Gaol this year, and most of the cases have originated outside. Diarrhea, Dysen- try, Fever, Bronchial affectious and old ulcers have been the principal complaints treated. I find the average number of prisoners who desire to see me daily is about fifty, but these are not. all cases of disease, but applications for change of diet, alterations in their work, &c., and these are about the admissions daily to be inspected. I have been compelled to give extra diet to the European prisoners in a great many cases, and I would suggest an alteration in their diet, that instead of a pint of tea for breakfast, they should have a pint of gruel, for I find that the tea in the morning causes a great deal of indigestion and as the hardest labour of the day is done between breakfast and dinner, tea, I think, is a mistake..

Table IX. shows the number of prisoners, as compared with the sickness and mortality in the Gaol.

LOCK HOSPITAL.

The improvement of having stoves in the wards of this building, as I suggested in my Report last year, I am glad to say, has been carried out, and that leaves nothing to be desired.

Hardly any damage was done to the building by the Typhoon, only a jillmill here and there, was broken and a few panes of glass.

Table X.4. shows the number of admissions, which have been much less than usual compared with the last few years. Table B. shows the number of women brought under the provisions of the Con- tagious Diseases Ordinance, and this number is also less than that of 1873.

Table C. shows the number of men diseased during the year, which is 207, as compared with 421

in 1873, or rather less than half the number.

Table E. shows the character of the diseases. It will be observed that only 3 cases of Primary Syphilis occurred among the Military and only 4 cases among the Police. Of the Navy, out of 85. cases of venereal disease, of all classes, 50 were not contracted in Hongkong, and very few of the cases recorded as Prinary Syphilis were contracted here. But the Military and Police show the working of the Ordinance best, as they are residents and know the licensed brothels better, not being so apt to be led away by sly prostitutes. With a considerable number more men in Port and Garrison, the amount of disease is shown to be less than half of what it was in 1873.

The largest number of women in Hospital this year at any one time was 58, and that was in the month of June. For the first time this year, the European and American women were brought under the Ordinance in August last, with good results, as several who were engaged in spreading disease quitted the Colony. They are visited at their own homes.

Owing to the number of cases of Fever of a Typhoid type being brought to the Civil Hospital from the Chinese licensed brothels, I received a request from the Government to inspect and report" upon them.

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I went through all the brothels, took note of every house, and reported the number of women it could decently contain, and what repairs or alterations were required to be made.

In consequence of my Report, many houses were closed altogether. For the others, I wrote out Instructions,Folie of which applied to all the brothels, others to individual houses only,-concerning whitewashing, painting, cleaning, &c., the removal of privics, sleeping rooms, &c.

This winter, making the inspection, I find a wonderful change has been effected, the houses look clean, light and airy for the most part, and by the end of this year I hope to have them all in good condition. I have again gone through every house and entered in a book what I desire should be done. To fairly inspect these houses requires about 15 inspections of an afternoon each, but the results have been well worth the trouble, for since the carrying out of my suggestions, no cases of Typhoid have been found in these houses. There are 123 licensed Chinese brothels, containing 1,358 prostitutes now, besides the keepers, scrvants, &e.