6
REPORT ON
height of the surrounding land,-its configuration, the nature of the soil, the extent and quantity of the vegetation,-the exposure to the sea and the prevailing winds, all influence what is comprised under the word "climate." In some respects the whole coast of China partakes of the climatic characteristics of the opposite coast of the American contínent, particulary as regards the extremes of temperature, and its depressing influence on mental or bodily exertion.
of the
For six months in the year, April to September, the heat varies from 80° to 90° F.; but occasionally during the other six months the heat is also very great, the thermometer having been known to stand at 80° F. on Christmas-day. The island, being on the verge tropics, is subject to the extremes of the torrid and temperate zones. Even in the same day, the range of mercury in the thermometer is very great, and the vicissitudes are exceedingly trying to the European con- stitution.
But neither the range from heat to cold, nor the quantity of mois- ture in the atmosphere, will adequately convey an idea of the effects that this climate is capable of producing on the human frame. During April aud part of May, when the sun is approaching rapidly from the equator, there is a dry burning heat, with a cloudless sky; but towards the end of May, and throughout June, July, August, and part of Sep- tember, the rain descends in torrents, with a force and continuance such as I have never seen in India, Africa, Australasia, or any other part of the world. The clouds pour down one vast sheet of water, washing away hills and rocks, furrowing the island with deep ravines, and satu- rating the soft, porous, putrescent strata, to the extent of many feet, with daily renewed moisture.
In the intervals of rain a nearly vertical sun acts with an intense evaporating power, and a noxious steam or vapour rises from the fetid soil, yielding a gas of a most sickly and deleterious nature, exactly such as I experienced on the coast of Africa in 1824, when I was seized with an earth-fever while in Her Majesty's service, from the effects of which I with great difficulty recovered, but of which most of my brother officers perished. This morbific gas does not arise from vegetable or from animal decomposition: there is none on the island of any extent; but decomposed mineral substances yield an aeriform poison, under some circumstances, of a more deadly description than either of the other kingdoms of nature. This gas does not rise more than a few feet from the earth; it slowly mingles with the surrounding atmosphere, and, when not causing immediate illness, produces a depressing effect on mind and body, which undermines and destroys the strongest constitutions.
Military and naval men who have served in Africa and in India, feel the effects of the sun in Hong Kong in a manner never before experienced. Even at Macao, only forty miles west of Hong Kong, Europeans may walk about the whole day in the month of July. when to do so at Hong Kong would be attended with almost certain death. Neither the Indian Sepoys, Malays, or Chinese can endure the climate so well as Europeans, whose stamina they do not possess. The Chinese deem it exceedingly dangerous to prolong their abode in the island beyond a certain time. They have ever viewed Hong Kong as injurious to health and fatal to life. The Europeans who survive a
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4
HONG KONG.
7
brief residence in this climate generally get a lassitude of frame, and an irritability of fibre, which destroy the spring of existence. A malign influence operates on the system in a most distressing manner, which is not removed by a return to Europe, on the contrary, the sufferers not unfrequently die in England soon after their arrival there.
Diseases and Mortality. The prevailing discase of Hong Kong is a fever combining the character of the African and West India fevers. It was at first supposed to be epidemic, but it has now become endemic, and may be assumed to be the fixed malady of the island. Diarrhoea and dysentery form the next most immediately fatal class of diseases; but intermittent fever or ague destroys health gradually. Last year the strength per annum of the European and native troops was 1526, and the number who passed through hospital in the year amounted to 7893: thus, on an average, each man went through the hospital more than five times in the year ! Of the diseases with which they were afflicted, 4069 were fevers, 762 diarrhoea, 497 dysenteries, and 180 were pul- monic complaints. The total number of deaths out of 1526 men was 440, or 1 in 33. The fatal fever cases were 155; ditto diarrhoea, 80; ditto dysentery, 137. The destruction of life since our occupation of Hong Kong has been enormous. Last year the deaths among the troops in the island amounted to 1 in 3; at Koolungsoo, to 1 in 12; and at Chusan, to 1 in 291*. Her Majesty's 98th Regiment lost at Hong Kong in 21 months 257 men by death; but in this and other regiments it is not merely the deaths which indicate disease and perni- cious climate, it is the great number of men invalided and constantly unfit for duty. One half the men of a company are frequently unable
* EUROPEAN AND NATIVE TROOPS.
ABSTRACT, showing the Admissions and Deaths at the different Stations, of the Force in China for the year 1843.
STATIONS.
Hong Kong
Chusan
Strength per ann.
Received 31st Dec.,
Fevers.
1842.
Diarrhoea.
Admissions per Annum.
Dysentery.
1526 3644069] 762 497
[1980] 201|2044) 373|
Cholera.
Hepatites.
4
+ 3 8
Pulmonic Affections.
Dropsical ditto.
Rheumatism.
Other Diseases.
Total Sick per ann.
180 51
2121722
32
43 10
42
Koolungsoo
993 101 2201] 37 15 62
16
169 9
37 3
7893
1441366 4401
38 369 2879
TOTAL
4499 66683141172 555 76 90
386 63
394 3457 15,173
437
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