SANITATION IN HONGKONG.
REPORT ON THE LICENSED BROTHELS IN HONGKONG, 1874.
HONGKONG, 19th January, 1874.
SIR,-I have the honour to forward the following report on the sanitary condition of the brothels of Hongkong. I have made over twelve inspections, varying from three to four hours each, and have not yet succeeded in completing the round, but have quite sufficient data to express an opinion on.
With regard to the form headed "Contagious Diseases Ordinance", enclosed in the Acting Registrar General's letter No. 39, dated 5th August, 1873, I am of opinion it is useless.
Certain rules might be laid down, as a rule, for the accommodation of each individual, other things being equal, but other things are in no case equal,--situation is different, ventilation is different, the forms of the houses are different, and so are the lengths of the rooms; so that a room in one house sixteen feet square may sufficiently accommodate four persons, but a room in another of exactly the same dimensions be totally unfit for one.
The Inspectors of Brothels cannot be expected to be judges of the sanitation of houses, entirely uninstructed as they are, and in my opinion, no brothel should be sanctioned without a certificate from a medical officer that it is a fit and proper place for sanction and the accommodation of so many women. The inspection of brothels appears to have been left entirely to the Inspectors of Brothels, men of limited education and certainly unable to perform the duties required of them without efficient superintendence and instruction, which has not apparently been the duty of my predecessors in the Colonial Surgeoncy of Hongkong, and that this is evidently required this report will show. The Inspectors have simply confined themselves to seeing that the laws laid down by the Contagious Diseases Act have been carried out, and nothing in the way of sanitation has been done at all.
I have found invariably in every house the kitchens in filthy condition. Many without chimneys, the smoke of wood and charcoal fires distributing itself all over the house and rendering the air difficult to breathe--the drainage more or less deficient, and where existing, in a most deplorable condition--greasy soot lying thick on the walls and ceilings--floors saturated with decaying animal matter, the floors being washed off the dressers and thrown out of pots, &c., and left to drain away how it can. There were no proper receptacles for rubbish, which accumulated in corners or was heaped in broken baskets, and only removed when it became of sufficient importance, by taking up too much room and becoming inconvenient.
In the kitchens were generally one or more hutches used as privies, consisting of a few boards knocked together to form a rickety screen, and from age and neglect they were saturated with filth. No proper receptacle for night-soil was found in these hutches,--sometimes a broken pot, sometimes a leaky old tub, sometimes nothing at all, the night-soil being deposited on the floor and the urine draining away, as best it might, into the surrounding floors. I've a pretty good stomach and don't stick at trifles, but I found the inspection of these places acted as a very unpleasant emetic.
The girls' rooms, next the kitchens, nearly all had ventilating openings into the kitchen,—of what benefit to the inhabitants of the rooms may be gathered from the foregoing paragraphs. In at least a dozen instances I found a girl's room separated from the privies by a boarded partition, through the interstices of which the inhabitants of the room could see into the privies and vice versa. Rooms were over the privies, with floors in a similar condition.
In all cases almost without exception the floors of the rooms and passages, the walls and ceilings or roof were in filthy condition; so thick was the greasy dirt on the floors that it could be scraped aside with the foot.
In many cases the houses were quite unfit for use as brothels or human habitation, there being no ventilation at all, and many more were much overcrowded, rooms being built in rooms, not only subdividing the floor of one room, but, by building other rooms above the subdivisions, making one floor into two and so destroying the small amount of ventilation there was originally.
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SANITATION IN HONGKONG.
REPORT ON THE LICENSED BROTHELS IN HONGRong, 1874.
HONGKONG, 19th January, 1874.
SIR,-I have the honour to forward the following report on the sanitary condition of the brothels of Hongkong. I have made over twelve inspections, varying from three to four hours each, and have not yet succeeded in completing the round, but have quite sufficient data to express an opinion on.
With regard to the form headed "Contagious Diseases Ordinance", enclosed in the Acting Registrar A certain number of General's letter No. 39, dated 5th August, 1873, I am of opinion it is useless.
feet might be laid down, as a rule, for the accommodation of each individual, other things being equal, bat other things are in no case equal,--situation is different, ventilation is different, the forms of the houses are different, and so are the lengths of the rooms; so that a room in one house sixteen feet square may sufficiently accommodate four persons, but a room in another of exactly the same dimensions be totally unfit for one.
The Inspectors of Brothels cannot be expected to be judges of the sanitation of houses, entirely uninstructed as they are, and in my opinion, no brothel should be sanctioned without a certificate from a medical officer that it is a fit and proper place for sanction and the accommodation of so many women. The inspection of brothels appears to have been left entirely to the Inspectors of Brothels, men of limited education and certainly unable to perform the duties required of them without efficient super- intendence and instruction, which has not apparently been the duty of my predecessors in the Colonial Surgeoncy of Hongkong, and that this is evidently required this report will show. The Inspectors have simply confined themselves to seeing that the laws laid down by the Contagious Diseases Act have been carried out, and nothing in the way of sanitation has been done at all.
I have found invariably in every house the kitchens in filthy condition. Many without chimneys, the smoke of wood and charcoal fires distributing itself all over the house and rendering the air difficult to breathe-the drainage more or less deficient, and/where existing, in a most deplorable condi- tion--greasy soot lying thick on the walls and ceilings-foors saturated with decaying animal matter, The floors being washed off the dressers and thrown out of pots, &c., and left to drain away how it can. broken bricks or decaying boards, there were no proper receptacles for rubbish, which accumulated in corners or was heaped in broken baskets, and only removed when it became of sufficient importance, by taking up too much room and becoming inconvenient.
In the kitchens were generally one or more hutches used as privies, consisting of a few boards kuocked together to form a rickety screen, and from age and neglect they were saturated with filth. No proper receptacle for night-soil was found in these hutches,--sometimes a broken pot, sometimes a leaky old tub, sometimes nothing at all, the night-soil being deposited on the floor and the urine draining away, as best it might, into the surrounding floors. I've a pretty good stomach aud don't stick at trifles, bui I found the inspection of these places acted as a very unpleasant emetic.
The girls' rooms, next the kitcbens, nearly all had ventilating openings into the kitchen,—of what benefit to the inhabitants of the rooms may be gathered from the foregoing paragraphs. In at least a dozen instances I found a girl's room separated from the privies by a boarded partition, through the As often, interstices of which the inhabitants of the room could see into the privies and vice versa. moms were over the privies, with floors in a similar condition.
In all cases almost without exception the floors of the rooms and passages, the walls and ceilings ur roof were in filthy condition; so thick was the greasy dirt on the floors that it could be scraped aside with the foot.
In many cases the houses were quite unfit for use as brothels or human habitation, there being no ventilation at all, and many more were much overcrowded, rooms being built in rooms, not only sub- dividing the floor of one room, but, by building other rooms above the subdivisions, making one floor, into two and so destroying the small amount of ventilation there was originally.
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