192
TEMPORARY LOCK HOSPITAL.
This is still in the old school-house mentioned in my report for 1880. Part of the building has now become unsafe and cannot be used. Both the new and the old Lock Ilospitals are being used as a temporary Government Civil Hospital.
The number of cases admitted to Hospital was 44; of these there were some bad cases of syphilis, their long detention, and the small number of admissions, has caused a rise in the average number of days detention to 21, the highest average reached in the nine years I have had to report upon.
There have been no prosecutions this year, and the sly brothels have become alarmingly numerous, both those used by Europeans and Chinese. The better class of the Chinese have
}}}}}}F times spoken to me with disgust at the state of things, saying that they cannot trust their boys out without servants being in charge of them, for fear they should be enticed into these houses. With the new orders that have lately been received from Home concerning the working of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance, it must be expected that there will be a great increase of admissions to the Lock Hospital, and how they are to be provided for I really cannot say, the present accommodation being very small, and what there is unfit for any European cases.
The number that submitted voluntarily to examination was 181 and the number of examinations made 8,440. In 1873 the number that submitted voluntarily was 333 and the number of examina tions was 16,474 or nearly double the umnber. The number that submitted voluntarily in 1877 was 255 and the number of examinations made was 13,065, this was the year of the Commission of En- quiry into the working of this Ordinance. The difference in the numbers of the years 1873 and 1877 is to be accounted for by there being less demand, owing to the great decrease in the number of ships in Harbour. Sailing ships giving way to steamers and the latter being more rapid in their movements and not being detained so long in Harbour, there are not so many seamen in Port and those that are have less leave owing to the short time they are in Port. The amount of disease among private patients of the different practioners in the Colony has increased to a great extent, and in my own practice I have not found a single case that could be attributed to a registered house.
The number of men, admitted to the Military Hospital suffering from venereal disease, was 186 as compared with 164 last year; of this number 3 cases were not contracted in Hongkong, but came from Portsmouth in the steamer Scotland.
The number of cases, admitted into the Naval Hospital was 245, as compared with 181 iu 1880; of these 115 cases were not contracted in Hongkong.
The number of Police admissions to Hospital from this cause were 37 as compared with 47 in 1880; of this number 2 were not contracted in Hongkong.
The number of cases admitted into the Government Civil Hospital, was 96 as compared with 60 in 1880; 50 of those were not contracted in Hongkong.
From the causes mentioned in previous reports, it is difficult to estimate from these tables the amount of disease contracted here. The soldiers, when new arrivals, always get into trouble more than when they have been here some time and know their way about. The Police, who know their way about, suffer little. The Naval seamen it is hard to judge by, as they are continually moving about and many cases are treated on board ship and do not appear in these tables. The seamen admitted to the Civil Hospital do not give any fair estimate; many have left the Port before the disease has been discovered and many are treated on board by the Doctors of the vessels or those who practice in the Harbour. The number of women admitted to the Lock Hospital forms no criterion as there are, as I say, so many sly brothels.
There is, so say the Chinese, hardly a street in the Chinese quarter of the town, in which there are not several of these houses, many streets in which there are a number of
them.
was 2.
The number of cases of Secondary Syphilis among the registered women admitted to Hospital
The number of Naval seamen, suffering from Secondary Syphilis believed to have been contracted in Hongkong, was 5, the total number admitted to the Naval Hospital for this cause was 32.
The number of Soldiers who contracted the primary disease in Hongkong and suffered from Secondary Syphilis was 19. The number admitted to the Military Hospital from this cause was 21.
The number of Police admitted to Hospital for Secondary Syphilis was 2.
The number admitted to the Government Civil Hospital for Secondary Syphilis was 26; of which 4 only were contracted in Hongkong.
HEALTH OF THE COLONY AND SANITATION.
The census was taken last year and the number of Europeans was found to be 3,040 as compared with 2,767 for the previous four years 1877 to 1880 inclusive and 2,520 for the previous five
years 1872 to 1876.
The number of deaths among Europeans' was 64, and the percentage to the number of residents 2.10; in only two of the past ten years has it been as low as this.
The rain fall for last year was 98.21 inches and the number of days on which it rained was 141. The heaviest rain was in July and August, 44.39 inches was the fall during these two months, it being nearly equally divided between them; 11.25 inches fell in April. It is owing to the heavy falls that occur in the Spring after a long drought as is generally the case, that we owe our freedom from disease, as the heavy down-pour serves to flush the drains and subsoil, and quickly drive out the impurities that have collected during the dry months; if it were not for this and the rain-fall was less heavy and only sufficient to stir up the impurities collected without removing them, the amount of sickness would be much greater, as there are no means of flushing the drains or subsoil but this. The The only means to meet greater part of the Chinese houses in the Colony drain only into the subsoil. such a contingency are improved drainage and greater supply of water. This year Mr. CHADWICK was sent out from Home, as Sanitary Commissioner, to report on the state of things in this Colony and was much impressed by these two great wants. That these are the great wants of the Colony together with a considerable alteration of the system of house building is his opinion, as it has been that of the Surveyor General and myself. The following figures will show what good grounds we have for forming this opinion.
Fevers.
.Fevers.
Deaths among Chinese.
1874 1873
1875 1876 1877
1878
1870
1880
1881
313
Enteric
12
125
31
94
145
89
116
309
488
Simple continued....................
98
46
201
243
370
481
783
973
168
Typhus.
Diarrhau
16
*
33
21
38
195
231
288
259
811
701
608
348
435
Deaths other than Chinese.
1873
1874
1875
1870 1877 1878
1870
1880
1881
Enteric
1
1
1
5
3
1
2
Simple continued..............
Typhus.
6
4
ŭ
9
15
21
12
17
2
4
唼
2
1
17
17
18
14
10
9
14
10
10
Diarrhoea
There is one thing wrong about these returns, and that is Typhus Fever, there being no such thing as Typhus Fever here at all; it is I believe unknown in the East. Forbid it should ever come here, for we should never get rid of it again; the cases that are returned as Typhus should be Typhoid or Enteric Fever I think. But as the Chinese returns especially are very much mixed, and some of the Deaths other than Chinese are not attended by European Physicians, these may be considered only as regards the totals, the complaints having much in common as arising from bad water, bad drainage, bad ventilation, &c., and also much in common in their symptoms which may cause mistakes in diagnosis among the Chinese. What I particularly desire to bring to observation is the increase in the nearly doubling number of deaths attributed to these causes in the last five years, the last four
years the number of deaths in the first four, especially among the Chinese. It is only during the last five years and especially in the last three that all China Town and a considerable portion of that part which before was
occupied by Europeans has been built over with Chinese houses, all of them now three stories high, where before they were only two stories, and all built on the same insanitary principles that I pointed out eight years ago.
At least two thirds of the Chinese quarter of the Town has been cutirely rebuilt in the last eight years, and 1 do not believe there were a hundred three stories China houses in existence when I arrived here nearly nine years ago, I had the honour and vexation of shewing Mr. CHADWICK new Chinese houses which had not been occupied three months, in a disgrace- fully insanitary state, such as I venture to say could be found in no other town in the world under European supervision.
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