CO129-265 - Public Offices & Others - 1894 — Page 221

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After the 1st April there were frequent references to the plague in the native press of Canton and Hong Kong. Thus on 1st April a native paper re- ported that the God Lu-tsu, a patriarch of the Taoist Sect, who lived in the 8th century, had appeared to men and communicated a recipe for the 'rats' plague". On the 3rd April in the same paper a number of instances of sudden death from plague are given. The plague was at its worst in Canton during May. This number of

deaths in the city and suburbs of Canton to the 3uth

June estimated at 00,000, there have been no cases in

A

the Foreign Settlement here.

Beginning in Hong Kong

Un the 26th April the Hong Kong Police ap-

pear to have become alarmed at the prevalence of the

plague on the mainland, and on the 28th April Dr

Rennie the Consular Surgeon here, made the following

report on the disease, in response to a request ad-

dressed by the Government of Hong Kong to Her Majesty's

Consul.

"Canton 28th April, 1894. Lately a disease

of an epidemic character has been prevalent in the

city of Canton. The first outbreak occurred in the

last week of March and was confined to a poor quarter

of the city, near the South Gate. This neighbour-

hood we visited on the 8th April and had an opportunity of examining one or two cases and also inquiring into the sanitary condition of the houses.

*The