The Medical Officer of Health mentions two hours as the time in which the clothing may be expected to be returned. I have visited the Disinfecting Station and seen the process carried out. Bedding, clothing, and other belongings, shoes, umbrellas, &c., &c., are placed in large cradles and run into the disinfector on a small tramway. It takes on an average one hour to disinfect each charge, which can hardly comprise more than the contents of a floor, but when the epidemic is at its height, with possibly the contents of twenty to thirty houses to be disinfected, it will be seen that the estimate of the time that elapses before the return of the clothing is much under the mark. In the meantime the inmates of the houses are perforce idle, and the loss of a day's or perhaps two days work to the average coolie is not a light matter. Complaints were made that in the process of disinfection much injury was done to the belongings of the people, and it was whispered that squeezes were extracted by the coolies engaged in disinfection under the threat of injuring furniture and other belongings in the process of disinfection if money were not paid. This was a matter that no amount of supervision by the Inspector could control, and the Chinese were afraid to come forward and complain openly. There is absolutely no proof that this assertion is true, but there is no doubt that the feeling existed and helped to intensify the dread of the operations of the Sanit- ary Authorities.
4. To allay this feeling I had a meeting of the Principal Civil Medical Officer, the Acting Medical Officer of Health, and the Chinese members of the Sanitary Board, and arranged with them that in each health district the inhabitants should appoint a Kai-fong or committee, and that in every case of disinfection notice should be sent to the Kai-fong, two members of which, with the Sanitary Inspector should form a committee to appraise there and then any damage done and give a It joint certificate of the amount, which the Sanitary Board undertook to pay. was also announced by leaflets distributed among the Chinese that in all cases where sickness was timely reported, all the expense of disinfection would be borne by the Government.
5. This had no appreciable effect in diminishing the number of dumped bodies, and it was evident that the passive resistance of the Chinese continued. This was shown by the fact that when rat traps were set in Chinese houses the traps were found to be sprung, as the finding of an infected rat resulted in the same inconve- nience as followed the discovery of a case of plague; still, large numbers of rats were delivered to the mortuary for examination, 88,862 having been paid for from 1st January to 13th of July this year, of which 3,176, or 39% were found to be infected. Each rat had a label attached showing the house or place where found, and where the address of a house was given that house was duly disinfected. Again, I heard whispers, of which no proof could be given, that the rat catchers levied a respectable toll by hinting at the probability of a plague rat being found about the premises in the absence of a tangible evidence of goodwill, and, on at least one occasion, indignant protest was made by the householder subjected to disinfection that no rat had been caught in his house, and no trap had been set there. About a fortnight ago colour was given to these whispers. I had requested that certain experiments, of which I shall speak later, should be carried out with rats, but although two thousand rats per week were being returned and paid for, Dr. HUNTER, the Government Bacteriologist, found a difficulty in obtaining the live rats that he required. This probably aroused suspicions and resulted in the following minutes of the Acting Medical Officer of Health:-
SECRETARY,
"I believe I am right in saying that, at the Confidential Meeting of the Board held on June 30th a resolution was passed to the effect that the Government should be asked to sanction for the rest of the year the modification of the scheme for dealing with rats suggested for next year's procedure. For information of the Government it may be well to explain that the reasons for this change are as follows:-
"1. A large sum of money is now paid in bonus for rats collected in the
streets.
2. A ridiculously small number of rats are caught in houses.
3. There is no way at present of making sure that the addresses given of rats caught are correct, as foremen and coolies are not to be trusted.
In support of this I may mention that Inspector ALLEN found some little time since a group of rat-catchers sorting out rats in a back lane and patting on address tickets promiscuously.
4. There is a
suspicion that the coolies have given wrong addresses out of revenge in order that a house might be disinfected. It has not been possible to prove this, but it is clear that this might be done. 5. The bonus of 5 cents for carh rat is probably the incentive to the import- ation of rats, It is highly probable that a brisk trade in rats has been going on. It would no doubt pay to bring rats into the city from outlying villages and from boats and even from Macao and Canton. Inspector REIDIE has reported that he heard of a meeting of rat-catchers at Possession Point where rats arrived in parcels and were distributed. He was too late to catch them, but these rumours have the colour of truth,
The proposal to adopt next year's scheme in the matter at once will involve (1) the immediate appointment of 6 extra Portuguese foremen at 850, one for cach Plague Inspector; (2) the raising into line with this the salary of the present permanent plague foremen; and (3) the appoint- ment of 14 coolies for collecting rats at a fixed salary of $12 per mouth: (4) the abolition of the bonus.
WW. P."
6. In the meantime it appeared to me that however theoretically perfect our Sanitary machinery, we were not controlling the epidemic, which in this year as in all that had gone before was running precisely the same course as in Canton and the coast ports: appearing, increasing, culminating, and disappearing, at the same time. To those who know how Chinese houses are constructed it will be apparent that effective fumigation is practically unattainable. While even if the spraying process, scrubbing, and disinfection of clothing reached externally every thing in the room, it would not kill vermin lying deep in the joints and cracks of tables, chairs and settles, or beds. Nor would it reach the vermin with which the heads of the poorer classes of coolies are infested. But apart from this, what took place in many cases when a case of plague was discovered was that before the constable could arrive to take charge of the house, goods liable to injury by disinfection were removed, by the door, or if too late for this, were taken on to the roof, always easily accessible, and deposited in some neighbouring house.
7. The question then presented itself whether the passive resistance of the population to disinfection might not be overcome and whether if the Chinese could be brought to realize the necessity for it, their attitude might not be entirely changed. The East finds great difficulty in seeing eye to eye with the West. But the Chinese are a reasonable people; they are accustomed to have Government orders explained to them, and eveu Imperial edicts always contain the reason for their issue, as our own laws down to a late period embodied the reason for the net in the preamble. I determined to make the attempt, feeling it my duty to exercise directly any personal influence that I might possess to assuage the growing feeling of antagonism to the Sanitary Authorities and induce the people to take upon them- selves the active participation in the work of sanitation.
8. Early in April 1 broached the matter to Dr. ATKINSON, the Principal Civil Medical Officer and President of the Sanitary Board, and proposed to him that the Sanitary Board should hand over to me a district of the most plague stricken portion of the City of Victoria of an area sufficiently large to give a prac- tical basis of comparison of results but not too large for my personal supervision. He consulted the members of the Board and obtained their assent, and after consultation with the Acting Medical Officer of Health he suggested that I should take over a block bounded on the North by Second Street and on the South by The block Third Street with the Wai On and Sheung Fung Lanes lying between. thus handed over comprised the houses on the South side of Second Street and on the North side of Third Street. These streets have an evil record in every epi- demic of plague since 1894. They are inhabited by very poor people, but the houses themselves are by no means the worst in the City. Second Street is 30 feet wide, while the houses being three-storied averaged about 30 feet in height, and
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