686569-1879-Colonial-Surgeons-Annual-Report- — Page 3

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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 9TH JULY, 1879.

Orders being given that the cells should only be washed on dry sunny days soon decreased this class of cases to an inconsiderable number. The case of Hernia was an old standing irreducible one. Operation revealed that a piece of omentum twisted round the gut was the cause of the obstruction, the gut was released from the constriction, but the old adhesions prevented its return to the abdomen, and the patient, a poor old debilitated creature, sunk and died soon after the operation. The case of Alco- holia was a poor old Indian named JERRY, who used to get his living by blacking sailors' boots and used to hang round the grog shops in Queen's Road trying for customers. It appears he more often got his pay in the form of a drink than anything else, and was frequently in Gaol for being drunk and incapable. This time he was brought in as usual, he hardly recovered his senses, was unable to take food, and died soon after admission. On enquiry it appeared he had lived on nothing but drink for many days.

There was one very curious case of feigned insanity this year in the Gaol. This was the prisoner NEWMAN on remand for murder. For nearly three months, this man never spoke except on one occasion, and so skilfully did he feign chronic dementia that had I not seen him from the first I should have been very doubtful about his case, as it was. I was quite sure he was sane. He was seen by other Medical men of more experience than myself in psychological cases, and they all had great doubts of his sanity. During his examination before the Magistrate, he kept up the sham most successfully, apparently taking no note of the proceedings. Yet when he suddenly gave it up a few days before his trial, he showed how attentive he had been by his analysis of the evidence, and how carefully he had noted things during the time he had been feigning by bringing a charge against one of the Warders of unnecessary cruelty, giving dates and naming events that occurred about the same time. He gave in, remarking "he'd sooner die than live fifteen or twenty years in Gaol after all." All through this case many important symptoms were absent. The temperature never varied from health, the skin was moist and no particular smell could be detected, the tongue was clean, bowels regular and pulse normal. He would not take any solid food for weeks, but he took enough soup and milk to keep a man in good condition, he never lost weight and though he would do nothing he was told to do, yet when compulsion was used he was very careful to avoid being hurt in any way. electricity or the cold douche was used, he shouted and struggled, but never uttered a word. contrived to do with very little sleep, but never slept less than three or four hours in the twenty-four. The symptoms were, his silence, his doing with little sleep, stripping himself naked, obscene and dirty habits, daubing the walls with night soil, and only once his own face and body, singing to himself, and a palsied motion of the head with twitching of the muscles of the face, but this only when he knew he was being watched. Two feigned attempts at suicide also when he knew he was being watched. These were very bungling attempts, very different from the cunning usually shewn in suicidal mania. He at last gave in when confined in a cell, specially prepared, so that he was watched at all times, without his knowledge though he suspected it, the trial was then too great and he gave in all at once. It was evident that he had at some time or other seen or been attendant on some case of madness, without which I do not think a man of his class could have made such a faithful copy. He was cool and self-possessed in his last moments making a short speech from the scaffold to the by-standers.

When He

There is considerable difficulty with the sick in Hospital which is always overcrowded, the Chinese only getting about 200 cubic feet of space per man, and the Europeans about 500 cubic feet per man; it is true the cells have large windows and only barred gates opening on to the corridors, but in winter the windows at any rate have to be closed and the ventilation is anything but good, added to which the night soil bucket is in the cell, though the dry earth system in use keeps the smell from becoming overpowering. The other cells of the prison, with the exception of the European and separate cells, are just as much overcrowded. The close atmosphere of the cells and corridors at unlocking time in the morning is very bad, but all these things have been reported on many times by myself and others. Though the number of admissions to the Gaol this year is less than usual, yet the daily average number of prisoners is greatly in excess, and consequently the overcrowding is worse than it ever was.

1873,-

1874,

1875,

1876,

1877

1878..

Total number of prisoners admitted to Gaol.

Daily average number of prisoners,

4,656

388

3,645

350.4

4,023

374.06

4,065

432.60

3,964

395.22

3,803

519.10

There have been the usual number of opium cases, but with no case has there been any trouble or difficulty; they are not allowed any opium or other narcotics, and seldom require any particular attention. One old woman said she had been an opium smoker for twenty-five years. She was sixty years old and anæmic, was treated for the Anæmia and improved very much in general health, but her opium smoking was entirely ignored.