713105-1866-GOVERNMENT-NOTIFICATION-NO-70 — Page 1

No. 69.

THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 12TH MAY, 1866.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

189

His Excellency Governor SIR RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, C.B., has been pleased to appoint Provisionally, until Her Majesty's pleasure may be known, JOHN DENT, Esquire, to be a Member of he Legislative Council of Hongkong, vice the Honorable FRANCIS CHOMLEY, resigned.

By Order,

Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 12th May, 1866.

W. T. MERCER.

Colonial Secretary.

No. 70.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

It is hereby notified that Government Notification No. 121 of 1st November, 1861, is cancelled, and that JOHN DENT, Esquire, resumes his functions as Consul for the Kingdom of Italy, from this date. By Order,

Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 12th May, 1866.

No. 71.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary.

By direction of His Excellency Governor SIR RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, C.B., the following Letter with Report of the Commission appointed by His Excellency to inquire into the existence of an Epidemic in the Colony stated to be Yellow Fever, is published for general information.

By Order,

Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 12th May,

1866.

W. T. MERCER,

Colonial Secretary.

HONGKONG, 30th April, 1866.

SIR-I have the honor to forward for the information of His Excellency The Governor, the enclosed Report of the Commission appointed by him, to investigate the existence of a certain Epidemic Disease stated to be Yellow Fever.

I have the honor to explain, that this Report has not been signed by Dr. Bernard, as he states that he is no longer a member of the Commission, having resigned the appointment through the Naval Commander-in-Chief.

I have at the same time, the honor to forward the enclosed Document, which we have received from certain Inhabitants the Districts of Staunton, Elgin, and Aberdeen Streets, complaining of the Sanitary State of these Districts, to which we g to direct His Excellency's attention.-I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient servant,

The Honorable W. T. MERCER, Esq.,

Colonial Secretary,

&c., &c., &c.

WILLIAM DICK, M.D.,

Chairman.

HONGKONG, 30th April, 1866.

In accordance with the authority granted under the hand of His Excellency Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, Knight, Companion of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of Hongkong its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same, bearing date the 16th March last, the undersigned have taken into their eleration the existence of a certain Epidemic Disease now prevalent in the Colony represented to be Yellow Fever and Are taken the evidence of various persons in writing of and concerning the same; which evidence is annexed hereunto.

The facts connected with the appearance of the aforesaid Epidemic Fever as they appear in that evidence may be briefly . In the month of March 1865 a Febrile Disease, attended by Yellowness of the skin and other appearances, symptoms Jaundice, broke out in the Victoria Gaol and during the next five months 373 Prisoners were attacked by it, and in forty of e cases, the result was fatal. Towards the end of December of the same year other cases of this Disease occurred in the

and up to the 18th of March last 404 new cases and 23 deaths had occurred from it in that establishment.

3. It further appears that about the same time that the Disease existed in the Gaol in the earlier part of 1865, it also * in other parts of the Town, and more especially in that District of the city known as Taipingshan, which is inhabited by the poorer classes of the Chinese population; that many cases originating in that locality were treated in the terment Civil Hospital; that numerous other cases of it were treated privately by Chinese Medical Practitioners and that the one case, as in the other, the mortality caused by it, was very considerable.

It was further stated by one of the Chinese Medical Practitioners examined that the same Disease had prevailed in in 1864 and that considerable mortality had been caused by it in that city, both during that and the previous years. 5. It is also stated that the Disease prevailed chiefly among the poor, and that it seldom attacked the richer portions of community.

6. It is sufficient to refer to the evidence of Dr. Murray the Colonial Surgeon and to that of Mr. Douglas the Superinten- of the Gaol to show that the Disease did not originate in the first instance within that establishment itself, but that it ought into it by newly arrived prisoners confined therein, that subsequently however other prisoners were affected, who en confined in the Gaol for various periods before the Fever showed itself.