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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 9TH APRIL, 1864.
I. THE POLICE.
This body continues to be distinguished for its extreme healthiness even more markedly than in previous years. This is shewn in the following tables:
Table I. shews the admissions into and deaths in the Hospital of Members of the Police Force during every month of 1863. Table II. shews the rate per cent of Sickness and Mortality of the Force during the same year.
With an average strength 25 per cent over that of 1862, the deaths in 1863 have only exceeded those of the former year by one; and the rate of sickness has little more than reached half of the percentage of 1882.
The men have for the most part become quite reconciled to the monthly examination for the detection of Venereal disease; and the good effects resulting from the system continue to be as marked as formerly recorded, in the smaller number of affected men and the greater facility of treating the cases of disease met with. I am glad to be able to record that there has been a great improvement in the number of impostors feigning disease to avoid disagreable duty or punishment for its neglect. The number admitted under this head amounting only to 25 in 1863 against 50 in 1862.
The force is well clothed and well housed, and as might be expected under such circumstances is not peculiarly liable to any special class of disease.
Table XII., kindly furnished to me by Dr. Home, the Principal Military Medical Officer, gives a comparative return of the health of the Troops serving in Hongkong.
II. THE GOVERNMENT CIVIL HOSPITAL.
Tables III. and VI. give the classification and result of treatment of the various patients admitted into this Hospital, with the percentage of Mortality during the last five years.
Table IV., kindly sent me by the Resident Surgeon Dr. Adams, gives similar information in regard to the Seaman's Hos- pital. It will be noticed that the death ratio in this establishment exhibits an improvement upon that of the preceding year, but any fair rate cannot be looked for until both the building and appliances for treatment are placed upon a very different footing than they are at present. In comparing the return of this Hospital with that of the Government Civil Hospital it must not be forgotten that the patients in the former neither comprise destitutes or schemers, which, as will be seen by the tables, forin a considerable item in the number admitted into the latter institution.
In the Civil Hospital the result of treatment has not been seen so successful as I should have desired. Indeed judging by statistics only, the rate of Mortality has greatly exceeded that of any year since 1858. This excess is however much more apparent than real, for a glance at the Tables will shew that the great increase may be fairly attributed in a large measure to Cholera, to which I have already referred and to starvation: two accidental sources of mortality. Of the former there were no less than ten fatal cases, to which may be fairly added six cases of Diarrhoea, fatal at the time of the outbreak of Cholera; of the latter there were thirteen deaths, making a total of twenty-nine, which if deducted from the number recorded, reduces the rate of mortality to a not unusual average. In proof of the correctness of this view it will be seen that the increase has been principally among the Chinese; the death ratio of Europeans scarcely exceeding that of 1861, and the ratio of colored persons being less than 1862.
It is a subject for serious consideration that thirteen persons should have died in Hospital from the effects of starvation, besides sixteen whose bodies were picked up by the Police and brought to the Hospital for examination; 20 deaths from this cause therefore of which I am cognizant, and two of the number were Europeans. With reference to the Chinese it is extremely difficult to suggest an advisable means of preventing or diminishing the frequency of a spectacle so harrowing, as any effecient relief offered to the starving mendicants would at once make this Colony the almshouse of the South of China. No similar argument applies in the case of Europeans, and I am certain that such an occurrence requires only to be pointed out to be prevented for the future.
III. THE GAOL.
Table V. shews the rate of Sickness and Mortality in this establishment.
It will be noted that the death rate was less than one-half of that of the previous year. The total number of fatal cases only amounted to 12, and none of those were the result of incarceration. Most providentially, when Cholera was committing such ravages at Stone Cutters' Island, and striking its victims in our crowded streets and among the taverns in Queen's Road, only a single case occurred in Victoria Gaol. An exemption more remarkable from the fact that in 1862 Cholera occurred there in a most malignant form and was almost entirely confined within the limits of the Chinese prison.
Since my last Report the whole of the Chinese prisoners have been transferred to the new buildings, and the establishment is now clean, wholesome and well ventilated, in every way leading us to expect a continuance of the satisfactory sanitary condition of Victoria Gaol. This has further been improved by the removal of the Convicts, or Chinese under sentence of more than 12 months imprisonment, to Stone Cutters' Island, which has permitted the new buildings to be kept in a com- paratively uncrowded condition.
The numbers confined in Victoria Gaol during the year 1863, were :----
Europeans, Indians, Chinese,
Total,.
521
209
.2,611
.3,431
But the daily average was 5331, of which number only 12 died.
An important improvement has been introduced in the manner of shackling prisoners sent out to work on the roads. Instead of the cumbersome double rod which formerly made the prisoner nearly useless as a laborer and rendered him ex- tremely liable to ulcers and chafes on the legs, a small ring and light chain have been substituted, which remove to a great extent those inconveniences.
IV. THE CONVICT HULK.
In the middle of Junc the ship Royal Saxon, having been purchased and fitted up as a Convict Hulk by the Government, was moored between Stone Cutters' Island and the Mainland, and the Island declared a Convict Station.
280 convicts having been examined and pronounced fit for outdoor work were sent on board, and in the opinion of every qualified person who examined the excellent arrangements, these prisoners should have enjoyed a fair share of health.
The Hulk was visited daily by Mr. Richardson, the Surgeon appointed to perform that duty, and was inspected by me about once a fortnight.
Table XIII. appears to point to a result altogether unexpected; for out of a total of 384 prisoners received on board up to the 31st of December no less than 41 died of disease-being a death ratio of 10.67 per cent. But when we come to analyse this great mortality we find that 20 died of Cholera, and 6 of Diarrhoea connected with an epidemic of Cholera, which raged
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