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55. The training in psychiatric nursing, which started in 1959, is now well established at the Castle Peak Hospital and the first two locally trained psychiatric nurses had their names entered in the relevant part of the Nurses Register following on the final examination held in December 1962.

56. Of 230 nurses applying for registration in the general nursing part of the Register, 215 were accepted of whom 181 were from the approved Training Schools in the Colony and 27 were nurses who had trained outside Hong Kong. Some of the latter were requited before registration to sit and pass the Board's examination and others were referred for further training before being accepted. Seven nurses were re-admitted to the Register whose registration had lapsed during absence from the Colony. Three names were deleted from the Register, two on account of death and one on departure from the Colony,

57. No disciplinary investigations or inquiries took place during the year.

Midwives Bourd

58. The Board met quarterly and examinations were held during the months of April, July, October and January. A total of 186 candi- dates entered for the Board's examinations, of whom 170 were suc- cessful.

59. There were 173 applications for registration and 171 were ac- cepted; 169 of the applicants had completed their training in Hong Kong and 2 who qualified in Australia were accepted without further examina- tion. Of the remainder, one was rejected and the other, who had com- pleted Part I of the Central Midwives Board examination held in the United Kingdom, was required to undergo six months further training before sitting the Board's examination. Three applications for restora- tion were granted and 2 names deleted from the register an account of death.

60. The Preliminary Investigation Committee met once to consider a disciplinary charge but found no grounds for an inquiry by the Board, 61. During the year, a revised edition of the Handbook for Midwives was approved by the Board and later issued to practising midwives and to Training Schools,

Radiation Board

62. The full Board did not meet during the year as the main business pending was the enactment of the proposed Radiation (Control of Radio- active Substances) Regulations and the Radiation (Control of Irradiating

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Apparatus) Regulations. These draft regulations were being studied in the United Kingdom and were not received until towards the end of the year, when they were forwarded to the drafting sub-committee for con- sideration of the amendments proposed.

Medical Advisory Board

63. The Board met four times during the year and had under con- sideration the drafı Medical Clinics Bill, the problem of cigarette smok- ing and lung cancer and the Report on Tuberculosis in Hong Kong by Professor F. HEAF, C.M.G. and Dr. Wallace Fox. Advice was given re- garding certain amendments to the Medical Clinics Bill, which was other- wise supported in principle, and on the problem of lung cancer. The Heaf/Fox Report was still under consideration by the Board at the end of the year.

IL PUBLIC HEALTH

GENERAL COMMENTS

64. The general level of the public health was well maintained throughout the year despite increasing densities of population in the urban areas, inadequate housing in the most congested areas, limited water supplies and some 25% of the population depending on a night soil collection service for sanitation.

65. During May and June 1962 there was a sudden influx of illegal immigrants from China estimated to number 140,000. In the following September typhoon Wanda rendered many thousands of residents home- less who were crowded together in emergency reception centres at a time when cholera was occurring in the urban areas. However despite these potential dangers no epidemic of serious proportions occurred.

66. Cholera El Tor re-appeared in August 1962, after a complete absence of any evidence of cholera vibrios persisting after the end of the 1961 outbreak when the last case had occurred during the first week of November. A severe epidemic of measles occurred during the winter months following on a period of 18 months of low endemicity. Notifica tions of poliomyelitis during the year under review were the highest on record and a change in the epidemiological pattern was noted towards the end of the year. there being an unusually high incidence of paralytic disease during December and January (normally the months of lowest incidence) and a shift from Type I virus infections to Types II and III. There was a rise in morbidity from tuberculosis which appeared to be

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