and evening classes are held in the Hong Kong Technical College for technicians in private employment. Onc Dental Surgery Assistant under training for dental nursing in Penang, Malaysia, under a World Health Organization Fellowship returned during the year. Two Dental Surgery Assistants were under training for dental oursing in Singapore under Fellowships awarded by the World Health Organization. Three Dental Surgery Assistants were due to go to Penang for similar training in January 1971. Due to unforeseen circumstances the period of their training has been delayed by about three months. A Dental Nurse is now on a 12 month Dental Nurse Tutor Course in New Zealand under a World Health Organization Fellowship to assist, on her completion of the course, in the training of our own Dental Nurses; another Dental Nurse returned after having successfully completed such a course.
FORENSIC PATHOLOGY
(Table 39)
63. The Forensic Pathology Service consists of a main laboratory in Police Headquarters, Hong Kong, and another laboratory in the Mong Kok Police Station, Kowloon. It deals mainly with medico-legal work in close association with the Royal Hong Kong Police Force. Although the administration of the public mortuaries at Victoria and Kowloon is in the hands of the Medical and Health Department Institute of Pathology, homicidal deaths and deaths under suspicious circumstances still remain in the hands of the Forensic Pathologists.
64.
GOVERNMENT LABORATORY
(Table 40)
The Laboratory provides chemical and related scientific serv- ices for Government Departments. During the year 32,078 items were examined by the professional and technical staff, and this figure con- stitures an all-time record.
65. In the Forensic Science Division the examination of questioned documents continued on an increasing scale, and new techniques were developed for the visualization of latent fingerprints on paper and other materials. The characteristics of numerous home-made bombs were determined.
66, Officers of the Narcotics Section assayed the largest ever volume of illicit drugs during the year, including more than 6,000 lbs. of raw opium.
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67. Items handled by the General Division showed a substantial increase over the previous year. The most notable increases involved work carried out under the Dangerous Goods Ordinance and the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance.
68. Surveys were carried out on the presence of mercury in tuna fish and lead in preserved eggs. During the year work to provide extra working space by the building of a small extension in the laboratory was completed.
MEDICAL AND HEALTH DEPARTMENT, INSTITUTE OF PATHOLOGY (Tables 41-44)
69. The Medical and Health Department Institute of Pathology operates a number of clinical and public health laboratories providing laboratory investigations in both curative and preventive medicine. It serves mainly Government hospitals, clinics and various public health divisions. It also helps to conduct laboratory examinations for the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals. Work arising from Queen Mary Hospital on pathology, clinical biochemistry and bacteriology is under- taken by the University Department of Pathology which receives a grant from Government for such services. During the year the total number of examinations undertaken by the Institute exceeded that of the previous year by 149,114, indicating an increase of about 7.8%. The increase was mainly in the Histopathology, Haematology, Bacteriology and Chemical Pathology sections.
Morbid Anatomy and Histopathology
70. A total of 753 post-mortem examinations were carried out during the year, of which 413 had medico-legal implications. The brains of 45 dogs were examined for the presence of Negri bodies (indicating death from rabies) but no positive findings were obtained. Over 3,300 specimens of sputum, pleural fluid, vaginal and cervical smears and other specimens were received for cytological examination, of which 50 showed definite evidence of malignant diseases. Over 41,000 biopsy specimens were examined in order to determine the bisto- pathological diagnosis. Of these about 3,800 were benign or malignant
tumours.
Haematology and Serology and Blood Bank
71. Slightly more than 360,000 haematology specimens were examined, the most common examinations being haemoglobin estima-
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