360
HEALTH
In the course of jotting down historical notes, one repeatedly comes across references to "the first ever".
Some European was the first who ever landed in Hong Kong, but who he was will probably never be known. If the old chronicles are taken as a guide, we can assure that the first white man to land on these shores came here long before there was any idea of this place being made a British Colony and he may just as easily have been a law-abiding seaman off a sailing ship putting in for water and shelter, as a freebooter associated with the most bloodthirsty piracies.
But in the course of these notes we necessarily deal with the initial use of some amenity, such as ice, or vehicle, like rickshas, or means of communication, such as the telephone. There is also considerable interest in discovering when some custom was first observed, or even at what time the more dreaded diseases made their appearance.
Yet as we might take the case of hydrophobia, which lately has been so much in the public mind. When did it first manifest itself here? How pleasant if the Colony had been able to exclude rabies from its dog population. As far back as 1858 I find a reference to hydrophobia, seemingly first introduced that year. In fact, the year might well be a black one in our annals, for it is recorded that much sickness was prevalent, and virulent cholera also appeared in Hongkong for the first time.
It is intended to deal on occasion with the health problems of the Colony as they have affected the administrators and inhabitants in the past. We have had previous references in this column to the fever which decimated the troops, and affected civilians to a large extent. Much of this was undoubtedly common-or-garden malaria, but in those days indeed, until the late Eighties - the part of the mosquito in carrying malaria infection was practically unsuspected, and the old theory of blaming the "emanations from the soil" prevailed.
It happened that wherever building operations led to the turning up of the earth, malaria shortly followed. The obvious reason was the formation of pools where mosquitoes bred, and the proportion of Anopheles species, malaria carriers, must have been sufficient to lead to infection on a large scale, owing to the absence then of due precautions such as we know them to-day. Thus the old chronicles have frequent references to the effects of fever here in Happy Valley (then known as Wongneichong valley) in the Fifties, at West Point about the same time and as late as the Eighties and at Pokfulum in the Seventies and beyond (see 9-12-33). In this connection, it is interesting to note that quinine was already being taken as a remedy in the eighties, but in the absence of more definite knowledge of the course of infection, the incidence of fever remained high.
One of the earliest tragedies associated with fever in Hongkong, which gave the place an evil reputation, was the decimation of the military garrison at Stanley in the Forties. The conditions in the city were, however, no better for a good many years, and the infection came to be known as "Hongkong fever". We have the following in an old record:
Page 90
Page 91
360
HEALTH
In the course of jotting down historical notes, one repeatedly comes across references to "the first ever".
Some European was the first who ever landed in Hong
If Kong, but who he was will probably never be known. the old chronicles are taken as a guide, we can assure that the first white man to land on these shores came here long before there was any idea of this place being made a British Colony and he may just as easily have been a law-abiding seaman off a sailing ship putting in for water and shelter, as a freebooter associated with the most bloodthirsty piracies.
But in the course of these notes we necessarily deal with the initial use of some amenity, such as ice, or vehicle, like rickshas, or means of communication, such as the telephone. There is also considerable interest in discovering when some custom was first observed, or even at what time the more dreaded diseases made their appearance.
Yet as
We might take the case of hydrophobia, which lately has been so much in the public mind. When did it first manifest itself here? How pleasant if the Colony had been able to exclude rabies from its dog population. far back as 1858 I find a reference to hydrophobia, seemingly first introduced that year. In fact, the year might well be a black one in our annals, for it is recorded that much sickness was prevalent, and virulent cholera also appeared in Hongkong for the first time.
It is intended to deal on occasion with the health problems of the Colony as they have affected the administrators and inhabitants in the past. We have had previous references in this column to the fever which decimated the troops, and affected civilians to a large extent. Much of this was undoubtedly common-or-garden malaria, but in those days indeed, until the late Eighties - the part of the mosquito in carrying malaria infection was practically unsuspected, and the old theory of blaming the "emanations from the soil" prevailed.
It happened that wherever building operations led to the turning up of the earth, malaria shortly followed. The obvious reason was the formation of pools where mosquitoes bred, and the proportion of Anopheles species, malaria carriers, must have been sufficient to lead to infection on a large scale, owing to the absence then of due precautions such as we know them to-day. Thus the old chronicles have frequent references to the effects of fever here in Happy Valley (then known as Wongneichong valley) in the Fifties, at West Point about the same time and as late as the Eighties and at Pokfulum in the Seventies and beyond (see 9-12-33). In this connection, it is interesting to note that quinine was already being taken as a remedy in the eighties, but in the absence of more definite knowledge of the course of infection, the incidence of fever remained high.
One of the earliest tragedies associated with fever in Hongkong, which gave the place an evil reputation, was the decimation of the military garrison at Stanley in the #Forties. The conditions in the city were, however, no
better for a good many years, and the infection care to be known as "Hongkong fever". We have the following in an old record:
Page 90Page 91
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