[
    {
        "id": 213081,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1993",
        "page_number": 149,
        "title": "RAS-1993",
        "content_text": "130\n\nTo eradicate this focus of infection, it was resumed by the Government the following year. In the subsequent re-development, the old houses were demolished and replaced by new ones provided with windows, privies and space in front and behind as required by newly enacted legislation. Many other actions were taken to deal with the situation. The whole of Hong Kong was subjected to a thorough cleaning up. The laws related to public health were amended to impose strict measures against the Epidemic, including compulsory reporting and removal of patients. To enforce this, house-to-house search was conducted by British soldiers, against the violent objection of the Chinese community who regarded it as unwarranted intrusion into the privacy of their homes. Additional hospital facilities for the isolation of patients were hastily made and as the epidemic progressed, more had to be opened up from time to time.\n\nWithin the administration, responsibility for the health of Hong Kong was divided between the Sanitary Board and the Colonial Surgeon at that time. The membership of the Sanitary Board was as follows: the Registrar General, the equivalent of a Secretary for Chinese Affairs, as Chairman, the Surveyor General, the equivalent of a Director of Public Works, the Captain Superintendent of Police, the Colonial Surgeon, and five other members. After the Epidemic broke out, a Permanent Committee was appointed to recommend necessary legislation and bye-laws for taking vigorous action. In the post of Colonial Surgeon, the equivalent of the present-day Director of Health, was Dr. P.B.C. Ayres who had held it since 1872. Under him was Dr. J.A. Lowson, whose diary we are going to look into.\n\nJames Alfred Lowson was born in 1866. He graduated from Edinburgh University in medicine in 1888 at the age of 22. He came to Hong Kong, probably in or before 1892, because in October that year he represented Hong Kong at interport cricket in Shanghai. On the return trip, his ship, the S.S. Bokhara, was sunk off the Pescadores in a typhoon. He and one other member of the cricket team were among only twenty-five survivors out of about 150 passengers and crew on board. In 1894, at the age of 28, his posting was medical superintendent of the Government Civil Hospital, at the onset of the Epidemic. At that time, in the medical and health service, there were only three full-time medical officers, Dr. Ayres, Dr. J.M. Atkinson and Dr. Lowson, in that order of seniority, assisted by some private practitioners on a part-time basis. In the March 1st entry of his",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213082,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1993",
        "page_number": 150,
        "title": "RAS-1993",
        "content_text": "131\n\ndiary, Lowson recorded that Dr. Atkinson, who succeeded Dr. Ayres as Colonial Surgeon later, went on leave on that day, leaving him with an address in England. It was because of Atkinson's absence that Lowson found himself in Atkinson's position as second-in-command in the early phase of the Epidemic.\n\nIt is not known until recently that Dr. Lowson had kept a diary. To tell you how the diary was brought to light, I have to take you up to Caine Lane which is below Caine Road on the mid-level of Hong Kong Island. There stands an old building of typical neo-classical design which was built in 1905. Used by the Department of Health as a storage depot in recent years, it was formerly the Government Pathological Institute. Having decided to declare it as a historic building for preservation in 1990, the Government further agreed to turn it over to the Hong Kong College of Pathologists to convert it into the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences. By this transformation, to quote from the Introduction in a brochure prepared by the architects, the idea that 'matching history with the appropriateness of building function lends relevance and a sense of continuity,' is realised. To launch an appeal for donations, Professor Faith Ho of the Department of Pathology, University of Hong Kong and President of the Hong Kong College of Pathologists, gave an interview to the South China Morning Post. The article, which appeared on February 13th, 1993, came to the notice of Mrs. Frances Ashburner, a grand-daughter of Dr. Lowson, now living in Australia. She then had the diary photographed in microfiche and sent it to Professor Ho, who kindly gave me a copy. I have to thank both Professor Ho and Mrs. Ashburner for permission to present and publish this paper.\n\nBefore we open the diary, we should take a look at the book itself which is also of historic interest. It was printed and published by Kelly and Walsh, the oldest bookshop in Hong Kong, now still in business in Prince's Building. The title on the cover reads: \"The Imperial English and Chinese Almanac for 1894, being the 57th and 58th year of the Reign of H.M. Queen Victoria and the 20th and 21st years of the Kuang-Hsu Reign. No. 1, Price One Dollar, Interleaved with Blotting Paper.\"\n\nThe first thing that struck me when I turned the pages of the diary was the handwriting which was bad, uneven and untidy. Some words, written in bold and large letters were undecipherable. The impression I got was that most of the entries were made by Lowson at the end of a long day.\n\nPage 150\nPage 151",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302",
        "rank": 0
    }
]