Sessional_Paper_1886-1887 — Page 245

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(3.)

Further report by the Colonial Surgeon.

The great mortality is not among the children generally, but principally amongst infants received in both Convents. These in most cases are suffering from Trismus when received; a disease caused by exposure to rapid changes of temperature, insufficient clothing and diet, and defective ventilation, such as are to be found in the crowded houses of the lower classes of the Chinese and amongst the boat population. The case of a child when once the attack has well set in is hopeless. This is common in all tropical climates. These infants are received at all hours of the day and night and mostly naked or being wrapped only in a piece of old rag or paper. I saw one case in the French Convent moribund; it had been received an hour previously. In another case the patient had just died, and had been received only three quarters of an hour. No medical attendance would have been of any service in either case. These were the only cases there at the time of my inspection.

In the Italian Convent were two more cases, both in a hopeless condition for which medical assistance would have been of no avail. If these cases are to have medical attendance, a resident. Medical Officer would be required in both Convents. In St. Kilda, one of the British Islands, this disease carries off 64 per cent. of the children born there. It would be impossible for any medical man to do any good among the Chinese, for nothing would be heard of a case until it was hopeless or dead; and it is not to be wondered at that, considering the condition of the lower classes of Chinese in their houses and boats, so many children die, but that so many live.

30th December, 1886.

(Signed)

PH. B. C. AYRES.

Colonial Surgeon.