Sessional_Paper_1887-1888 — Page 222

Of the three not under treatment two decreased in weight, and the one who is 78

the same.

years old remained A man of 78 that can digest the ordinary Gaol diet and keep his weight must have his digestive powers in excellent order.

There were 78 opium smokers of over one mace a day received into Gaol of whom 17 were taken into Hospital, none of them having very serious complaints as Table XIc. shows.

Moreover it must be remembered that opium smoking prisoners not under treatment have the ordinary rice and water diet one day every week which would tend to decrease their weight, notwith- standing this however, most of those weighing under a hundred pounds remain of the average weight. The Chinese of the chain-gang are picked from the strongest of the prisoners and their average weight is 110 lbs. It is only reasonable to expect that those who are above the average weight on admission should not add to that weight on a Gaol diet which though sufficient and wholesome cannot be said to be fattening. These tables which have been given for the last six or seven years with my Annual Reports prove conclusively that the opium smoker can discontinue the habit at once without any treatment whatever and without any detriment to himself, and that it is idle to talk of the suffering which the deprivation of the opium entails. I do not think the suffering attendant on that deprivation is more than that of a tobacco smoker if so great.

Opium smoking held forth as the Chinaman's greatest vice is certainly not to be compared in its evil effects with the European vice of spirit drinking, a habit to which the Chinese as a nation are not given. Instead of making such an outery and wasting large sums of money in trying to reclaim the Chinaman one cannot but reflect with how much greater advantage we might look nearer home and attend to our own need of reform, in respect of intemperance.

From the 1st September Dr. MARQUES took over the medical charge of the Gaol from me, and I again took medical charge of the Lock Hospital.

LUNATIC ASYLUM.

Table XId. gives the number, nationality, disease and description of patients admitted to the Lunatic Asylum during the past year.

Nine were admitted during the year, of these three remain.

Fortunately there were no females in the Asylum at the end of the year and it was therefore possible to utilize the empty ward as a small-pox Hospital for European females.

TUNG-WA HOSPITAL.

The total number of patients treated in this Hospital was 2,231 of these 1,213 died, 376 having been admitted already in a moribund condition. The great majority admitted into this Institution are incurables in a destitute condition.

The number of out-patients treated was 130,910.

There remained in the Hospital at the end of the year, 158 cases.

There were no small-pox cases in the small-pox wards of this Hospital at the beginning of the year, but 310 were admitted during the last two months, of these 221 died. The majority of the admissions were children a large proportion of whom were under four years of age and nearly all unvaccinated. 2,138 vaccinations were successfully performed by the vaccinators attached to the Hospital, which is entirely under the management of the Chinese.

TEMPORARY LOCK HOSPITAL.

This year the new Lock Hospital will be given up to the special use for which it was designed. For the last two years it has been occupied as a portion of the Government Civil Hospital, but the new wing being nearly finished this accommodation will no longer be required.

On the 1st of September, 1887, by an order from Her Majesty' Government the compulsory medical examination of women was abolished. This decision having been announced to them the Europeans, Japanese, and Chinese went to the Registrar General and petitioned for a continuance of the exami- nations, the Chinese requesting that I should again take charge of this duty.

Every woman was interviewed separately by the Registrar General at his office with a view to ascertaining if this request was entirely voluntary and whether any pressure had been put upon the petitioners by the keepers of houses of ill-fame. But such was not found to be the case.

On their attending the Hospital when I took charge on the 1st of September, I made it perfectly clear to them that they were not compelled to continue their visits unless they wished to do so, and every woman admitted to Hospital has since been told that she is under no compulsion to remain, that she is free to go or to stay as she pleases and only in one or two trivial cases have I even had any occasion to advise them to remain. The attendance weekly has been very regular and orderly and I have had no trouble with them whatever. I have no hesitation in saying that had these examinations been discon- tinued it would have been nothing short of a disaster to the health of the Colony. It was scarcely to be expected that women of three different nationalities should have shown such unanimous good