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By Dr. Yarr.
18. What was the average duration?
A.-I can hardly say, because they went away.
I have had 4 cooks and 4 boys, 3 assistant cooks died. I have had I don't know how many coolies. They have had
to be carried away in chairs and embarked for Canton.
By the Chairman.
19. You cannot tell the duration?
A.-I cannot, because they stayed as long as they could do their work, and then they were removed.
By Dr. Cantlie.
20. Can you attribute this fever to anything in the neighbourhood?
A.-I think I can. There have been terrible smells about. There has been a smell from the North-West of my house and from the direction of the Tung Wah
·Hospital and the China town below, so much so that I have been obliged to shut my front windows. There is another smell we perceive from the west of the house, but this is not sewer air, being more like that of rotten vegetation. Smells of sewer air have been very perceptible in the various highways. They have been present in varying degrees of intensity on the upper levels generally, but I think they are to be met with in their greatest perfection at the back of the tanks on the Caine Road, just before you reach the London Mission House, and in Castle Road, which runs up from Caine Road to Robinson Road. At these places, especially the former, they have been so bad, and are still, that one is obliged to stop one's air passages as he goes along. I have noticed that when the wind becomes more northerly the stinks increase in number and attain their maximum potency. I will also, if you will allow me, as China town is in the west and comes within the scope of your inquiry, say a few words as to its condition. I think that the effluvia arising from the mass of human beings terribly overcrowded in houses packed so densely in China town, without perflation by means of open spaces, and the utter disregard shown of ventilation and cubic or superficial space, and the insanitary habits of the native population have been factors in bringing about the sick- ness in the western district, in addition to the prevalence of sewer air.
By the Chairman.
21. From your observation in your neighbourhood do you consider the drainage defective?
A.-My house is not connected with the so-called sewerage. The drainage from my house runs on to the hill to the north of my house and spreads itself over the ground, and is observed giving rise to some very rank vegetation and no doubt pol- luting the soil. There is a pipe which conveys it down the wall, and it runs on to the open ground and gives rise to rank vegetation, and if you were to dig down no doubt you would find the soil polluted for several feet, Another thing I would like to speak about is the water supply. There is none laid on to my house. It has all to be carried by hand and stored in barrels in a back-yard in proximity to a Chinese latrine, and therefore exposed to the absorption of impurity.
22.-Where does it come from?
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