Sessional_Paper_1896 — Page 455

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Enclosure 2.

there has been no general exodus of the population such as occurred in 1894, and business has so far not suffered to any appreciable extent, except perhaps from the imposition of quarantine by the Governments of Singapore and Batavia.

10. Early in April, the Sanitary Board recommended that, in view of the danger involved in sending inmates from plague infected houses to Canton, where the disease had by that time again assumed formidable dimensions, sheds should be erected in the Colony for their segregation while their clothing was being dis- infected. Three such sheds have accordingly been erected, one each in the Eastern. Western, and Central portions of the City, and are being used for the temporary housing of the inmates of infected houses whilst the latter are being cleansed and disinfected.

11. On the 6th April, I found it necessary to apply to His Excellency the General Officer Commanding for military assistance to aid in the work of house to house visitations and cleansing, and he was good enough to detail for that work 12 men from the Royal Engineers and subsequently 17 men from the Rifle Brigade and 3 Non-commissioned Officers who are cheerfully performing their difficul work in a most efficient manner. They are being remunerated at the same rate as that fixed in 1894.

12. The search party visits and inspects each Chinese house in the Colony about once in every ten days, and from the 25th February to the 21st April no fewer than 3,200 houses, comprising 8,330 floors, each floor forming, with few exceptions, a separate dwelling were thoroughly cleansed, disinfected and, in many cases, also lime-washed by the "Whitewash Brigade." This work is still in progress. The total number of occupied Chinese houses in the City is 6,350, but as a number of these are occupied by well-to-do Chinese no interference on the part of the Sanitary Board is necessary. It is hoped that before long every house in the City requiring attention will have been cleansed and lime-washed.

13. Having described in detail the sanitary measures which have been taken cope with the disease, I now proceed to deal with the subject from a medical point of view.

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14. I am informed by Dr. Lowsox that the type of the disease is identically the same as in 1894, a full description of which is given in that officer's repor, forwarded in my despatch No. 122 of the 16th April, 1895.

15. I enclose a return showing the number of cases and deaths to date, and the number of cases which have occurred during each week since the 4th January.

16. I may here mention that in order to ensure all possible accuracy in the statistics, the bodies of all Chinese whose deaths are registered but the causes of whose deaths have not been certified by a medical practitioner are examined before burial by the Medical Officer of Health. In proof of the necessity of this step I may state that that officer found that between the 8th February and the 30th April as many as 50 deaths from plague had been erroneously registered as due to other causes, principally Consumption, Bronchitis and Intermittent Fever.

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17. The mortality generally, as compared with 1894, shows a slight improve- The total number of Chinese cases, up to noon on the 4th instant, was €75 and the number of deaths 602, or a little more than 89 per cent., whereas in 1894 the mortality among the Chinese who were treated in hospitals was 93 per cent, and it must also be borne in mind that in the latter calculation no account is taken of dead bodies found in the streets and sent at once to the burial ground, while the returns for the current year include all deaths from the plague. There are, however, grounds for believing that children are more liable to infection than was the case in that year.