Sessional_Paper_1896 — Page 752

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Mr. WHITEHEAD-There are no disabilities placed upon the native practitioner in Hongkong or in India. The present law in Hongkong places the so-called doctors or quacks at no disability as to suing.-Qualified practitioners are clamouring for it in India.

THE PRESIDENT-If you register a man you practically give him a standing as a doctor, and he would be able to put up a board setting forth that he is a duly quali fied medical practitioner.-The time for that may not have come here, but they should be registered.

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Mr. WHITEHEAD-Does the native medical man in India have a diploma and is he required to pass a certain standard ?--Certainly, there is uo more difference between a medical school in Calcutta and a medical school in London. The years of study and examination are identical, so much so that educated natives coming into the Indian army come in on the same standing as Europeans. We had two in Netley recently who beat Englishmen, and yet took their lectures in Calcutta.

How do you think the Government could best get accurate and reliable returns of diseases and deaths at the Tung Wa Hospital ?—I suppose they get them now.

What would be the best course for the Government to follow in Hongkong to get reliable returns?—I suppose you want to get a synonymous table of diseases giving the Chinese names and the English names. The classification must not be very minute to

start with.

But who are the individuals to be employed who are qualified to give truthful returns? We have been for years in Hongkong and thousands of people have died in the Tung Wa, and the Government only recently took steps to obtain reliable returns of the causes of death.

THE PRESIDENT―They had no returns from European doctors.

Mr. WHITEHEAD-They had no reliable returns, because the Chinese so-called doctors are not qualified to give truthful returns. What I would like to get at is what you would recommend us to do to get reliable returns. It is absolutely necessary to do something.

THE PRESIDENT--At present a native trained in Western medical science-Mr. U I-KAI -sees to the patients in the Tung Wa Hospital, and he certifies as to the nature of the sickness from which they die. He is supervised by the Colonial Surgeon, and the returns he supplies are the returns on which the Registrar bases his returns.

WITNESS-Does he live at the Tung Wa Hospital ?

THE PRESIDENT-No; he is attached to the Government Civil Hospital as Assistant Apothecary.

Dr. Ho KAI-He was an apprenticed apothecary, and then joined the Chinese College of Medicine and had four years' training, and went back to the Civil Hospital. They increased his salary and he is at present attached to the Civil Hospital as Assistant Apothecary.

Mr. WHITEHEAD-Did he have a diploma from the College of Medicine?

Dr. Ho KAI-Yes, he passed all his examinations.

THE PRESIDENT-Would you recommend that, instead of having Mr. U I-KAI or an officer attached to some other department, a Chinese trained in Western medical science should be permanently attached to the Tung Wa Hospital for the purpose of giving accurate returns? In the surgical department there should be a man trained in surgery. As regards registration of deaths it depends on whom you have. If the man is a well-trained Chinese doctor it would be all right, but if he is not qualified then you should have an Englishman. It is a vital question to know and diagnose a disease.