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A-I think it is better on the buttocks. At any rate if there should be a break- down as has happened occasionally, but very rarely though, it would produce less injury upon the buttocks than upon the back of the thighs.
Q--You have constantly seen floggings here?
A-Constantly seen floggings.
Q-It was your duty to attend ?
A-I had medical charge of the Gaol up to 1887.
Q--Will you describe to the Committee the average effect of a whipping, say, of six, twelve, eighteen strokes, and so on upon a Chinaman with a rattan? I am speaking of an average Chinaman.
A--It depends on the Chinaman; you pass him according to what you think he will be able to bear. Sometimes I would not pass a man at all. For instance, I refused to pass a man for a flogging who had been flogged with six strokes a fortnight ago and he was up for a flogging of twelve. I put him down for a flogging of six, I am always present at the flogging; the Surgeon is always present. I regulate the strokes; I tell the flogger how to administer the strokes and do not let him go banging the rattan about and whirling it round his head.
Q-Take the case of an average Chinaman--a normal Chinaman; what is the effect on the body of six, twelve, and eighteen strokes ?
A-Most of them would pass out and show very little and after they have had some lotion for a few days I pass them for No. 3 labour as they will not be particularly fit for stooping for some days.
Q- -Is a thrashing of six strokes usually attended with much bleeding?
A-More or less if it breaks the skin.
Q-Is there very much bleeding?
A-Not much.
Q-Is the skin abraded?
A-Yes.
Q-Have you known abscesses to form after a whipping of six strokes ?
A—No, never.
Q-With regard to a whipping of twelve strokes is the skin abraded?
A-The skin is always abraded with the first stroke.
Q--And afterwards do abscesses necessarily form? Have you known abscesses form in cases of twelve strokes ?
A-Abscesses do not form if the flogging is properly looked after; abscesses do not form in one case in fifty. At least from 1877 to 1887 I saw only three cases where abscesses had formed.
Q-Would a flogging of eighteen strokes leave abrasions and deep cuts?
A-Not deep cuts; it would leave permanent marks.
Q-Would it cut the skin badly ?
A--It is a sort of contused abrased wound. They do not bleed freely. Not one case in fifty shows very much blood, and that is easily stopped with a cloth.
Q-Up to 1887 did you give a written medical certificate ?
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