Sessional_Paper_1900 — Page 299

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16

No. 1900

HONGKONG.

REPORT ON THE HEALTH AND SANITARY CONDITION OF THE COLONY OF HONGKONG

FOR 1899.

Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government.

No. 5

GOVERNMENT CIVIL HOSPITAL,

HONGKONG, 9th March, 1900.

SIR, I have the honour to submit, for the information of His Excellency the Governor and for transmission to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State, the Medical Report on the health and sanitary condition of the Colony of Hongkong for the year 1899, together with the returns, &c., appended thereto.

I have the honour to be,

The Honourable

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.

Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

J. M. ATKINSON, Principal Civil Medical Officer.

POPULATION.

The estimated population of the Colony for 1899 was 259,310. There were 1,132 births and 6,181 deaths, of the latter 1,434 were from plague.

The birth-rule was 4.3 per 1,000 as against 4.7 per 1,000 in 1898.

The death-rate was 23.8 per 1,000 as compared with 22.30 per 1,000 in 1898. Excluding the deaths from plague the death-rate would have been 18.3 per 1,000.

The following figures will show the comparison of the death-rate in the different nationalities for the last two years :-

Whites,

Coloured,

Chinese,

Death-rate.

1898.

1899.

..16.2 per 1,000

..33.6

...22.54

12.5 per 1000

28.3

"

24.4

多争

The increased mortality amongst the Chinese was occasioned by the greater number of deaths from plague.

PREVALENCE OF SICKNESS IN THE DIFFERENT SEASONS OF THE YEAR, AND GENERAL CHARACTER AS TO THE MILDNESS OR SEVERITY OF THE DISEASES PREVAILING.

Small-

!-рох. This disease was much less prevalent than in 1898, only 69 cases having been notified as compared with 199 in the previous year, as usual the greater number of cases occurring in he winter months. At no time was the disease epidemic.

Plague. Information was obtained of the presence of some sporadic cases of plague in the neighbourhood of Canton at the commencement of the year.

In the month of February the Government was informed of the presence of an outbreak of plague at Tainan in Formosa

The Sanitary Board was informed on the 16th March of the presence of sporadic cases of plague t l'akhoi.

On the 22nd March the Sanitary Board, on account of the receipt of two letters from Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Tainan, Formosa, reporting an increase of cases of bubonic plague in the Tainan Prefecture in the week ending 13th March, advised the Government to proclaim Tai Wan Foo and its Port Anping as places at which Bubonic Plague prevails.