Sessional_Paper_1900 — Page 557

2. Detection of the Sick.—In the absence of notification this can only be effected by means of house to house visits. The Sanitary Board has power to institute such house to house visits in any district in which the disease may prevail and must define the limits of such district (Bye-law 25, Ordinance 15 of 1894).

The City of Victoria has been declared infected and European officers of the Board assisted by Chinese constables are at present engaged in house to house visiting, while a Chinese doctor trained in Western medicine is making similar visits. Their hours of duty are from 5-8 a.m. and 2-5 p.m., and a copy of the instructions which have been issued to these officers is attached. The villages on the Kowloon Peninsula have also been declared infected and European officers with Chinese constables are engaged in house to house visits in Yaumati, Mongkoktsui, Taikoktsui, and Hunghom.

3. Removal of the Sick.-Ambulances for the removal of the sick are kept at the various Police Stations, at the Canton Wharf, at the (native) Tung Wah Hospital and at the Board's matsheds at Praya East, Taipingshan, Yaumati and Hunghom, and sick persons are removed in these ambulances to the Tung Wah Hospital on application to the Sanitary Board, the Medical Officer of Health, or the Police, and are there examined by a Chinese Doctor trained in Western medicine and are either drafted at once by him to the Plague Hospital or detained under observation in case of doubt. In making any such application care should be taken to state distinctly whether the patient is alive or dead, for in the case of dead bodies, a dead-box is forwarded for the removal. The ambulance is attended by a Chinese constable who conveys the details concerning the case to the Hospital Authorities.

Heavy wooden boxes, with rubber washers fitted to the lids are used for the removal of dead bodies to the Government Mortuary; these are kept at the various Police Stations and at the Board's matsheds and information concerning the death is forwarded on a card attached to the body.

4. Treatment of the Sick.-This is entirely in the hands of the Medical Department. The Government Hospital at Kennedy Town is supplemented by a series of Matshed Hospitals, also at Kennedy Town, which are managed by the authorities of the Tung Wah Hospital but are under the supervision of the Medical Department.

5. Disinfection of infected premises.-This is carried out by a European officer assisted by coloured foremen, a Chinese foreman and a varying number of coolies. As soon as it is known that a case of the disease has occurred at any house, a Chinese constable is sent from the nearest Police Station to detain all persons found therein (Bye-law 22, Ordinance 15 of 1894), and the officer in charge of the disinfection proceeds to the house to ascertain how many persons are detained there. He then procures, either from the matshed at Praya East or from the Disinfecting Station, as many suits of Government clothing as are needed for the persons so detained, and having thus provided these persons with clothing he removes their own clothing, bedding, curtains, and carpets, to the Steam Disinfecting Station, the clothing being tied up in sheets dipped in a solution of Jeyes' fluid and conveyed through the streets in closed baskets; persons who are able to obtain new or clean clothing from some uninfected premises are however not detained after they have discarded their infected clothing and handed it to the Inspector for disinfection. New goods, silk clothing which has not been recently worn, furs and leather goods are not removed to the Steam Disinfector, but must as a general rule remain on the premises until they have been fumigated. When the clothing, etc. is returned (in the course of some two hours) from the Disinfecting Station, the persons who have been detained are required to put on their own clothing and must then leave the premises for some 5 or 6 hours while it is disinfected and cleansed. The Government clothing is returned to the Disinfecting Station to be steamed before it is again used. The people so displaced from their homes are at liberty to make use of the Board's matshed shelters until the processes of disinfection of the premises are complete.

The disinfection of the premises consists in the spraying of the walls with a solution of perchloride of mercury (1 in 1,000) or fumigation with free chlorine obtained by the addition of diluted sulphuric acid to chlorinated lime (1 quart of a 1 in 8 solution of the acid to each tb of the chlorinated lime). Floors and furniture are then scrubbed with solution of Jeyes' fluid and the walls are then lime- washed, chlorinated lime being added to the lime-wash in the proportion of tb. to the gallon.

6. Burial of the dead. This is carried out under the superintendence of one of the Board's Officers, all bodies being buried at the Kennedytown Plague Cemetery, unless a special permit has been granted for burial elsewhere.

7. General sanitary precautions.—Chlorinated lime is supplied to all the public latrines for use in the buckets, and the officers of the Board are instructed to see that it is freely used.

A reward of 2 cents per head has been offered since January 16th for every rat brought to an officer of the Board.

Instructions for the Guidance of Officers of the Sanitary Board engaged in House to House Visiting under Bye-law 25 (Ordinance 15 of 1894).

I. Officers shall work in couples, so that while one of them enters a house to search for sick persons or dead bodies, the other may remain in the street to prevent the conveyance of the sick from the neighbourhood or from an unvisited house to one that has been already visited.