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A European in charge of a bicycle shop next contracted the disease probably from a Parsee case in the same building; the Parsee died, but the European recovered.
One case occurred in the European quarters attached to one of the private docks, where also a large number of Chinese are employed. This patient also recovered.
A mild case occurred in an employee of the Telegraph Company who resided in a Chinese tene- ment house in which a number of rats were found.
A publican residing in Wanchai also succumbed to the disease.
Two cases occurred in an Hotel (husband and wife) one of whom died; ou the day previous to that on which these two cases developed, a Chinaman in the same building had died of the disease, after having been sick for at least two days.
The wife of another publican next contracted the disease and recovered, and on the same day two cases (mother and daughter) were reported from a dwelling in the Queen's Road. situated over a wine store in which a number of rats had been found. It is also reported that two Chinese servants employed in this dwelling had left about seven days previously, without notice and probably in con- sequence of sickness.
A gentleman employed in a German firm was ill in his own quarters over a ship chandler's store, for about nine days with Fever, which proved, after death, to have been Plague.
A Sapper, who had arrived in the Colony only about a fortnight previously, died of the disease after two days' illness. He had visited a Chinese house seven days before he was taken ill.
Another gentleman employed by a German mercantile firm developed a very mild attack of the disease from which he recovered.
The last European case to occur during the half-year was a lady residing at a boarding-house. A dead rat was found in this lady's sitting room nine days previous to her being taken ili, and a number of rats had also been caught in the building during the few previous weeks. This patient made a good recovery.
Sea. The Chinese cases comprised 900 males and 515 females: this is equal to a percentage of 36.4 female cases. The proportion of females in the Chinese population at the Census taken this year was only 27.1 per cent., so that it is evident that the Chinese females have suffered, in proportion, very much more severely than Chinese males; this is probably because they remain in their houses much more than the men, almost all of whom are employed in the open air during the greater part of each day. Among the European cases there were fourteen men, one boy and eleven women; this gives a proportion of 42.3 per cent. of female cases, while if we take the whole of the non-Chinese cases, there were fifty males and twenty-three females, giving a proportion of 31.5 per cent. of female cases. The proportion of females among the non-Chinese community at the Census taken this year was 26.2 per cent., but this low rate was due in part to the large number of troops stationed here at the time, many of whom had left before the epidemic commenced, and the usual proportion would be about 30 per cent. so that there was no great excess of cases among the non-Chinese women.
Ma
Age. The total number of cases among Chinese children, under fifteen years of age, was 373, or 26.4 per cent. of the total Chinese cases. The percentage in 1900 was 25.9, and in 1898 it was 24.1 The proportion of children under this age, among the Chinese population, was found at the census taken this year to be only 17.2 per cent., so that it is very evident that children are very liable to contract this disease.
per cent.
Eight of the above-named children appear to have recovered, giving a mortality of 97.8 per cent. which is practically the same as the mortality among the adult Chinese.
الحب
Dead Bodies in the Street.-No less than 308 of the Chinese cases were dead bodies found lying in the street or floating in the harbour. This represents 21.7 per cent. of the total cases; it shows, how- ever, a considerable reduction when compared with previous years, as in 1900, the percentage of unclaimed bodies found was 37.1 per cent., in 1899 it was 40 per cent., and in 1898 it was 36 per cent. On the other hand more sick people, including even quite young children, have been found wandering about the streets, than in former years, having apparently been turned out of their houses by the other occupants.
The number of such cases occurring yearly without known addresses, coupled with the number of sick persons who leave the Colony in the early stages of the disease, afford a ready explanation of its annual recurrence, for many infected houses must of necessity remain undisinfected, and the only possible remedy that I can see for this is a thorough house-to-house cleansing and disinfection after the epidemic is at an end, so that we may prepare for the epidemic of next year, by destroying beforehand as many as possible of the germs which most certainly exist at present in the honses. whence these untraced cases came. This procedure cannot however be adopted until further powers are obtained by the Board, and Bye-laws have accordingly been made, which will furnish the neces- sary powers, and have been forwarded to the Government for the approval of the Legislative Council.
Temperature. —It will be seen from the accompanying chart that as in formor years the disease declined rapidly as soon as the mean weekly temperature exceeded 80° F. Thus on the 21st week (ending May 25th), the mean weekly temperature rose to $0.1° F., with the result that the total number of cases fell from 215 on the week ending June 1st to 161 on the week ending June 8th, the
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