Sessional_Paper_1905 — Page 443

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To feed pigs on raw infective matter derived from cases of plague in animals or man and thus to induce plague in them does not justify the assumption that plague is frequently induced in man by the eating of pork.

Professor SIMPSON has suggested this avenue of infection* and no doubt it may deserve more consideration than has been previously given to it especially when it is remembered that no food is wasted in China. The viscera of pigs are eaten by the Chinese just as they are amongst Western nations, and if the cooking were imperfect there might be danger of infection through this channel.

The Government Bacteriologist has, however, following up the suggestion of Professor SIMPSON, gone to the length of stating his belief that the most important method of infection in plague is by the ingestion of infected food.

Obviously therefore it becomes necessary to consider the food supply of the Colony, and how it may become infected.

The staple article of diet amongst the labouring Chinese is rice. To this is added a little fish, salt or fresh, and two or three times a week a little pork or beef. Vegetables are also eaten fresh or pickled.

In a Chinese house in the poorest and most plague stricken quarter of the City of Victoria there is no such thing as a pantry or store for food. The food often including the rice is bought new for each meal. The reason for this is that the coolie, a labouring man, often does not know when he will be able to afford his next meal. His meal depends on his day's work.

Professor SIMPSON (op. cit., page 5) mentions insufficient cooking amongst the lower classes of Chinese as a factor in plague causation. The Professor has evi- dently not gone fully enough into this question. Chinese cooking is exceptionally well done. In fact their food is in the majority of cases over-cooked according to Western ideas. Long experience has taught the Chinese the value of thorough cooking. This is exemplified in their practice of never drinking cold water if they can obtain tea, .e., water which has been boiled. They have an idea that pork if eaten uncooked will cause fits.

I have frequently examined the food actually being eaten by the poorer Chinese in this Colony and have never seen them eat any food that had not the appearance of being thoroughly well cooked.

On enquiry, however, I have been told that beef is occasionally eaten, as it is by Western nations, underdone. Two kinds of fish also are eaten not properly cooked. They are eaten in the following manner. Small pieces are put into a bowl into which boiling conge is poured or the fish is sliced into small bits and eaten with a salad dressed with oil and sauces much as a salad is eaten by Western nations. These fish, however, are only held to be wholesome from September to February in this Colony and are not eaten during the plague season.

Bean curd made into cakes is also sometimes taken raw with soy which is a kind of sauce.

Of green vegetables the following kinds are eaten not completely cooked, namely, sprouting beans (nga choy) and a plant of the cabbage tribe called kai lan choy.

Another green vegetable sometimes called by Europeans the Chinese parsley (yün sai) is used raw, a few small leaves being put on top of a cooked dish of food for the sake of its aromatic flavour.

Lettuces (sang choy) are also eaten raw or incompletely cooked.

Rice is always well cooked. Roasting of animals whole, e.g., pigs, ducks and fowls is a common practice and it is always apparently well done. Except how- ever on festival occasions the coolie does not afford such a luxury as a whole roast chicken. His animal food is generally cooked in small pieces, for the knife and fork not being used amongst the pourer classes in Hongkong, the preparation of food in such a manner as to facilitate eating with "

chop sticks is necessary and it increases the chances of complete cooking of the food.

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* Op. cit., page 101.