quest that they be
Legislative Council
STANDING ORDERS:
Certain amendments were made in the stand- ders for the guidance of the sanitary staff FOX IN HYOGO
retu
rning the progress of small- he 4th and 21st Feb- Hyogo between showed that the e had been 91 cases, 59 of hich proved fatal.
THE HONGKONG WEEKI
PRESS AND
the houses
ca and been specit daily the pots Chinese cont excreta away
app
Marib
ses to
the vasion. For the reasons above set forth and in conformity with the Civil Government and the Sanitary Authority I judge it expedient to make the following order :-(1). "All arrivals from India are declared infected with bubonio pest. (2) So long as the sanitary measures adopted in the ports of Ceylon, Singapore, and the coast of China are not in harmony with our These open into chann | sanitary legislation they are declared to be level of the street, and t ports notoriously compromised and the treat at various places into the ment applied to them shall be such as corre-water system of drains o spouds to their bill of health and their hygienic enware pipes, which frequently conditions according to the regulations for up, and, being leaky, allow
system of much larger drains for maritime sanitation in force in the archipel escape into the houses. In
storm-waters, which also debonches by openings into the harbour.
PLAGUE IN BOMBAY, From the 19th January to the 5th February there were in the city and island of Bombay 1,578 cases, of which 1,305 proved fatal, a death rate of 83 per cent.
TWENTY CASES OF ENTERIC FEVER: A WARNING
· TO THE PUBLIC.
The following letter was laid on the table:
Sanitary Board Office, Hongkong, 9th March, 1897. Sir I have the honour to report for the the information of the Board that twenty cases of enterid fever have been reported during the current year, as compared with ten cases during
"corresponding period of last year. Sixteen of the patients have been Europeans and of these eight brought the infection into the colony rith them, three of the cases occurred in Japa- nese and one case has occurred in an Indian. Careful enquiries have been made in every case as to the probable sources of infection, and it does not appear that either the milk or the water supplies have been at fault, while in the majority of cases the drainage of the premises has also been in good order. I incline to the opinion that three cases have resulted from eating salads containing raw vegetables which have been infected by typhoid excreta, in the usual Chinese process of irrigation and forcing while it is possible that some of caused by raw them may have been oysters. I would suggest that the Board should warn the public to avoid eating raw vegetables during the present outbreak of this disease, unless grown under their own personal supervision.-I have the honour to be,
་
FRANCIS W. CLARK, Medical Officer of Health, MED-Is it necessary to issue a notice to the public, or will the public take care of itself pr
The SECRETARY-The letter has been laid on the table and I think the reporters have a copy. The COLONIAL SURGEON-Unless they matter. thought it was too delicate (Laughter).
·
ago.
--INDIAN FAMINE RELIEF FUND.
The Honorary Treasurer of the Indian Famine Relief Fund begs to acknowledge
.$48,401:53 · receipt of the undernoted subscriptions:
Already acknowledged Sin Tak Fan.... F. G.
50
5
$48,256,53
DR. WILM'S KEPORT ON THE PLAGUE.
In March, 1896, by request of the Hongkong Government, Staff-Surgeon Wilmi, of the Im- perial German Navy, was sent by the Admiral of the German Asiatic Squadron to take part in the measures for the suppression of the epidemic of plague in Hongkong and to For this investigate the origin and the mode of the dissemination of the disease. purpose he was put in charge of the Ken- nedytown Hospital and of the bacteriological laboratory established there in May. Wilm's report, translated for the Government of Hongkong by Dr. Maurice Eslen Paul, has now been issued as a blue book, a copy of which has been forwarded to us.
Dr.
The report is divided into sections as follows: -1, The Course of the Disease; 2, Pathological Anatomy; 3, Microscopical and Bacteriological Appearances in Plague, The Plague Bacillus; 4, Diagnosis of Bubonic Plague; 5, Prognosis; 6, Treatment; 7, The Origin and the Mode of Dissemination of the Plague at Hongkong; 8, Prophylaxis: (A) Measures of Public Hygiene, (B) Measures of Private Hygiena; 9, Incubation; Conclusion.
In the section on the origin and mode of dissemination of the plague the author describes The letter was received in the ordinary way, the topographical features of the colony, the olimate, the houses, and the conditions under no discussion arising on it.
which the population live. We make the following extracts:-
MORTALITY STATISTICS. :
88
For the week ended 27th February the death rate was 20.9 per 1,000 per annum, against 26.8 for the corresponding week of last year. For the week ended 6th March the rate was 23.1, as against 32 for the correspond- ing week of last year.
ADJOURNMENT.
QUARANTINE AT MANILA.
"The Chinese population, numbering about 215,000 lives in an area 1/10th, or 1/15th, the size of that inhabited by the 6,000 or so Euro- peans. In addition to this overcrowding, the Chinese Houses in 1894, and still to a large extent in 1896, presented bad hygienic condi- The Board adjourned until next Thursday-tions in the shape of deficient access of light and air, imperfect removal of slop-water and week. ****
excreta, and great uncleanliness of the inha bitants. The houses and their inhabitants must therefore be briefly described. The houses of the Chinese are built of stone, are usually three storeys in height, have small windows, and these commonly only on the side the upper facing the street. In each storey there is
dwelling-room, reached in a storeys by a steep stair, and a kitchen. In each dwelling room several families usually live in separate partitions. The number of persons living in such a room is often sixteen to twenty-five. In 1894, cellars also, to which the light and fresh air could gain no access, were used as dwellings, but this is now forbidden
With the excessively filthy habits of the Chinese, the rooms are very rarely cleaned.
"Owing to want of space, Chinese houses have no privies. Usually in the dwelling room or in the kitchen there is an earthenware used to receive the excreta Frequen Chinese used, and indeed still use the water pipe leading from the kitche inside or outside the wall of the hous means of disposing of fecal matter. houses, at the beginning of the yea saw the slop waters from the kitchens upper storeys running down in pipes through
The ship John R. Kelly, which arrived at amils from Hongkong on the 10th March, subjected to three days' observation in the The oficial Gazette of Manila of the 7th contained the following notification, nd March « The existence on the sea hol India of bubonic pest, a disease ntly contagions and infectious, which Bome time past been claiming ble victims, has caused the Governs uropean nations to adopt sanitary ainst the introduction of such a The freanent communication he- ose of Singapore, Hong- and between the render it necessary take sanitary pre- The fact that, ived from the 0,6 Bickness has sons
this Aro pelag
ong
sani
ot
|
"In the town of Victoria and in the distri of Kowloon there are public latrines (K system) which, in consequence of the filt habits of the Chinese and of insufficient cleans ing, are frequently choked with dirt. ~
for
“The Island and Kowloon are for the part supplied with water by two large but still in part also by open wells. The supply of the Island is no longer sufficien the needs of the inhabitants, the storage capa- city of the two reservoirs in which rain water is collected not being enough to provide the long-continued town with water during drought.
"Many of the Chinese, notwithstanding that they are supplied from the public service; still prefer to draw their water from open wells. In 1894 the wells existed, not only in the open air, but also, according to Dr. Lowson's report on houses, kitchens, and even latrines, in an exces- the epidemic of bubonic plagne in 1894, in sively filthy condition. Since 1894 wells exis in the open air only."
After showing that the plague cannot arise spontaneously, and that it thrives better in a damp, moderately cool, tropical climate than doubt that it was brought from Cant in a hot one, Dr. Wilm says there can be no Pakhoi on board ship during the or fercourse of commerce, for it possible for the contagium to great a distance through the air.
"In the beginning of August, 1896, the following instance *-*-*-*
from akhöjere of two stermships carrying pigs to Hi from the island of Hainan and great many died also after they had bee spectively, a large number of pigs died.
Post-mortem, examination at Hongkong. the bodies of these animals showed the morbid appearances as in those killed them plague-infected organs to eat, pearances being most marked in the in tract. A bacillus was cultivated blood and the intestinal glands, which to be distinguished from the found in man; it killed mice, and rabbits, when subcutaneous produced in these animals similar
s to those produced changes bacillus. This observation is this reason, that the Chinese ar of pork, and breed pigs in very Flies are also to be regarded as car disease."
The
Infection through the skin Dr. is not common, the alimentary causl chief passage by which the contaginm
"It was shown experimental duced to the body. In this connection 1 bacilli lived for two days in a h lution of hydrochloric acid
by the gastric juice. therefore, that the bacilli therefore make thei means of the food.
Porkab
long as it di throw light on this, tion, plague bacilli re on salt fish (one of the Chinese) peel and pulp o bananas and tomatoe
on the
rind of
In distilled wat
alive for
ree
inkB
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