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and expansion of the material, and, acting on the old walls, would have considerably tended to the collapse.
(6) That there was a doviation by the owner from the approved plans while altering the said two houses, the principal deviation being the building of an arch instead of a wall and the total absence of internal cross walls. Putting myself in the position of a coroner's jury, I make the following suggestions or riders:
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(a) That the existence of blacksmiths' shops under tenements should be prohibited.
(b) That all cocklofts used for storing heavy material be also prohibited.
() That all buildings or work under the Building Ordinance be carried out under the superintendence of a European architect.
(d) That the provisions of Section 72 of the Building Ordinance, which casts upon the Director of Public Works the responsibility and duty of approving only of such alterations and additions to old work or buildings as will render the building, with the said alterations and additions, absolutely safe (except in cases where the whole of such work or buildings, including the old portion of the structure, when completed, complies with the provisions of the Ordinance be carried strictly into effect. (e) That the provisions of Section 75 of the Building Ordinance, which casts upon the Director of Public Works or officers deputed by him the imperative duty of entering, inspecting and surveying every building work in progress, for securing the due observange of the provisions of the Ordinance, be carried strictly into effért.
(/) That the staff of the Public Works Department at present employed to carry out the provisions of the Building Ordinance is insufficient, and ought to be increased without delay.
THE LATE PLAGUE EPIDEMIC,
The following is the body of the report by Dr. F. W. Clark, Medical Officer of Health, on the epidemic of plague in the Colony during the half-year ended 30th Junet as published in the Gazette
Cuscs. The total number ofʼeases reported during the half-year has been 1488, of which 26 were Europeans and 1,445 were Chinese, the remaining 47 being other Asiatics. A large number of Chinese, however, left the Colony as soon as they felt at all ill, some of whom showed unmistakeable signs of the disease on arrival at Canton and its neighbourhoodl,
Deaths—The total number of deaths recorded during the half-year was 1,417, of which 9 were Europeans. 1876 Chinese, and the remaining 23 other Asiaties. The latter comprised 14 Indians, 2 Parsees, 10 Asiatic Portuguese, 3 Malays. Japanese, aud i Eurasian.
The death-rate among the Europeans was therefore 346 per cent.. while among the Chinese it was 97.2,per cent., and among the other Asiatics 68.1 per cent.; the total mortality being 95.2 per cent. This high rate is largely accounted for by the fact that 21.7 per cent, of the Chinese cases were deau bodies found in the Streets or in the Harbour,
The percentage of Chinese admitted to Hospital-including the Tung Wah Branch Hospital-was 35.1 per cent., while the per- centage of other Asiatics that went to Elospital was 80.8 per cent. The death-rate among the Chinese admitted to Hospital was 88.5 cent.
per as against the general" Chinese mortality of 97.2 per cent. This ought to convince the Chinese-if anything will-that admission to Hospital is to their advantage.
The death-rate during each epidemic has been as follows:
1894 1896 1898 1899 1900 1901 Percentage 92.7 89.5 89.0 96.1 95.5 95.2
Mortality
European Cases-Most of the European cases during the present epidemic have been more or less directly associated with the finding of dead rats upon the premises, although it must be admitted that many dead rats have at the same time been found in European offices and dwellings in which the disease has not broken ont. Cantlie states, moreover, "that in certain limited outbreaks, such as that recently (1900) experienced at Glasgow, the rat has not been proved to be infected at all"; ou the other hand
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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(September 28, 1901.
Ashburton Thompson states, in reference to employed in the open air during the greater the outbreak in Sydney in 1900, "that the in- part of each day. Among the European cases. fection was disseminated by rats appears there were fourteen men, one boy, and eleven tolerably certain." The following is a rory women; this gives a proportion of 42.8 per brief summary of the European cases:—
The first Europeans to be attacked were three assistants in a drug store-twe of whom were reported on the same date, and the third a few days later; two of these patients succumbed to the disease. A considerable number of Chinese women are employed by this firm in packing drugs for the Chinese market, and it is more than possible that they may have introdneed the infection into the building.
cont. 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 femalo cases. The proportion of females among the non- Chinese community at the Cousus tuken this year was 29.2 por cent., but this low rate was due in part to the large number of troops stationed hero at the time, many of whom had left before the epidemic commenced, and The next European case to occur was an the usual proportion woull be about 30 per cent., employee at the Naval Yard, who hai ben so that there was no great excess of cases among more or less'in ill-health since he arrived in the non-Chises: women. the Colony a year previously, and who died of |_ Ayn-The total number of cases among the disease. A large number of Chinese are | Chiness children, nader fifteen years of age, employed in the Naval Yard, son of whom was 373, or 26.4 per cent. of the total Chinese The percentage in 1000 was 25.9, and had died of the disease, and it is believed that cases. the infection was contracted from one of them. in 1898 it was 211 per cent. The proportion This man would appear to have infected the of children under this age, among the Chinese building in which he lived. as subsequently population, was found at the Census taken this three other European cases occurred there, year to be only 17.2 per cent., so that it is very all of whom recovered. On the day follow-evident that Children are very liable to contract ing the report of the above cases another this disease. European employee at the Naval Yard was re- ported to be suffering from plague, and in the block of buildings in which he resided, four other European cases subsequently occurred. one being the wife of the first patient, and two of the other being husband and wife, while in addition, one European who had resided there, and oue Asiatic Portuguese who had been employed there, also contracted the disease, There were also thrée Chinese cases in this block of buildings, one of which occurred two Of days previous to the first European case, the abore six European cases, ouly one died.
Au Furopeau in charge of a bicycle-shop next contracted the diseas, probably from a Parses case in the same building; the Parsen died, but the Europeau 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.
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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 mor-.. tality among the adult Chinese.
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, however, a considerable reduction when compared with previous years,, as in 1900.the percentage of unclaimed bodies found was 37.1 per cent.. iu 1899 it was 41 per cent., and in 1898 it was 36
On the other hand' more cent. per 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 A mild case occurred in an employee of the explanation of its annual recurrence, for many Telegraph Company who resided in a Chinese ! inferted houses must of necessity remain tenement house in which a number of rats were : nudisinfected, and the only possible remedy that I can see for this is a thorough house-to-house found.
A publican residing in Wanchai also is at an end. so that we may prepare for the cleansing and disinfection after the epidemic cumbed to the disease.
Two cases ocentred in an hotel (husband and wife), one of whom died; on the day previons to that on which these two cases developed a Chinaman iu 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) wer; reporte't from a dwelling in the Queen's Road', 'situated over a wine-store in which a number of rats bad been found It is also reported that two Chinese servants employed in this dwelling had left about seven days previous, without notice and probably in consequence of sickness.
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A gentleman employed in a German firm was ill in bis 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 ill, and a number of rats had also been caught in the building during the few previous weeks. This patient made a good recovery.
Sex. 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 Censns taken this year was only 27.1 per cent., so that it is evident that the Chinese females have suffered, in proportion, very much severely than Chinese males; this is probably because they remain in their houses much more than the men, almost all of whom are
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epidemic of next year by destroying before. hand as many as possible of the germs which Biost certainly exist at present in the houses whone these untraced cases came. This pro- cedure cannot however be adopted until further powers are obtained by the Board, and Bye- laws have accordingly been made, which will furnish the necessary powers, and have been forwarded to the Government for the approvaly of the Legislativo Council.
Temperature. It will be seen that, as in former years, the disease declined as soon as the mean weekly temperature exceeded 80 deg. F. Thus on the 21st weeks (ending May 25th), the mean weekly temperature rose to 80.1 deg. 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 effect of the rise of temperature not being apparont, of course, until after the lapse of the period of incubation (which varies usually from four to ten days) plus, in most of our cases, the period of dura- tion of the disease, since the cases are seldom discovered or reported antil they either dead or moribund. A fall in the mean weekly temperature to 78.5 deg. F. during the 22nd and 23rd week will be seen from the chart to have resulted in a very slight recru- descence of the disease in the 25th week, but after this the temperature ran rapidly to 83.6 deg. and the number of cases of the disease fell with even greater rapidity.
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Rats. The outbreak this year has been specially marked, so far at least as the European cases were concerned, by the finding of dead rate in the dwellings in which such cases oc- curred. These rats were found generally dur- ing the few weeks preceding the occurrence of the case, but, as I have already stated, many dead rats were also found in houses and offices in which the disease did not occur. Of three rats moreover which were caught alive iu · infected houses, and were kept in cages at the disinfecting station, only one died," and this
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