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April 4, 1904.]
part of the Colony which is fitted to be a healthy residential quarter for people accustomed to a temperate climate." The Chinese, on the other hand, are living here in their native climate, and do not suffer from the oppressive heat of the lower levels during the summer months as Europeans do. To show how pressing is the need in the European community for securing dwellings at the Peak, the petitioners urge the fact that the rent of houses there is nearly treble what it was ten years ago, in spite of the very great increase in the num- ber of houses in the interval. But the number of reasonably available sites for houses in the Peak district is limited, and very few sites remain for additional houses. | The petition asks that this small part of the Colony be reserved for those who cannot live in equal well-being elsewhere, and claims that the future welfare of Hongkong and its value to the Empire depend to a large extent on the well-being of the European section, whose health it is therefore essential to preserve. We do not see how this can be gainsaid, and we trust that the prayer will be granted. The Chinese have hitherto shown no desire to occupy houses in the Peak district, and European families have consequently not suffered from the competition of Chinese in the of the Colony most resembling their part natural environment. But the fear has grown in them, inspired by the gradual ascent of Chinese houses from the lower levels upwards, that in the not
very remote future Chinese competition for Peak residences may arise, and in the limited available area numbers of houses may cease to be open for Europeaus. Then they will be reduced to one only of the two alterna- tives spoken of by Sir WILLIAM DES VOC and mentioned by us above, namely, that of living with their families under unhealthy conditions. It is impossible not to recognise that this will be fraught with evil to the welfare of the Colony-" the welfare," as the petition states, "of its inhabitants as a whole, and its consequent value to the Empire."
PLAGUE IN HONGKONG IN 1903.
(Daily Press, 28th March.) The report of Dr. W. W. PEARSE, Acting Medical Officer of Health, on the plague epidemic during the first seven months of last year is of an unusually elaborate char- acter, even in a Colony where we get such painstaking reports as Hongkong. With its appendices, tables, etc., it occupies no less than one hundred pages of the Govern ment Gazette. It is obviously impossible to do justice in the course of a single article to the work which has been involved in the preparation of such a document, and we shall only here draw attention to a few of the salient points, leaving other details to be dealt with later on, The total number of known plague cases in 1903 was 1,363, of which 1,245 were Chinese, 43 Iudian, 34 European, 22 Portuguese, 14 Japanese, and 5 of other nationalities. The number of known deaths was 1,206, of which 1,161 were Chinese, 4 European, 21 Indian, 9 Portuguese, 9 Japanese, and 2 of other nationa'ities. Thus the death-rate works out at 8.4 per cent., the smallest since the outbreak of plague in 1894. The following are the death-r
-rates per cent for each epidemic:-
1894 1896 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 19/3 92.7 89.5 83 96.1 95.5 95,2 97.5 88.4 For the various nationalities the death-rates in 1903 were as follows:-Chinese, 93.25; Europeau 11.76; Indians, 48.83; Portuguese, 40.90; Japanese, 64.28; others, 40. The
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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Hospital death-rate was only 60.6, the lowest on record since the first out- break of plague in Hengkong. regard to the types of plague in 1903, With
return from the public mortuary gives the a complete record does not exist, but the following figures:-Bubonic, 603; septic, 335; pneumonic, 45; total, 983. When we turn to the question of sex, we find that the Chinese and non-Chinese figures give curi- ously different results. Only 16.9 per cent. of the non-Chinese sufferers were female, the female population in the non-Chinese community being computed at about 30 per cent. the cases were females, though the Chinese Among the Chinese, 36.4 per cent. of female population was only 27.1 per cent, of the Chinese community when last reckon- ed. Cases among children, the report notes, showed a very high figure for females, 165 females and 155 males under the age of 15 having been attacked. Dr. PEARSE points out that Chinese servant-girls who are mostly between the ages of 5 and 15, might others, being worse fed and lodged. From be expected to be attacked more often than 15 to 60 years the percentage of female females, in contradistinction to their Chinese cases diminishes considerably. European sisters, show the lowest figure of all. Only year, and none were fatal. 5 cases occurred among them during the he said that the male European cases were But it cannot alarming. deaths; of the 4, one
There were 29 cases with 4
was imported from Canton, one was a broken-down man living in the native quarter, one was known as a heavy drinker, and the fourth did not die of plague but was found to be suffering from it after falling into a dock and killing himself. In short, the European plague | epidemic was very mild, in spite of the number of cases.
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statistics of the epidemic is what. Dr. PEARSE Perhaps more interesting than the actual has to say with regard to the causes of the spread of the disease. He concludes his report with the remark :-"I am inclined to "think that overcrowding, with its vitiation of the atmosphere of rooms and the in- timate personal contact which is a result "of such overcrowding, is probably the greatest factor in the spreading of a plague epidemic." What then is over. erowding, it may be asked. Hongkong residents are well aware of the notoriety which the city of Victoria has gained for its sins in this matter. Dr. PEARSE Writes as follows:-"Strictly speaking, overcrowding "has only an indirect relation to cubic capacity. An overcrowded house is one in "which there are too many people for the "amount of fresh air passing through the house per hour. A building with its "windows shut will be overcrowded before a building well ventilated. The accepted 'standard of 1,000 cubic feet per head is merely arrived at because air can in "houses of a temperate climate be changed "three times an hour without draught,
·3,000 cunic feet of fresh air per hour 'being the amount required by each adult "to maintain health. In a warm climate "air may be changed more quickly in a room without causing draught and so less 'space per head would suffice. But every- one who has seen the houses of the Chi- nese in Hougkong must be struck with "the fact that efficient ventilation is impos- sible. There are no fire-places, the rooms are long and narrow, the window at the front obstructed by verandahs. Streets are narrow, back-lanes and yards are worse. "The situation of the City itself tends to "accentuate this state of things." This state of affairs, as our readers know, Hong- kong is trying now to remedy by the Public
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Health and Buildings Bill. But of course it must be long before the effect of such an we have been happily free from a plague extensive measure can be felt. This year
the year are nearly gone. We must not epidemic so far, although three months of therefore boast that we have already struck so many lives and so much money. We are a fatal blow at the disease which has cost us only starting the campaign. We must carry it
ake many years. on to a successful conclusion, and that will learnt how we have erred worst against the But we have at least
laws of health and so invited the presence afflict the East and at one time afflicted the of the most terrible of all scourges which
sanitary principles West also at that time, namely, when unknown.
were unheeded or
principles are unknown
We cannot plead that those have therefore imposed upon us the duty BOW, and We of observing them ourselves and enforcing them upon all who dwell with us in this Colony.
(Daly Press, 31st March.) In Dr. W. W. PEARSE's plague report for in rats and with the relations of human and 1903 that section which deals with plague rat-plague is specially interesting. Hong- kong is a place where considerable attention tions and all the recent reports have dealt has been paid to the subject of these rela- with it. Rat-collecting has been a great feature of the anti-plague campaigns, and there is an organised rat-catching staff in thrown on the methods of this staff by Dr. the Colony. A certain amount of light is PEARSE's report, and it is not very satisfac- tory to read of them. During the whole of the 1903 epidemic a systematic collection of rats was made throughout Victoria and Kowloon, the rats being afterwards bacterio- A price of five cents a rat was paid through- logically examined at the Public Mortuary. out the year, and between 90,000 and 100,000 rats were caught. But Dr. PEARSE says that it is highly probable that number of the rats collected by the rat- great
catchers were imported into the city. Many of the rats "caught on the Kowloon side, too, were suspected of having been brought across from Victoria, the rat-catching. coolies claiming their share of the rats im- ported into Hongkong for the sake of the bonus of five cents from the Government. Thus it seems that a certain amount of public money was wasted on fraudulent coolies, while the value of the deductions from the rats examined was necessarily lessened by the importations. As the report says, it is not possible to make any definite statement regarding the influence of rat-plague on human plague owing to the probability of this importation.
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hese curves are
Nevertheless a certain number of remarks are made by Dr. PEARSE on the subject. Curves were drawn up showing the weekly rise and fall in the percentage of plague- infected rats among those examined in the Public Mortuary and the weekly number of human plague cases. published with the report in the Gazette, and from them it may be seen that both rise to their highest points about the same time. The first notable rise in rat-infection was in the sixth and seventh weeks of the year, and human plague made a sudden rise in the sixth week, though falling again next week. Similarly the ninth and tenth weeks, were marked by a rise in rat-infection and the ninth to eleventh weeks by a rise in human plague; and the twelfth and thir- teenth weeks were marked by a rise in rat- infection, and the twelfth, thirteenth, and still more fourteenth weeks by a rise in human plague. Then a drop in rat-infec-
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