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lose no opportunity of keeping this great and vital question in the forefront of local politics. We shall not cease to press for the immediate prosecution of the work by the British and Chinese Corporation, and if they delay commencement of it much longer, we shall advocate the cancellation of their concession. What the terms of the conces sion may be we know not, but we imagine
that there must be some time limit in it. Assuming that to be the case, it is not too much for the Hongkong Government to ask that that limit should be enforced, and to apply for the transfer of the concession either to itself or to some company formed for the purpose of carrying this important work into effect. If the local Government is at liberty to give support and assistance to a company, we believe it would not be difficult to raise the necessary capital here and in Canton for the purpose. In any case, we cannot afford to wait any longer. Five and a half precious years have already been wasted, and the Colony's stock of patience is thoroughly exhausted. Popular indignation at the manner in which the Colony's best interests are being played with and its future imperilled merely to suit the convenience of a London syudicate is rising higher with every added month of inaction that goes by. The limit of endur- ance has been nearly reached, and though slow to move Hongkong will yet prove, we trust, that it can on occasion act to some purpose.
MALARIA AND PLAGUE IN HONGKONG.
(Daily Press, 7th June.) The annual reports of the medical officials in charge of the hospitals of the Colony, published in the current number of the Government Gazette, contain much informa- tion of a welcome nature. We note especially the indications that the Govern- ment anti-malarial measures have been beneficial to the public health, and we are pleased to note, too, a gratifying success achieved in the treatment of cases of plague. These are the two most conspicuously satis- Dr. factory features of the reports. ATKINSON, the Principal Civil Medical Officer, in his report to the Government on the working of the Medical Department during the year 1903, embodies a return of the oases
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
of malarial fevers admitted during the year into the military hospitals, kindly supplied by Colonel WEBB. This return shows a decrease of 568 in the number of European cases, and of 220 in the Asiatic cases.
There can be no doubt that this marked diminution is due, as the Principal Civil Medical Officer says, to the extensive training of nullahs and other anti-malarial measures which have been carried on in the neighbourhood of the Barracks by the Military Authorities. At the Government Civil Hospital, too, the diminution in the number of admissions from malarial fevers was maintained, the number for last year being 846 as com- pared with 349 in 1902, and 787 in 1901. These figures show that the anopholes mosquito does not breed so plentifully in the island as he did a few years ago.
Since 1901 the Government has accomplished much in the way of training uullahs and so ridding the colony of the mosquito-breeding pools which were so abundant before Major Ross proved to the medical world their relation to the prevalence of malarial fevers. The returns must encourage the Govern. ment to continue their anti-malarial measures. There is much yet to be done in that respect both in the Western and Eastern districts. We may note in this
it
as
B
[June 13, 1904
IN COREA.
(Daily Press, 8th June.) There is nothing, that we can see, astonish- ing in the fact that the Press of the world has refrained from declaiming against the Government of Japan for having in the month of February last proclaimed a pro- tectorate over the helpless little empire of Corea.
But in an article written from St. Petersburg for the Times of India we are told that although this action on the part of Japan has been ignored by the British Press and has practically escaped attention on the Continent, the circumstance is nevertheless imbued with great signifi- The writer of the article in question is Mr. ANGUS HAMILTON, who has recently come into prominence as the author of an excellent book on Corea, and the burden of the article is that a protectorate over Corea will operate disastrously against the various vested interests which foreigners hold in that Empire. Certainly it has already operated disastrously for Russian vested interests, but we may be sure that Japan- will not go out of her way to interfere with the vested interests acquired by foreigners of
connection an interesting suggestion made | THE JAPANESE PROTECTORATE by Dr. BELL in his report as super- intendent of the Government Civil Hospital. In writing of dysentery, he remarks that it is now practically considered symptom of a disease due to many causes, but not much has been done towards elucidating the special factor in each case. Malaria per ae is not generally considered to produce this disease, but Dr. BELL is inclined to think it does, and with the increase of microscopical work now done at the hospital, he hopes to be able to add a few facts to those already accumulated regarding this serious ailment.
With regard to the treatment of plague
appears from
the report of Dr.
sance. of carbolic acid THOMSON that the use proved of considerable value, but perhaps, of greater value still is an improved means of diagnosis, the credit for which belongs By this method the doctors to Dr. BELL. have been able to diagnose a much larger number of very mild cases, and many which would not have been diagnosed as plague in former years were proved to be plague and sent to Kennedy Town. These cases swelled the proportion of cases recovering. The use of carbolic acid was commenced
other nationalities. Mr. HAMILTON late in the epidemic, and a couple of tables show the mortality before and is not so apprehensive about the concessions In the already established as about “those for which during the use of carbolic acid.
at some future date a sphere of activity first half of the epidemic, i.e. before car- bolic acid was used, the mortality rate was may be sought." He launches out into 85.6 per cent; in the latter half, under the speculations as to the political protection use of carbolic acid, the rate of mortality Japan has guaranteed to Corea being but was only 36.4 per cent. Perhaps it would the forerunner of a commercial protection. be too much to draw from these results the But while he admits, as every observer definite conclusion that the improvement is must, that the commercial supremacy which entirely due to the use of carbolic acid, for, the Japanese have enjoyed in Corea hitherto as Dr. THOMSON remarks, its use was com- did not rest on a political foundation, he menced at a stage in the epidemic when there perceives that between the manufacturer is a greater natural tendency to recovery, in Japan and his agent in Corea, between the disease being invariably more virulent the wholesale merchant in Japan and early in the season. But when all allowances the retail trader in Corea, there is a are made, Dr. THOMSON admits carbolic strong reuniting sentiment against foreign acid to be of undoubted value in the treat-competition. There is nothing extraordia- ment of plague when given in such doses as to allow its sufficient concentration in the blood to exert its antiseptic action on the bacilli. The doses a plague patient is
The treatment able to take are enormous. begins with an initial dosage of 144 grains in 24 hours-12 grains every two hours. It is mentioned that one European patient consumed over 2,500 grains of pure carbolic acid before his blood was free from plague bacilli! It is an astonishing enormous fact that in spite of these doses carbolic acid poisoning is practically unknown, and Dr. THOMSON, who tried carbolic acid in smaller quantities in 1901 with no very marked result, is now of opinion that carbolic acid in large doses is the most hopeful means of treating plague thus far at the disposal of the medical It is not of fraternity in Hongkong. course, a specific remedy, and, while report- ing favourably on its use, the Doctor urges upon the attention of His Excellency the Governor the desirability of carrying into effect before next epidemic season proposals already sanctioned for the production of a curative serum for the treatment of plague. Altogether the medical reports contain abundant evidence of excellent work on which the Medical Department is sincerely to be congratulated.
There is a somewhat unique little Chinese craft, a recent visitor to Hongkong, named the Au Hsi. The little vessel is a stern-wheel gunboat, drawing only a little over a foot when ranning trim; she appears so light, indeed, that one could almost imagine she was built to run where enough dew falls. At present she is on the West River giving piratical junks a bad time.
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ary in this fact when it is remembered that the retail trader is in the majority of cases Japanese, and Mr. HAMILTON is coa- strained to admit that the feeling is perhaps
a natural one, while its existence con- "stitutes the most extraordinary form of "commercial protection by which the trade "between any two States has ever been “held together."
What, it will be asked, does the new countries Agreement between the two contain that will materially change the commercial relations of Corea with the outside world? We think Mr. HAMILTON has discovered a mare's nest. By the agreement which Japan made with Corea in February she definitively guaranteed the independence and territorial integrity of Corea; and the commercial treaties which the Foreign Powers have with Curea are not abrogated by this new Agreement with Japan, nor are they likely to be. The fact "has already betrayed her that Japan
appreciation of the doctrine of protection "in her relations with Formosa-the only Colony of importance which the Empire of Japan possesses at the present moment,' scarcely affects the question, for Coren is not, nor is she likely to become, a Japanese Colonial possession in the ad- ministration of which Japan would have Com- H.m absolutely free hand. The mercial Powers may be trusted to see
"1 advice that their interests in Corea are not detri- Japan mentally affected by any may give to the Government of Corea, and so long as the independence and integrity of the peninsular empire are maintained it is hardly necessary to point out that the Government of the country will nominally
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