95
rich in vitamin A. Enough livers were obtained to yield a quantity of valuable oil suitable for hospital use and a small reserve of this oil was built up against an emergency. Mr. Lin, who during the Japanese occupation remained in Hong Kong, was able to continue the manufacture of this oil and to supply Stanley Internment Camp with it through the medium of the International Red Cross. Thousands of internees received the oil as a prophylactic against vitamin A deficiency and it proved of great value in the treatment of tropical ulcers and eye troubles caused by the deficiency of this vitamin in the camp diet.
Natural History.
The flora of Hong Kong has been very fully, though not completely, described in the "Flora Honkongensis" by G.B. Bentham, published in 1861 and in the "Flora of Kwangtung and Hong Kong" by S. T. Dunn and W. J. Tutcher, published in 1912. Attention has in particular been paid in recent years to the flowering shrubs and trees and the orchids; numerous papers in the "Hong Kong Naturalist" and three small books have been published on these plants. The only book published on the fauna of the Colony was one on the "Butterflies of Hong Kong" by Mr. J. C. Kershaw in 1905. This book has been out of print for many years and is extremely scarce. Attention has been paid in particular to the snakes, birds, mammals and butterflies, and many papers have been publish- ed. There is a need for a comprehensive natural history book dealing with the more conspicuous flowers and trees, the commoner insects and the larger animals.
Archæology.
Prior to 1932, Dr. C. M. Heanley, Mr. W. Schofield and Professor J. L. Shellshear, D.S.O., had made some investiga- tions into loal archæology, and in that year Father D. J. Finn, S.J., began an intensive study of the subject. Between 1932 and 1936 he published in the "Hong Kong Naturalist" thirteen detailed and very fully illustrated articles (245 pages) on his own discoveries which he correlated with archæological work on the Chinese mainland. Serious research on this subject suffered a set-back in 1936 with the death of Father Finn, but his work had drawn the attention of archæologists in all parts of the world to this corner of East Asia. Father Finn's conclusion as to the date of the sites which he excavated was that they were representative of the middle of the first millenium B.C., and extended over the third quarter of that period. Since Father Finn's death, Father R. Maglioni has done some work in Hong Kong and considerably more in Kwangtung province, and has correlated the archæology of Hong Kong with that of the mainland. His most recent paper appeared in the "Proceedings of the Third Congress of Prehistorians of the Far East", Singapore, January, 1938.
96
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.