ENG-1955 — Page 233

182

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

A study of the blood pressure of the fisher-folk, as compared with that of city dwellers, has been completed by the Department of Physiology, and an investigation of the blood plasma volume of the local population is nearing completion.

Architectural research included studies of low-cost housing in South-East Asia, Portuguese colonial architecture in Macau and Malacca, and the development of Chinese village communities in the New Territories, with particular reference to walled villages.

In the Department of Medicine, work continued on the pathogenesis of certain diseases of the liver in Hong Kong and on the disturbances of intrahepatic circulation encounter- ed therein and their relationship to the occurrence of portal hypertension and ascites. Other studies included investigation of the disturbances of haemostasis in splenomegaly and in hepatic diseases and of the haematological findings in cryptogenetic splenomegaly and the mechanisms involved.

Research on various problems relating to the toxaemias of pregnancy and the clinical and pathological aspects of Hydatidiformole and Chorionepithelioma continued in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, which also made studies in the sodium pentathol treatment of eclampsia and conducted a radiological investigation of the morphology of the Chinese female pelvis. The Department of Surgery continued research into the treatment of peptic ulceration in Chinese patients, and the results of this are in course of publication. Clinical work on the treatment. of various disorders of the liver, notably cholangis-hepatitis, was continued, and an experimental study of the factors respon- sible for increased density of calcification of bone following interruption of its blood supply was begun.

Outside the University, in the field of historical research the Instituto Portugues de Hongkong published during the year the fourth issue of its Bulletin (in English) to appear since the war. This included a study by Mr. J. M. Braga of the earliest Portuguese contacts with this part of the China coast, with particular reference to the voyage of Jorge Alvares in 1513.

For meteorological research, see under Royal Observa- tory, page 170.