Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/49

Rh Chinese. Since 1843 when we hoisted our flag, the progress of the colony has experienced no serious check, and the native population, despite local disturbances caused by the influx of the scum of Chinese cities, has contributed in no small degree to its general prosperity. The natives, the best of whom still cling to their old superstitions, are in the mid-stage of evolution; their inborn prejudice against up-to-date foreign methods of dealing with crime and insubordination, and the not infrequent waves of zymotic disease, such as cholera and the black plague, rouse them to most determined resistance. They stubbornly refuse sanitation as a body, or as individuals. But of this we have examples much nearer home, in the centres of congested population in our large towns. The low-lying quarters of Hongkong, where the poorest and most depraved class of Chinese reside, present the most favourable conditions for the growth of zymotic disease, especially during the hot months of the year. Poverty, insufficient and unwholesome food, a humid atmosphere and temperature over 90 deg. in the shade, account in a great measure for the frequent visits of cholera and the black plague. These scourges of unsanitary humanity invariably limit their ravages to such localities as I have indicated, while the wealthier and more cleanly localities are free from the disease. Under these circumstances it is surprising to find, even among the educated Chinese, a rooted objection to our modern methods of sanitation and our treatment of disease; they regard the drastic operations enforced as utterly barbarous and quite unsuited to a cultured, if not cleanly people. There are of course many notable exceptions among the old resident natives, who have learned wisdom by experience, and who have aided the Government in dealing with their unruly countrymen. Many of the unlettered natives have a notion that England is a small