Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/271

Rh Ground for hope, however, is furnished by the fact that we have been able to obtain the co-operation of the Chinese in the "cleansing operations" which are carried out every winter now as an anti-plague measure. The appended table shows the cases of notifiable disease recorded among the different sections of the community during 1907 : — Total. Grand Total. European...

) Plague < Chinese ... ^240 Others ... ) [■European... « ) Typhoid ...^ Chinese ... Others ... I European... Cholera < Chinese ... Others ... I f European... Small Pox Chinese ... Others ... (■European... ) Diphtheria ...i Chinese ... Others ... [■European... ) Puerperal Fever < Chinese ... Others ... — I Scarlet Fever ... European... I I ' — The following table of population, births, and deaths is given for the purpose of ready coinparison with similar tables given in the reports from other colonies : — pital is in the Government Civil Hospital com- pound. It was built in 1897 and contains beds for private and ordinary patients of all nationali- ties. The Hospital Ship Hygciii, built locally in 1891 for the reception of patients suffering from infectious diseases, was utilised especially for plague during the first outbreak of the disease in 1894 ; since then it has been used chiefly for cholera and small-pox. The In- fectious Diseases Hospital at Kennedy Town was formerly a police station. In 1894, during the first outbreak, it was converted into a plague hospital and has since been used for infectious diseases. The Victoria Hospital for Women and Children, situated at the Peak, 1,000 feet above the sea-level, contains 41 beds, and provides accommodation for private patients, wives of Government servants, children, and natives. It was built by the community to cominemorate the late Queen's Jubilee, and was handed over to the Government to maintain. The military have a large hospital situated between Kennedy and Bowen Koads. The navy have two hospitals on Morrison Hill, viz., the Royal Naval Hospital and a small hospital for infectious diseases. These two institutions are administered by a Deputy Inspector-General and two naval surgeons. The Chinese have the Tung Wah Hospital, where they can be treated by their own native doctors or by Western metliods (this has a branch plague hospital at Kennedy Town), and the Alice Memorial and Nethersole Hospitals, which are managed by the London Missionary Societv. The former was built as a meinorial to his wife by the Hon. Dr. Ho Kai, C.M.G. There are also two hospitals at the Peak — the Peak Hospital, a private institution, and the Matilda Hospital at Mount Kellett. The latter, opened in January, 1907, was built and endowed by the late Mr. Granville Sharp in memory of Europeans and Whites. £ n < East Indians. Chinese and Malays. Mixed and Coloured. Total. Number of Inhabitants in 1907 ,025 ,102 .057 ,160 .357 Births — ,144 ,420 Deaths ,009 ,286 Immigrants — — — ,822 — — Emigrants Inhabitants in 1906 — — — ,967 — — (Census Report) .525 ,229 ,701 ,170 ,638 Increase or — — — .356 — Decrease ,500 — — — HOSPITALS. Hongkong is well supplied with hospitals. Those of the Government Medical Department consist of : — The Government Civil Hospital and its annexes, viz., the Lunatic Asylum, the Maternity Hospital, the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Kennedy Town, the Hospital Ship Hygein. and the 'Victoria Hospital for Women and Children. The Government Civil Hospital is situated at the west end of the town and has 150 beds. It contains wards for private paying patients, Government servants, police, sailors of every nationality, and Asiatics. The Maternity Hos- his wife, and is intended for destitutes of any nationality other than Portuguese and Chinese. THE aVIL MEDICAL AND SANITARY DEPARTMENTS. The Hongkong Civil Medical Department consists of the Principal Civil Medical Officer, who is the administrative head of the Medical and Sanitary Departments, Inspector of Hos- pitals, and in medical charge of the Victoria Hospital for Women and Children ; the Health Officer of the Port and Inspector of Emigrants, and an assistant ; the superin- tendent of the Government Civil Hospital and its annexes, and the assistant superintendent ; two assistant surgeons who divide the duties of medical officer to Victoria Gaol, medical officer in charge of the Infectious Diseases Hospital and the Hyf<cia, inspecting medical officer to the Tung Wah Hospital, and medical officer in charge of the subordinate staff of the Civil Service ; the medical officer to the Kowloon-Canton Railway, who also does duty as medical officer to the New Territory ; two bacteriologists who are in charge of the Bacteriological Laboratory and Vaccine Institute, one of them being also medical officer in charge of the Public Mortuary ; two analysts in charge of the Analytical Laboratory, in which is done medico-legal work, work under Food and Drugs Act, examination of petroleum, &c., imported into the Colony, as well as a variety of other analytical work (the junior also acts as apothecary to the Civil Hospital) ; and a nursing staff consisting of a matron and thirteen sisters, with five probationers. It was in 1890 that a matron and five sisters arrived from England to take over the nursing in the hospitals of the department — a duty which had previously been entrusted to Chinese attendants, supervised by European wardmasters, and was very unsatisfactorily performed. Hongkong, it may be mentioned, was the first colony to introduce home- trained nursing sisters. In addition to the Medical there is the Sanitary Department, which has the following staff : — The medical oflicer of health, two assistant medical ofiicers of health, a colonial veterinary surgeon, two sanitary surveyors, and twenty-two sanitary inspectors. THE TUNG WAH HOSPITAL. The largest and by far the most important charitable institution in the Colony is un- doubtedly the Tung Wah Hospital. Not only does it carry out the usual functions of a hospital, as understood by Europeans, but, in common with all charitable institutions throughout China, it discharges many other duties and exercises great infiuence over the Chinese community. Almost any question affecting the welfare of the people, even inatters regarding the relationship of the Government with the Chinese, may be re- ferred to the committee, who are regarded in much the same light as public representa- tives. The committee, of which the Registrar- General of Hongkong is the permanent chairman, consists of sixteen members, who are elected annually by the various guilds and associations of the Colony. The hospital was founded in 1870, the foundation-stone being laid by His Excellency the Governor on April 9th of that year. The site in Po Yan Street was presented by the Government, who also voted a substantial sum of money to supplement the public sub- scriptions by which the cost of building was defrayed. The premises have been enlarged from time to time, and now afford good accommodation for 224 patients. In the early days all diseases, whether infectious or not, were treated, but now that special infectious hospitals have been provided this policy has been abandoned. Patients in the institution have the choice of European or Chinese treat- ment, and there appears to be a growing feeling in favour of the former. The hospital is visited daily bv a Government doctor. Dr. Jew Hawk, a Chinese trained in America, is the resident medical officer, and there are, also, four Chinese practitioners and a large Chinese staff. To use their own description.