Bubonic plague. : Memorandum on the treatment of patients in their own homes and in local hospitals / presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty.

  • Hong Kong.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Bubonic plague. : Memorandum on the treatment of patients in their own homes and in local hospitals / presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    leave the ineddum in sufficient quantity to support any renewal of propagation. In this <way I suppose that the annual move- ment of the bacillus might be observed. 25. The problem before us is, 'then, not simply the prevention of introduction of plague from without, a precaution taken singly that, considering the wide infection of the city, must be futile, but the elimination of the media of infection in our midst, and the building up of the power of resistance to plague invasion by improvement in the general health of the popula- tion that mayi resiult from improved sanitary conditions. The first can only be accomplished by constant, unremitting atten- tion to cleanliness of person, furniture, and premises, and to be effectual it is of cardinal importance that the co-operation of the people be secured. With proper facilities afforded,*‘I am of opinion that, while in Hong Ivoiig, as elsewhere, the residuum might >be difficult to deal with at first, the difficulties are not insurmountable, and practical co-operation might ibe secured by enlisting the sympathies and services of the large class of respectable iChinese in a determined effort to com!bat the recur- ring epidemic, the evils of which they fully realize. Beyond the cleansing of premises there is no way by which a large number of Chinese tenement houses can be made sani- tary. Each floor of these houses is a tunnel thirteen feet wide, nine feet high and of varying length, from thirty to sixty feet, with a window in front and rear. Into a large numiber of these floors direct sunlight never enters, and in the centre even ditfused light is practically absent. When to these; conditions is added a surface population so dense as it is in our congested districts—being in one district over 990 persons to the acre—it will be recognized that a population so circum- stanced must necessarily be deficient in vitality. The only remedy for this is the reconstruction of Chinese tenement houses on improved plans, and the rigid observance of the provisions of the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance in relation to overcrowding. The removal and reconstruction of Chinese tenement houses will be very costly and will neces- sarily be a slow process, but it must be faced; if we desire to prevent the devitalising of the working population to such a point that they fall ready victims to the invasion of every passing disease. 26. I attach, in Appendix I, an interesting report just re- ceived! from the Government Bacteriol)jgist relating to the question of exterminating plague bacilli in vermin. This experiment shows that the mere washing of fimiiture with a solution of Jeyes’s Fluid will not destroy the vermin that infest it. Henuy a. Bl.\ke, Governor. Government House, Hong Kong, 3rd August, 1903.