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.

    6/48 (page 6)
    4. To .allay this feeling I li4.d a meeting of the Principal Civil Medical Officer, the Acting Medical Officer of Health, and the Chinese members of the Sanitary Board, and arranged with them that in each health district the inhabitants should ap- point a Kai-foiig or committee, and that in every case of dis- infection notice should be sent to the K.ai-fong, two members of which, with the Sanitary Inspectors should form a committee to appraise there and/ then any damage done and give a joint certificate of the amount, which the Sanitary Board Tindtertook to pay. It was also announced by leafiets dis- ti’ibuted among the Chinese that in all cases where sickness was timely reported, all the expense of disinfection would be borne by the Government. 5. This had no appreciable effect in diminishing the number of d/umped bodies, and it was evident that the passive resis- tance of the Chinese continued. This was shown by the fact that when rat traps were set in Chinese houses the traps were found to be sprung, as the finding of an infected rat resulted in the same inconvenience as followed the discovery of a case of plague; still, large numbers of rats were delivered to the mortuary for examination, 88,862 having been paid for from 1st January to 13th of July this year, of which 3,476, or 3'9 per cent, were found to be infected. Eiach rat had a label attached showing the house or place where found, and where the address of a house was given that house was duly disinfected. Again, I heard whispers, of which no proof could be given, that the rat catchers levied a respectable toll by hinting at the probability of a plague rat being found about the premises in the absence of a tangible evidence of goodwill, and, on at least one occasion, indignant protest was made by the house- holder subjected to disinfection that no rat had been caught in his house and no trap had been set there. About a fort- night ago colour was given to these whispers. I had requested that certain experiments, of which I shall speak later, should be carried out with rats, but although two thousand/ rats per week were being returned and paid for. Dr. Hunter, the Govern- ment Bacteriologist, found a difficulty in obtaining the live rats that he required. This probably aroused suspicions, and resulted in the following minutes of the Acting Medical,Officer of Health: — “ Secretary, “I believe ,I am right in saying that, at the Confidential Meeting of the Board held on June 30th, a resolution was passed: to the effect that the Government should be asked to sanction for the rest of the year, the modifioation of the scheme for dealing with jats suggested for next year’s procedure. For information of the Government it may be well to explain that the reasons for this change are as follows: — ** 1. A large sum of money is now paid/ in bonus for rats collected in the streets.