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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    to find that so far as it went the result of the experiment was apparently in its favour to the extent-of I'Sd per cent. In noting this result the disabilities of the system of local treat- ment as triedi by me must be considered. I have stated that the prescriptions given by the ‘Chinese doctors are good, so far as they go. But with the administration of medicine the care of the average Chinese practitioner ceases, and the question of nourishment and all tlie assuagements that come under the head of nursing are neglected. The sufferers in my district would take no medicine save the usual prescription given’ by the Chinese doctor, which they obtained from the local druggist. The doctor, at my request, prescribed port wine, and beef tea, both of which I had supplied to the druggist, who was one of the most active members of the Kai-fong, and anxious to do anything in his power that might increase the chances of recovery. But the patients refused to take them, and I found them having nothing but rice, or congee, which is wmter thickened with rice flour. In Kennedy Town I understand that patients take the nourishment ordered for them without diffi- culty, and I am of opinion that with properly equipped local hospitals under proper supendsion andi with trained nurses the mortality would be sensibly diminished. 19. We found it diflicult to trace the means of infection. The immunity of people living, sometimes for several days, in the same room went far to disprove the theory of contact. With the exception of Chu Kom and Wong Sam from No. 4 Sheung Fung Lane none of the people of that house who were attacked worked together, or partook of the same food. Four- teen days after Sheung Fung Lane had been cleansed out I directed that as many fleas, bugs, &c., as could be found should be sent to the Government Bacteriologist for examination. A numJber of bugs and a ispider were found, and on the 10th June, Dr. Hunter reported that in both bugs and spider were found plague bacilli. At the same time ,he teportedl as the result of examination of a number of bugs, flies, and fleas from No. 4, Sheung Fung Lane, where several coses of plague had arisen, that no bacilli were found. Again, after the death of the two boys who lived on the flrst floor of 109 Second Street, bugs were procured from the first floor and from the ground floor. Dr. Hunter reported that in the two Ibugs from the flrst floor no bacilli were found, but a Humber of bugs from the ground flooi’ were found infected ;with several plague bacilli. During a visit to the .Plague Hospital at Kennedy Town, I observed a large number of flies in one ward, numbers of which had settledl on the patients. I directed that a number should be sent for examination. On the 9th July, Dr. Hunter reported that the majority of the flies were plague-infected. He re- ported at the same time that several cockroaches caught in a stall in the Central Market contained B. pestis. On the 1st June it was reported that fowls from the Western Market were found to have died of plague, and as the poorer classes of
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