Tae Inspector-General of Customs is likely to win golden opinions in the scientific world, probable fruits of a circular which bears date Peking lst Dec. 1870. Addressing his Commissioners at the fourteen ports, Mr. Hart says: "It has been suggested to me that it would be well to take advantage of the circumstances in which the Customs Establishment is placed, to Procure information with regard to disease amongst foreigners and natives in China; and I have, in consequence, come to the resolution of publishing, half-yearly, in collected form, all that may be obtainable. If carried out to the extent hoped for, the scheme may prove highly useful to the medical profession both in China and at Home, and to the public generally. I therefore look with confidence to the co-opera tion of the Customs Medical Officer at your port, and rely on his assisting me in this matter by framing a half-yearly report containing the results of his observation at upon the local peculiarities of disease, and upon diseases rarely or never encountered out-of China. I have committed to Dr. R. Alex.
Jamieson, of Shanghai, the charge of arranging the above reports for publication, so that they may be made avail. able in a convenient form."
The third of the series of these reports has now appeared, for the half year ended 31st March 1872, in the Customs' Gazette. Undoubtedly the hope expressed of their utility has been realized, and, assuming that these are an earnest of what is to come, Chinese climatology and medical topography will ere long be well elucidated. The field includes no inconsiderable portion of the earth's surface; almost the entire coast of Eastern Asia, and regions far in the interior of the continent. To foreign residents in China, these reports cannot fail to be interesting. We are exotics, struggling for existence, and it behoves us to Study well the clime, Mould to ite manner our el And mitigate those ills we cannot shun." While it is not incumbent onus to make the numbers of the Customs'
Gazette a study, we shall find them repay a cursory perusal, and worth summarising. For the present we restrict ourselves to Dr. Jamieson's report on the health of Shanghai. The Report lately issued affords, like its predecessor, ample evidence that Shanghai is improving in salubrity. Reference is again made to what was once known as "Shanghai fever," a dangerous form of remittent fever formerly prevalent, but which has almost disappeared from the Settlement. Besides this, diseases generally appear to be less frequent, and more tractable. These improvements are mainly attributable to the system of drainage, inefficient though that system confessedly is. When we are able, through the projected Water Works, more thoroughly to flush the sewers, the sanitary advantages will doubtless be manifestly enhanced. That improvement, and the reclamation of foreshore land, will go far to neutralise the evils which residence on a paludal and malarious soil entail. We would call the attention of actuaries of Life Assurance Companies to the death rate at Shanghai;—15 per thousand, which shows that they have overrated the risks which they run with regard to Shanghai residents.
Shanghai is, on the whole, a salubrious port. It is so regarded by the Chinese, as well by the natives of the place as by those who come from other provinces. In the absence of statistics, universal opinion on such a question possesses considerable weight. By thousands of years of observation and experience, the Chinese have come to regard certain regions as salubrious and others as insalubrious. Our statis-ties, though necessarily meagre, are confirmatory. of the favorable opinion which is entertained by ~Chinamen with regard to our Settlement. "The ills that we cannot shun" at Shanghai, may be avoided to a great extent by availing ourselves of the facilities which we now enjoy of a speedy change of climate; the open. ing of new ports, and the introduction of steam have, in late years served to counteract the enervating effects of our torrid summers. It is in the latter part of August and in September, that deaths are most frequent, not.' that these months are in themselves un. healthy, this season being a favorable one for visiting Shanghai; the greater mortality in early autumn, being the result of the debilitating influences of mid-summer.
Attention has been drawn of late to the frequency of aneurism and diseases of the heart among Foreigners at Shanghai. These maladies being hardly known to the natives, their prevalence cannot be attributed to peculiarities of climate; medical observers are probably correct in asserting that excess in gymnastic athletic sports, to which so many are addicted, is the cause of cardiac and arterial degeneration at this port, This was pointed out by Dr. Johnston in his last rebore of the Chinese Hospital, and is emphasized by Dr. Jamieson, who lays stress upon the tendency of hard training and violent exercise to induce such complaints when the system has been weakened during the enervating summer months, It behoves our young men to give heed to these admonitions.
The outlook for our residents: who desire a change of air, we shall submit in another article.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.