At the 11th meeting of this society held in the Philharmonic Hall on Friday night, Health in Shanghai." The Chair. wa very interesting debate took place on
taken by Mr. R. E, Wainewright, by whom Dr. Henderson, who opened the discussion, was briefly introduced.
After s few introductory remarks i which Dr. Henderson deprecated address as the leader of the debate being regarded in the light of a lecture, he went.90 to discuss the climate of "Shanghai. opinisne held about. this Uy visitors and began by reviewing the very opposite
even by residents, describing them under the heads of pessimist, optimist, and moderate views. After describing the situation of Shanghai, and expressing his belief that this could scareely be supposed to secure climatic conditions of a very perfect kind, he went on to consider the effect of the suumer on foreign children and adolescents, among whom he believed the same rapid gruwthond development might often be seen was observed in the vegetation, the trees, garden flowers, etc, The statements regarding the death rate in Shanghai could not, he thought, be appealed to as giving any very certain information regarding salubrity or the reverso of the Settlement. Owing to the peculiarity of the foreign. population, made up for the most part of meti and women in the prime of life, all more or less selected lives, and with no actual poverty to contend against, the figures could not be fairly compared with similar numerical statements at home. in which the mischief regard to the use of ice in summer, Dr. Henderson said that he was himself really tired of hearing the natives held up to him as examples for imitation. Hot tea he was told every summer was the best thing to quench thirst with, iced drinks were a complete mistake. If the words iced drinks" were exactly defined, perhaps he too might have something to say against them, but that iced water, or iced seltzer water, was prejudicial to his health, that he distinctly refused to believe; indeed he claimed for iced water a tonic and stimulat+ ing effect on the mucous membrane, enabling 'a man often in summer to take food which he needed, but which without the aid of the iced drink he would have considerable difficulty in persuading himself to swallow.
Of alcohol, Dr. Henderson said:—" We jay not call wine or bear necessities, but I think something better may be said of them than to call them mere luxuries,. I believe that the moderate and occasional use of wine is beneficial to health; as to its moderate and regular, daily, use, 1 am less certain, but I think that it can only be in exceptional cases, and during certain that, used in this way, it is distinctly ivjutious," In summer I believe that during the day, and save when food is taken in the evening, we ought all to be total abstainers." Dr. Henderson warned his hearers against small. daily excesses, regarding which he said, premsture old age, if nothing worse, threatens man who errs in this way, and the dange of this is greater in the climate of Chins, than in that of England." As to expose to the sun, Dr. Henderson expressed hi belief that moderate exposure was beneficial. The average Shanghai resident was, he thought, too much afraid of the. sun, He said that those in Shanghai who seemed to enjoy the best health, and who certainly looked the must healthy, were the men whose business compelled them to. be about in the open air during the greater part of the day, even the hottest deve greatly envy the merchants and the bank managers under the punkahs in. their cool shaded offices on the Bund, Of food, Dr. Henderson stated his belief that there were few places in the world were the food was at once sv good, so cheap, and so varied. 'He spoke of the temptation to over eat, and. expressed his disapproval of the meal-called tiffie, and his conviction that if an lish luncheon, was substituted people. would all feel' better, and. certain-Jy: suffer less" from. the. summer heat. "The: proper. time for business men to cat, is.the morning.and the evening. A full meal requires. leisure for its digestion, and: the business has.no sufficient leisure for this during the With regard to exercise, Dr. Henderson ko at some: length. He: referred to lawn'temnis as of course the most fushionable exercise in Shanghai in summer, but expressed a fear that in very hot weather for delicate ladies, or fat- untrained men, it was a little too violent.
Swimming he considered the best form of exer for the hot weather. In swimming you learn a really useful accom pushment by which one day your own life, or some other equally valuable life, may be saved. The exercise of swimming is at once useful, graceful "and manly, it uses all ther muscle f the body, and taken in " col medi with ' what: degree of exertion the swimmer pleases, need never greatly overtax the bodily powers. But the yellow river with' its rushing tide will not do fur begintiers or even moderate performers. What we want in Shanghai is w swimming bath where we can bathe in clear water, and where ladies and children can learn to swim without avy risk of being drowned, We want an open air bath—that is open at the sides and roofed over, or partially roofed over, above; shut in from the surrounding country by a fence built on the top of a turfed bank, the bank raised by the earth scooped out to make the basin. Just such a bath as the boys ut Harrow but and curved portion of a creek—so to speak, crossed at on" point, the deepest, by a rustic bridge, and having all ulong its edge asphalted path from which would project diving boards at various heights for the swimmers tu enter the water. Both ends shallow, and one narrower than the other, the end, where at Harrow, the so-called ducklings take their first lessons." The alternative is a floating bath such as thuse seen on the Seine at Paris.
The discussion of special diseases that threatened health in Shanghai belonged, Dr. Henderson said, rather to a medical than tua rary, Society. He mentivtied small, pox ud cholera, and referred to the effect ut the poison called malaria, As to is Inst he expressed his opinion thal lo who lived in the settlement suffered less than those who lived in the country, an opinion which he knew to be unpopular, to say the least of it. He believed that those who have what is commonly spoken of asa bad circulation, who suffer habitually from ould hands and feet, are more easily affected by the malarial poison than others, and that such people are therefore, other things being equal, less well fitted for residence in Shanghai. 4 Of the. many advantages which a life in Shanghai brought with it, Dr. Henderson left others to spenk,: daying in conclusion—should like to hear from, say one of the gentlemen connected with our great fin cial. institution on the Bund, his perso experience of the life of a bank clerk in London and the same life in Shanghai. He must: begin by contrasting the office he works in, and then go on to tell us something about the food he eats, and the
en the story is all I feel certain tunities he hag Esre air exercise. we will come to the conclusion, that, summer heat, malaria, and all the rest of it,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.