5 1th June, An old resident of Shanghai who has lately been compelled by business arrangements to transfer himself to Hongkong writes "T feel now satisfied that Hongkong is inferior to Shanghai. The climate is bad; the administration is costly and indifferent, the place is foul beyond measure or description; overcrowded land available for extension held by Government for high prices; pestilence abroad ascribed, by men competent to judge, to neglect of sanitary measures; while I cannot safely say that a portion of Hongkong is the foulest place in the East, I can say it is the worst I have seen. Medical men say Shanghai's immunity from plague is very wonderful, but that the epidemic will eventually find entrance is beyond doubt, and the surest means of holding it in check is public cleanliness, which should be advocated and carried out before the dreadful disease appears once the germ finds congenial soil it grows rapidly. These hints may not be unacceptable to the Municipal Council, for, of course, prevention is better than cure.
"Tu Canton reports are six hundred deaths daily; returns from tipao of districts; in one district alone on the 80th of May 110 deaths. Even taking two millions as the population this death-rate is appalling (109.5), Here the plague is less, but only scotched not killed, the doctors saying that with the first of the long-deferred rain there will be an awful recrudescence...
"As this disease spares no person, though, as in other cases, the chief sufferers are the extremely indigent, do your endeavour to warn Shanghai. It isa real and deadly enemy we have to encounter not a shadowy reflection of fear."
This letter deals with such a very important matter that we believe it to be well to quote it in full. Why the Hongkong doctors should insist that we must have the plague here sooner or later, we do not know, There are two things to be done; to prevent, if possible, the introduction of the plague from outside; and, as far as possible, to prevent there being any nests in the Settlements for it to occupy if it does getin. 'I'he Customs are maintaining the precautions which have been successfal so far in keeping out the epidemic and the Municipal Council are doing their best to keep the Settlements clean, not an easy job considering that there is now in the Settlements north of the Yangkingpang a Chinese population numbering over 310,000. Happily, in Shanghai the Chinese great extent in the open a are very few houses of more than two floors; and that the sanitary efforts of the Municipal Gonncil are generally successful is shown by the remarkable freedom we enjoy from serious epidemies, "Phere is no reason why the Plague should not come to Shanghai, for the most vigorous system of inspection will not keep out diseased rats, and it is always possible that the disease will come in overland from the south, It appears to be raging in parts of Fukien. he late Mr. Happer sajs in his Decennial Report on Méngtze: "'Mhe erratic course of the epidemic, both in its journey through the country at large and in its visitation from house to house, is very strange, Whole neighbourhoods will be passed by, to be visited Inter on or to escape altogether. In this city, in 1891, two houses, just opposite the magistrate's yamen within which we live, and containing about fifty inmates, lost 18 persons, and there was only one other death in that street, though dead rats were found on the floors of the Customs quarters." 'I'here appears to be an impression at home that the Plngue is not a disease of the tropics, and in Europe in the old days it was especially deadly in cities in the temperate zone. In China, however, it appears to be endemic in parts of Yunnan and Kuangsi, Mr. Happer calls it the "Yunnan pest," and says that it is stated to have begun as a widely-prevailing pestilence with the outbreak of the civil war in Yunnan; but according to Rocher it was known in Yunnan before the war, and was supposed to have been introduced by caravans from Burma However this be, it seems to be subject to no laws as to climate; it likes dirt, and while not a rigid respecter of persons, most of its victims are among the poor and ill-fed. Mr. Happer mentions two other peculiarities about it; that " it never descends'to places under 1,200 feet of altitude above the level of the sea, and rarely. scales elevations over 7,200 feet." Experience, however, gained since Mr. Happer wrote, coutradicts these statements.
Another very important matter in reference to the health of Shanghai, is the milk question. 'I'he Zcko de Chine drew attention recently to the spread of tuberculosis among human beings from the milk supplied by cows suffering from this disease, and urged that all the foreign cows in Shanghai should be examined and those suffering from tuberculosis destroyed. Ihe cows of Shanghai, however, are mostly from Australia, where tuberculosis is very rare; and what is of far more importance is the adulteration of the milk by the native dairyman, after it has been drawn from the cow. It is well known that typhoid fever and other diseases are constantly communicated by adulterated milk; and we direct our readers' attention to a case tried at the Mixed Court yesterday, and to Dr. Stanley's certificate. It is most important that no milk obtained from a native dairyman, even though he be licensed, should be consumed until it has been boiled or otherwise sterilized. In Dr, Stanley's
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.