the summer months, it made its appearance among the garrison in 1854 as early as April, when 73 men were stricken with fever and dysentery in one month. Six cases of Beriberi, a disease previously unknown in Hongkong, occurred at this time among the Indian troops.
Great as the vagaries of disease were during this period, the divergencies of public opinion on the subject were still greater. While English newspapers denounced Hongkong as a pest-hole, while the music-halls in London resounded with the popular refrain 'You may go to Hongkong for me,' Governor Bonham grew eloquent (in his annual reports) on the salubrity of the climate of Hongkong which he considered to be 'as well adapted to the European constitution as other places similarly situated within the tropics.' Equally great was the variation of opinion among military and civilian surgeons as to the utility of Peak sanatoriums. These were first recommended in 1848 by the Colonial Surgeon (Dr. Morrison), who suggested the erection of a Government sanatorium at an altitude of 1,774 feet above the sea.
The Colonial church was at last completed and formally opened (March 11, 1849) on the anniversaiy of the day on which Sir J. Davis had laid the foundation stone. Unfortunately this ceremony revived for a moment the community's bitter feelings against their former Governor, because his coat of arms, including a bloody hand, was observed emblazoned over the porte cochère. The indignant community assumed, probably without good grounds, that this apparent impropriety, for which the Surveyor General (Ch. St. J. Cleverly) was responsible, was due to instructions left by Sir J. Davis. The building was neatly fitted up. As the cost of erection, even after leaving the tower without a steeple, exceeded the funds available (£4,600), power was given to the Trustees by a special Ordinance (3 of 1850) to raise a loan to cover the deficit ($2,500). Advantage was taken of this Ordinance to transfer the management of the Church from the Colonial Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Victoria. For letters patent had meanwhile been issued (May 11, 1849)
