Hong Kong Annual Report, 1955/Chapter 18

The University of Hong Kong is the principal centre of research in the Colony.

Its current historical projects include work on various aspects of the history of Hong Kong, China, Japan and South-East Asia. The Department of Geography and Geology is preparing a full report on land utilization in the Colony and a study of terraces and erosion surfaces. Educational projects include an investigation into the value of group methods in teacher-training and into methods of combining higher education in modern and scientific subjects with the preservation of oriental culture.

The Department of Chinese and the Institute of Oriental Studies publish a Journal of Oriental Studies, in the first two volumes of which some of the results of recent researches have already appeared.

In the Department of Biology, the Fisheries Research Unit continued a wide programme of work, including a survey of New Territories fish ponds, age determination studies of economically important marine fish, and the biology of Ostra gigas, as grown in the Deep Bay oyster beds, and did extensive work on oyster culture in cooperation with the Government Fisheries Division. The research vessel Alister Hardy continued a monthly hydrological and plankton survey of local waters. Since February the cooperation of commercial vessels has been enlisted in obtaining surface water samples across the Pearl River estuary, in the fishing grounds between Hong Kong and Hainan, and into the China Sea as far east as the Formosa Strait. In collaboration with the Government Fisheries Division, the research vessel was used to conduct experiments with non-indigenous fishing gear with a view to their possible introduction into Hong Kong fisheries.

In the Department of Chemistry research is being continued on the chemistry of various plants of the Colony and other parts of South-East Asia which have reputed medicinal or other value. Discoveries being made in these and other fields of work are published from time to time in scientific journals in Great Britain.

A study of the blood pressure of the fisher-folk, as compared with that of city dwellers, has been completed by the Department of Physiology, and an investigation of the blood plasma volume of the local population is nearing completion.

Architectural research included studies of low-cost housing in South-East Asia, Portuguese colonial architecture in Macau and Malacca, and the development of Chinese village communities in the New Territories, with particular reference to walled villages.

In the Department of Medicine, work continued on the pathogenesis of certain diseases of the liver in Hong Kong and on the disturbances of intrahepatic circulation encountered therein and their relationship to the occurrence of portal hypertension and ascites. Other studies included investigation of the disturbances of haemostasis in splenomegaly and in hepatic diseases and of the haematological findings in cryptogenetic splenomegaly and the mechanisms involved.

Research on various problems relating to the toxaemias of pregnancy and the clinical and pathological aspects of Hydatidiformole and Chorionepithelioma continued in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, which also made studies in the sodium pentathol treatment of eclampsia and conducted a radiological investigation of the morphology of the Chinese female pelvis. The Department of Surgery continued research into the treatment of peptic ulceration in Chinese patients, and the results of this are in course of publication. Clinical work on the treatment of various disorders of the liver, notably cholangis-hepatitis, was continued, and an experimental study of the factors responsible for increased density of calcification of bone following interruption of its blood supply was begun.

Outside the University, in the field of historical research the Instituto Portugues de Hongkong published during the year the fourth issue of its Bulletin (in English) to appear since the war. This included a study by Mr. J. M. Braga of the earliest Portuguese contacts with this part of the China coast, with particular reference to the voyage of Jorge Alvares in 1513.

For meteorological research, see under Royal Observatory, page 170.