end of 1895 and lasted until 1898. drainage systems were improved, and balconies were installed for better ventilation. an area was marked out for the construction of a bacteriological institute. a public park was also constructed. it was named blake garden after then-governor henry arthur blake. today, a plaque stands at the park, commemorating the deadly epidemic. end of the 1894 plague at the peak of the 1894 plague, admissions to hospital averaged at 80 a day, and death peaked at over 100 per day. taipingshan was not the only area affected by the plague. areas such as bowrington (now between today's wan chai and causeway bay), sai ying pun, shek tong tsui and kennedy town saw more deaths than taipingshan. internationally, steamships from hong kong carried the bacillus to every major seaport in the world, including to india. the plague subsided with the arrival of cold weather, in the winter of 1894. endemic in 1895, only 44 cases were reported, but the plague returned strongly in 1896, affecting mostly chinese in the taipingshan district. once again it subsided in winter, and returned almost annually thereafter. the plague lasted until 1929, when the last cases were recorded. statistics in total, between 1894 and 1929, there were over 24,000 cases with a mortality rate of over 90%. between 1894 and 1923, there were 21,867 cases and 20,489 deaths, with a fatality rate of 93.7%. in 1894 there was no law to enforce the notification of deaths. women suffered a higher mortality rate than men, most likely due to their role as the caretakers of the sick. cases, deaths and fatality rate, 1894-1901 year cases death chinese plague deaths per 1,000 non-chinese plague deaths per 1,000 chinese fatality rate non-chinese fatality rate total fatality rate 1894 2,500 2,317 10.84 3.82 95.88 68.33 92.7 1895 44 not known 0.15 0.00 83.72 0.00 not known 1896 1,205 1,078 4.51 2.63 90.49 65.96 89.5 1897 22 not known 0.08 0.00 90.48 0.00 not known 1898 1,320 1,175 4.75 3.39 90.51 64.47 89.0 1899 1,486 1,434 5.85 1.35 97.11 67.74 96.5 1900 1,082 1,034 4.10 0.98 not known not known 95.5 1901 1,750 1,666 5.73 2.81 93.34 not known 95.2 a including europeans, indians, japanese, filipinos, eurasians, malays and west indians investigation on the cause of the disease a bust of alexandre yersin at the hong kong museum of medical sciences, near the site of the former taipingshan district at the beginning of the outbreak, the plague agent was unknown. although the germ theory was gaining attention in the 1880s, the medical circle of united kingdom was still deeply influenced by the miasma theory. for example, the decision by the colonial government to place patients on ships and to demolish houses were, in part, influenced by the miasma theory. lowson speculated on the origins of the disease as "poison is probably developed from atmospheric conditions underneath houses in certain districts, and that it is caused simply by poverty and dirt. in the ordinary sense the disease is not infectious or contagious." the means of transmission, now known to be the oriental rat flea, was also not ascertained. for several years, it had been widely accepted that infection was through the gastrointestinal tract via contaminated food. before 1901, no efforts were made to remove rats and rat corpses as there was no consensus about their role in the transmission of the plague. in 1895, lowson wrote that "the question of the infection of rats previous to the epidemic being noticed in human beings has been made too much of." discovery of plague bacillus on june 12, 1894, japanese bacteriologist kitasato shibasaburō arrived in hong kong to investigate the plague. on june 14, kitasato discovered that the bacillus, now known as yersinia pestis, that was the direct cause of the plague. however, he was doubtful of its significance as the autopsy was done 11 hours after death. his finding was reported by lowson, who had supported kitasato's work, to the lancet. his report was published a week later on august 25. following kitasato's discovery, lowson reversed his position and adopted the germ theory. at almost the same time, on june 15, french-swiss bacteriologist alexandre yersin, a member of the pasteur institute working in saigon, arrived in hong kong. he was sent there to investigate the outbreak. unlike kitasato, lowson did not offer yersin support, as lowson considered france to be a colonial competitor to great britain in east asia. at the hospital, yersin would find all the cadavers reserved for kitasato. he was only able to obtain specimens after bribing english sailors responsible for disposing bodies of plague victims. yersin discovered the bacillus on june 23. even though kitasato made the earlier discovery, kitasato's description lacked precision and the report was riddled with doubts and confusion. expert opinion gave credit to yersin. the fact that kitasato was in a hurry to publish his work was considered by some to be the reason for the imprecision. japanese bacteriologist aoyama tanemichi and ishigami toru (japanese: 石神亨) also arrived with kitasato as his assistants. on june 28, two weeks after their arrival, they were infected by the plague and were sent to hygeia. in 1895, aoyama wrote a report criticizing kitasato's misidentification of the bacillus. even though the means of transmission was still not ascertained, yersin also found that the bacillus was present in the rodent as well as in the human disease, thus underlining the possible means of transmission. after the role of rats in the spread of the plague was understood, the government offered money for caught rats. this policy ended when it was discovered that rat-catchers had been importing rats from canton for a higher reward. later, rat poison, glue traps and rat disposal bins were all employed to help reduce the population of rats. in 1896, yersin returned to hong kong to test his plague serum. however, he found no suitable cases in hospitals, and left for china to carry out his tests in amoy. the bacillus was later renamed yersinia pestis in yersin's honour. impact the hong kong plague medal some historians consider the plague as the starting point of the colonial government's direct involvement and interference of the chinese community of hong kong. the epidemic gave the government an opportunity to displace chinese medicine with western medicine. prejudices over western medicine were overcome. tung wah hospital, where chinese medicine was originally practiced, was at first considered to be a menace to public safety by the colonial government. the plague allowed the government to reform the hospital. in 1896, it was decided that the hospital would continue its operations but with greater government oversight. in 1897, the government mandated that the hospital should provide western treatment. in the same year, over 85 percent of the patients opted for chinese treatment. the percentage decreased to 68 percent by 1900. a silver medal was struck "in honor of those who assisted in the cleaning up of tai ping shan." on the observe, a scene of the epidemic was engraved. on the reverse were the inscriptions "for services rendered during the plague of 1894" and "presented by the hong kong community." in 1903, the public health and buildings ordinance was passed to improve the lodging standards of the chinese. the ordinance, regulating the designs and sanitary conditions of tenement blocks, was drawn up according to recommendations by scottish physician william john simpson, who observed the plague in 1902. on march 15, 1906, the bacteriological institute was opened near the taipingshan area. headed by scottish bacteriologist william hunter, the institute was used for post-mortem and bacteriological examinations, along with the development of vaccines. it is now the hong kong museum of medical sciences. annual cleaning-up events, known as "cleaning up of the environment" (chinese: 洗太平地), was held until the early 1950s. 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