University of Nanking - Linguist Yearbook (Nanking, China)

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WESTERN MEDICINE IN CHINA 19 THE NEED OF HELP. The survey of past accomplishments is a challenge to us to take up and extend the work. This challenge is made doubly emphatic when we survey the enormous needs of China which are now met in so small a way. At the present ltime, each hospital has an average quota of one and one third million people. Of two hundred and forty :six hospitals reporting, sixty nine per cent have only one doctor. Each doctor has an 'average quota ofover three quarters of a million of people. Fifty two percent of the hospitals in which these doctors serve have no foreign nurses. Because of the comparatively small .number of hospitals and the limitedstaffs, only eight out of every hundred sick Chinese are seen by these doctors or their Chinese assistants. This means that each year in China. a column of people standing three abreast and reaching from New York to San .Francisco are without any adequate medical attention during their illness. To bring the present hospitals upto the minimum standard advised by the China. Medical Missionary Association of two foreign doctors and one foreign nurse to each hospital, one hundred and seventy doctors and one hundred and thirty nurses are needed. Yet these hospitals when staff and maintenance and equipment are fully provided can only hope to serve a small percentage of the Chinese people. - . ' mx.: 'M ,,' , . l - ', i . ,, , ' V - , r , 4.-5' - 1 I. 1' N-A . if - s , , Washing rice and vegetables, preparatory to cooking, in a pond which receives sewage and other filth. Only by drinking tea does the Chinese escape epidemics of communicable diseases from sm face pools such as these. Wells furnish only a small part of the drinking water used by the people.

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18 THE LINGUIST GRONVTH. By 1850, nine medical missionaries had arrived for work in China. By 1887, more than one hundred and. fifty had worked in China. In, 1902, after the Boxer' uprising, there were one hundred men and women engaged in medical work. The great impetus given missionary work following the Boxer trouble was especially noted among the medical forces. By 1917, there were fourhundred medical missionaries in China and, at present,,there are over five hundred medical represen- tatives of the various missionary societies in the field. ' . This force of doctors is working in two hundred and seventy five hospitals. A number of these'hospitals have been built, organized, and staffed by the women members of the profession. invaluable service is rendered by foreign nurses without whose help the high grade, efficient work set as an ideal would be impossible of fulfillment. Pharmacists, dentists, and laboratory teclmicians fill essential places toward rounding out service that the medical profession is giving the Chinese people. ' . MEDICAL EDUCATION IN CHINA The greater part of medical education in China has been carried on in schools founded, manned and supported by missionary forces. The present medical schools have grown from humble beginnings to magnificent institutions because of the vision held by those great spirits who founded them and the strong men who still carry on. Efforts are being concentrated in building up the present institutions to a high plane where they can turn out graduates with higher grade scientific training and backed by the worthy traditions and high ideals of the medical professions of Europe and America. Themedical schools supported by foreign agencies cannot hope to provide an adequate medical personnel for the four hundred million people of China but they can blaze the way by furnishing China with model schools and hospitals and by training men forleadership in building up the Chinese medical profession. THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE LIFE. Weamissionaries of a later day will, in all probability, never ap- preciate the difficulties and discouragements that were endured by these resolute predecessors of ours. Faced with antagonism, privation, lack of companionship, meager equipment, and little funds, they succeeded through great faith. They gave their all, some through years of service in the great cities, others through work in the far frontier stations. They gave health to millions of the sick of body and through the love and confidence thus won pointed their patients on to the Great Ideal. Day after day, week after week, year after year, they worked -on. Overcoming great obstacles that they might fulfill their great purpose. The memory of those who have given their lives that the millions of China mighthave more abundant physical and spiritual life is a wonderful inspiration to us who follow on. The great traditions of their love and sacrifice, the records that they left in the hearts of those whom they loved and served, and the great works that live after them testify to their wholehearted service to the Master. They have left us a noble heritage to carry on to high fulfillment and we can do no less than accept this sacred trust.

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20 THE LINGUISTH THE CALL OF THE SERVICE. The call of the service extends into many fields. To those who are interested in preventitive medicine and public health with their problems of sanitation and popular education, China otiers the greatest field in the world today. To those who are interested in fighting those great scourges of mankind such as tuberculosis and leprosy, there are millions waiting with their faces turned toward the wall for one who can give them hope. To those with the blood of pioneers in their veins, the call comes to enter the new fields out on the far frontiers where the great adventure of bringing a gospel of love and service and healing has a virgin field. The call comes to each one so equipped that they can help bring this service to its fullness. Doctor, nurse. pharmacist, dentist, technican, all are needed to complete the work. And in all and through all this service as a golden thread runs ,the fact that many of thosewho are reached by the ministry of healing are brought into contact with the Great' Physician and, through him, receive the gift of life eternal. Acknowledgment is made to Drs. King, Voss and Vtfoodbridge whose invaluable assistance made this paper possible. R. A. Psrizxsou. M. D. References. 1. MacGowan: A History of China. 2. Wong: Chinese Hospitals in Ancient Times. C.M.M. jour., Vol. XXXVII, QNO. 1. 3. Cadbury: Medicine as Practised by the Chinese, C. M. M. jour., Vol. XXXVII, No. 6. 4. Balme: Modern Medicine in China. A Tea House