University of Nanking - Linguist Yearbook (Nanking, China)

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68 DENTBTRY Boards have included dentists on their long list of workers. Since this branch of work has been recognized as being in the line of missionary service the practice has been to send a foreign dentist to those hospitals which are located near a large foreign community so that he can serve the missionaries as well as train native dentists. The surface has been barely scratched even in the few large eent6I'5 and not until means are provided whereby more and more native students may receive dental training will the need be adequately met. TAISHAN TU FU Of T'ai Shan what can one say? Here Ln and Ch'i for aye Freshly their youth retain. Here Heaven and Earth unite Spiritual Grace to form : As a pole of shade and light It sunders the dusk and dawn. Soaring through layers of cloud, At sight of it swells the breast. At a glance the eye can view The birds coming home to rest. But climb to the uttermost peak- The other hills seem small As the eye o'erlooks them all.

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THE LINGUIST 67 0110 would easily realize this if he could but see the various eases that Come to us through the hospital clinic every morning. We might rightly Call the majority of them emergency eases since they come only for the relief of pain caused by decay of long standing, infections, and severe and numerous abscesses. The number of eases of pyorrhea is surprisingly large, many more than we have in America. Practically all the food the Chinese eat needs little chewing, thus depriving the teeth and gums of their needed exercise. When there are deposits on the gums their vitality is S0 low that they cannot combat the many kinds of bacteria present. Thus the gums become red and swollen and pyorrhea soon develops. Giving relief to these patients who come because of extreme necessity is the means of beginning a larger field of service in what we might call Dreventive dentistry. Here is an opportunity to teach the value of daily Cleansing and the frequent removal of more obscure deposits before they Cause trouble and to demonstrate the folly of allowing decay to continue l0l1g after it is evident. It will at first be difficult to convince the Chinese of this because they have always done without such preventive methods, and so why should they commence them now. What does decay matter as long as it causes '10 pain ? Even among the better educated there are many who have.yet to learn how much a healthy mouth will mean to their general health. The work done for the students of Nanking University and Ginling College af- nominal charges will spread the information about the benefits of Preventive dentistry. . Recently we examined 350 students of the University of Nanking Middle School and found only 135 who needed attention to the extent of fP0rn one to three fillings and in some cases extractions. The front teeth W0re almost invariably sound. Out of two hundred boys examined at the Y. M. C, A. not a cavity was found in front teeth. It is true that the Chinese have fewer decayed teeth than Americans although I do not know the reason for this. Even though there is less decay in the teeth Of the Chinese than one W0uld look for, considering their dental methods, there is plenty to do for th0Se who use modern methods. Here in Nanking, a city of about 500,000, there are only three Western trained dentists. In China as a whole there are less than ten missionary dentists as it is only recently that the Mission

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CHINESE SILK HINESE SILK-the words conjure up one of my earliest recollections: l, a prattling child, patting the shimmering softness which grand- mother lifted from the sea chest of sweet odors. Grandmother was lihinking of a romance still living in her heart. I was looking out of the flttie window to see whether that softness were really a piece of the blue ilbove. A score of years later I stood before a good-looking stone building Of three stories and many windows, on the campus of Nanking University. My eicerone, a Chinese student of the University, said in his stilted English, This-the home of the worm. His words were literal. The worm, used collectively, included thousands of silk worms fattening on mulberry leaves-and the best leaves too-in a cupboard arrangement of drawers, row upon row, with sides and back of wire netting to provide ventilation. When the taste for mulberry leaves is satiated, the worms will be placed in baskets, or on ropes of straw termed straw mountains, and will be allowed to spin the eoeoons of delicate fiber. When this process complete, the moths are taken out and confirmed under a little metal inverted cup. Here they lay eggs on the provided circle of paper. After the mother moth has deposited her eggs, she is examined under the microscope for pebrine, a protozoan infection which is hereditary and causes immense loss to the industry. If the protozoan spores are present, the eggs are destroyed. Otherwise, the circle of eggs is pasted on a cardboard with nineteen similar circles, and kept, hundreds of them, in a room of regulated temperature until hatching time. Then the cards are put into an incubator-an ordinary Chicken incubator remodelled by the University. This assures the uniform hatching of the eggs, and therefore enables, the worker to care for all the Worms on a given card together, thus saving his time and energy. These processes are observed and largely carried on by students. In addition to the regular classes in serieulture in the University curriculum, a Short course of one year is offered and from seventy-Qfive to a hundred young men come from the silk districts of China, to get the information necessary qeei. . '