I have composed a stanza in heptameter, which, with a few trifling presents, I beg you will be pleased to accept. Then happy, happy shall I be! "He lavishes his blessings, but seeks for no return; Such medicine, such physician, since Tsin were never known: The surgeon's knife-it pierced the eye, and spring once more I see. Two benevolent men connected with the Dispensary at Canton, Doct. Bradford of Philadelphia and Doct. Cox of London, also gave gratuitous medical assistance to poor natives. Doct. Parker's design, therefore, had already been tried, and when the scheme was made known to Howqua, the senior hongmerchant, he readily fell in with it, and moreover let his building at a very reasonable rate. It was opened for the admission of patients Nov. 4, 1835. The peculiar circumstances under which this hospital was rented and opened, imposed some caution on its superintendent, and the hong-merchants themselves seem to have had a lurking suspicion that so purely a benevolent object, involving so much expense of time, labor, and money, must have some latent object which it behooved them to watch. A linguist's clerk was in attendance much of the time, partly for this purpose, for three or four years, and made himself very useful in many ways. The ultimate objects of the hospital were to prove to the Chinese the practical benevolence of the Christian religion by healing their sick, while the opportunity was improved to preach and teach the assembled patients the doctrines of Christianity, and impress upon them that the great motive for thus relieving their bodily diseases was to exhibit the benevolence of the religion of Jesus, so freely offered for their acceptance. The latter and most important of these objects was not carried into full effect at Canton till recently, owing to the want of a qualified coadjutor, for it was beyond the strength of one man to attend to their ailments and preach too. It was deemed wise, moreover, to defer the distribution of tracts until the institution should become well known and somewhat appreciated among all classes of people, for if the lessor should suspect that he was likely to be impli OPHTHALMIC HOSPITAL AT CANTON. 347 cated or annoyed by the emissaries of government, it was almost certain that he would immediately refuse the lease, and make it impossible to procure another building, and thus shut up the prospect of doing good in this way; all the native assistants would also leave from the same fear. Conversation could have been profitably carried on with the patients on religious subjects as they were seated around the room, if there had been any person qualified to do it, but it was unwise to distribute books, since only a year before Liang Afah was obliged to flee for this reason. The mode of conducting the hospital was to open the doors once a week, and give the patients small cards to carry away. They were seated around the room, the men and women apart; and with the exception of a little impatience to be treated soon, arising from oft repeated observation, that if they were not, the crowd was too large for all to be attended to on one day, no audience could behave better. The women were treated first, and whenever a person ignorant of the rules of the hospital pressed forward, urgent to be relieved, a simple explanation and request to wait for his turn, was usually sufficient. Cards were filled up for each patient containing his number, name, age, residence, disease, and date, and notes were taken of the symptoms and treatment as far as necessary, so that when he came again, the number of the card referred to the notes and list, and the case easily understood. Natives were soon instructed in giving out medicines, and performing simple operations of cleansing, dressing, and bandaging, while two or three pupils were taken for more regular instruction in medical science. About a hundred patients attended daily, of whom one-fifth were women, besides many servants and friends. Surgical operations were performed once a week, and the in-door patients visited daily, who numbered about forty, including servants and friends. The repeated instances of kind feeling between friends and relatives exhibited among the patients, tender solicitude of parents for the relief of their children, and contrariwise, the heartfelt gratitude for benefits received, and the fortitude with which the severest operations were borne, or faith shown in receiving unknown medicines, all tended to elevate the character of the Chinese in the opinion of every beholder. The efforts made in the hospital immediately attracted the attention of the foreign community, and donations were sent in for defraying its current expenses. The reports gave the requisite information as to its operations, and means were taken to place the whole system upon a surer footing by forming a society in China. Suggestions as to the propriety of establishing a society for this object were circulated in October, 1836, signed by Messrs. Colledge, Parker, and Bridgman, in which the motives for such a step, and the good effects likely to result from it, were thus explained : "We cannot close these suggestions without adverting to one idea, though this is not the place to enlarge upon it. It is affecting to contemplate this empire, embracing three hundred and sixty millions of souls, where almost all the light of true science is unknown, where Christianity has scarcely shed one genial ray, and where the theories concerning matter and mind, creation and providence, are wofully destitute of truth; it is deeply affecting to see the multitudes who are here suffering under maladies, from which the hand of charity is able to relieve them. Now we know, indeed, that it is the glorious gospel of the blessed God only that can set free the human mind, and that it is only when enlightened in the true knowledge of God that man is rendered capable of rising to his true intellectual elevation; but while we take care to give this truth the high place which it ought ever to hold, we should beware of depre ciating other truth. In the vast conflict which is to revolutionize the intellectual and moral world, we may not underrate the value of any weapon. As a means, then, to waken the dormant mind of China, may we not place a high value upon medical truth, and seek its introduction with good hope of its becoming the handmaid of religious truth? If an inquiry after truth upon any subject is elicited, is there not a great point gained? And that inquiry after medical truth may be provoked, there is good reason to expect: for, exclusive as China is in all her systems, she cannot exclude disease, nor shut her people up from the desire of relief. Does not, then, the finger of Providence point clearly to one way that we should take with the people of China, directing us to seek the introduction of the remedies for sin itself, by the same door through which we convey those which are designed to mitigate or remove its evils? Although medical truths cannot restore the sick and afflicted to the favor of God, yet perchance, the spirit of inquiry about it once awakened, will not sleep till it inquires about the source of truth; and he who comes with the blessings of health may prove an angel of mercy to point to the Lamb of God. At any rate, this seems the only open door; let us enter it. A faith that worketh not may wait for other doors. None can deny that this is a way of charity that worketh no ill, and our duty to walk in it seems plain and imperative."* * Chinese Repository, Vol. V., page 372; Vol. VII., pages 33-40. FORMATION OF MEDICAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 349 This paper was favorably received in China, and in February 1838, a public meeting was convened at Canton for the purpose of forming a society, "the object of which shall be to encourage gentlemen of the medical profession to come and practise gra tuitously among the Chinese, by affording the usual aid of hospitals, medicines, and attendants; but that the support or remuneration of such medical gentlemen be not at present within its contemplation." Another resolution passed at this meeting was that "candidates for the patronage of the society must furnish satisfactory certificates of their medical education, approved of by the society sending them out;" which insured, as far as could be, that all its agents should be pious, discreet, and able physicians, and willing, as they had the strength, to attend to both the bodies and souls of their patients. A few rules for the internal regulation of the hospitals, such as keeping registers of all cases, and taking notes of such things as might be deemed useful, were adopted; but no directions were given by the framers of the society concerning the mode of imparting religious instruction, distributing tracts, or doing missionary work as they had opportunity. The signers of the original paper of suggestions also issued an address, further setting forth their views and expectations in this benevolent enterprise. "To restore health, to ease pain, or in any way to diminish the sum of human misery, forms an object worthy of the philanthropist. But in the prosecution of our views we look forward to far higher results than the mere relief of human suffering. We hope that our endeavors will tend to break down the walls of prejudice and long cherished nationality of feeling, and to teach the Chinese that those whom they affect to despise are both able and willing to become their benefactors. They shut the door against the teachers of the Gospel; they find our books often written in idioms which they cannot readily understand; and they have laid such restrictions upon commerce that it does not awaken among them that love of science, that spirit of invention, and that love of thought, which it uniformly excites and fosters whenever it is allowed to take its own course without limit or interference. In the way of doing them good, our opportunities are few, but among these, that of practising medicine and surgery stands pre-eminent. Favorable results have hitherto followed it, and will still continue to do so. It is a department of benevolence peculiarly adapted to China. . . . . "In the department of benevolence to which our attention is now turned, purity and disinterestedness of motive are more clearly evinced than in any other. They appear unmasked; they attract the gaze, and excite the admiration and gratitude of thousands. Heal the sick is our motto, constituting alike the injunction under which we act, and the object at which we aim; and which, with the blessing of God, we hope to accomplish by means of scientific practice, in the exercise of an unbought and untiring kindness. We have called ours a Missionary Society, because we trust it will advance the cause of missions, and because we want men to fill our institutions, who to requisite skill and experience add the self-denial and high moral qualities which are looked for in a missionary." The address then goes on to enumerate some collateral advantages which are likely to accrue both to the Chinese and their benefactors, among which, teaching the theory and practice of medicine and surgery to natives, thereby introducing the benefits and stimulus of sound knowledge and skill in place of charlatanry and ignorance, ascertaining what remedies the Chinese used which might profitably be introduced into western pharmacopoeias, and whether they had any modes of treating diseases, or preparing medicines, which could be advantageously adopted. The amount of funds contributed in China and its vicinity to this object, up to the date of the address, was about $9000, nearly half of which was employed in purchasing a building for a hospital at Macao, to be made the principal establishment of the Society for educating native students, when it should obtain more physicians. At the first annual meeting in November, 1838, a report was read of the operations of the hospital at Canton and Macao, in which it was stated that more than six thousand persons had, with few exceptions, received permanent relief from suffering, of which a large number had been restored from partial or total blindness to the blessings of sight, all of whom had been attended to by Doct. Parker since Nov., 1835. Doct. Colledge's medical library was purchased for the Society by a liberal English merchant in Canton, William Jardine, Esq., and some other books were presented by the members, together with a few instruments, so that nothing was wanting except competent medical missionaries to take charge of the hospitals. Some of the Chinese at Canton, who were made acquainted with the design of the institution, manifested unexpected interest in its prosperity, and members of the co-hong and others contributed to its support. Lamqua, a well known painter, freely proposed |