Some of the best surgical work in the world is done by medical
missionaries, who often have the poorest kind of equipment in
the way of building and apparatus. Dr. H. N. Kinnear, at the
head of a hospital in Fuchau, used the sitting-room of his own
house for an operating-room, but in one year he performed over
eight hundred operations, with only his wife and untrained
natives for assistants. Of the nearly 18,000 patients treated
last year, several came from high-class families, and they were
most appreciative of what was done for them. A distinctive
feature of this and all mission hospitals is the person,
usually a native Christian, who acts as a kind of chaplain.
Many of the patients have never heard the gospel story, and
while they are being helped physically they listen willingly
to what is told them. Religious services are also held every
day in the room where people await their turn and receive the
bamboo tallies that decide the order in which they are to be
seen. Fees are ridiculously small, according to our American
standard, five cents being the maximum, except in special
cases, when the munificent sum of twenty cents is charged.
This allows precedence to men who wear the long gown of the
literati and object to waiting while laborers and women receive
attention. Dr. Kinnear is a resourceful man, and often uses
the Chinese queue to hold in place dressings of wounds about
the head or as a sling for the support of injured or diseased
hands and arms. He writes that he considers medical missionaries
the most favored of all workers. Yet his salary is far below
what he could earn as a surgeon in the United States.--Boston
_Transcript_.
(2001)
See MISSIONS; MISSIONARIES, MEDICAL.
=Medical Science=--See LIFE PROLONGED.
=Meeting of Friends and Foes=--See AMITY AFTER WAR.