PREPARATION OF THE MEDICAL

MISSIONARY

"It takes a soul

To move a body; it takes a high-souled man
To move the masses even to a cleaner stye;
It takes the ideal to blow an inch inside

The dust of the actual."

"I spoke as I saw,

I report as a man may of God's work-
All's love, yet all's law.

Now I lay down the judgeship He lent me,

Each faculty tasked;

To perceive Him has gained an abyss

Where a dewdrop was asked."

-Rolt. Browning.

'Life may be spent or invested: may be seed corn or devoured."

"He speaks not well who doth his time deplore,

Naming it new and little and obscure,

Ignoble and unfit for lofty deeds.

All times were modern in the times of them,
And this no more than others.

Do thy part

Here in the living day, as did the great

Who made the days immortal ! "

-Richard Watson Gilder.

V

PREPARATION OF THE MEDICAL MISSIONARY

The work of the lapidary is to enhance the reflecting power of the gem, and he is not content with polishing one side, but makes many facets so that from scores of angles the light breaks and burns. The Great Lapidary has made each precious stone in His treasury of amazing beauty from whichever side it is viewed. The piercing gleam from some facets near the setting is only seen on close inspection. The ministry of healing shines brightly upon us as we look at its spiritual service and tender winsomeness of compassion. The light is reflected from its very apex and almost every beam is caught and sent back to us with its clear and holy gleam. But by and by, as we look closer, we see that the lower angles have a glory all their own, though perhaps not quite so brilliant as the apex. The educational influence, the stimulation of benevolent enterprises and even sanitary reforms-these are the facets sometimes almost hidden, but which reflect the light all the same, when placed in the right point of view.

Every great life which has leaped out upon the world has taken generations to form. Every great national life has had back of it huge reservoirs of wise legislation and public spiritedness. It is no mean claim to make for Medical Missions that they have been instrumental in promoting a healthier-and therefore surely a holier-national life in the countries where they have been working.

It was said of Professor Owen that he could construct an entire skeleton from seeing a single bone of a prehistoric animal. We venture to think that the estimation in which a government holds the lives of its people, as evidenced by its care for the preservation of their health, prevention of disease and precautions against devastations by epidemics, might almost be taken as a rough gauge of the

position they hold in the world of Christian Sociology, and from these facts might be built up a skeleton of its national well-being.

The field of influence is immense. The Medical Missionary The countries in which medical misa Sanitary Reformer. sionaries are working are, almost without exception, devoid of proper sanitation or the desire to enforce precautionary methods when threatened by wholesale death through epidemic illnesses.

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A physician who has spent over twenty years in China says: Their cities and towns are unspeakably filthy, many of their busy thoroughfares being but elongated cesspools. Every householder is at liberty to throw any kind of abominable refuse into the public street before his own door, and sanitary laws, if they exist, are neither understood nor enforced. The dwellings of the poor are minus everything that makes for comfort or conduces to health, and in times of sickness the condition of the sufferers, especially if they have the misfortune to be women, is extremely deplorable." The nasal organs of the Chinese seem to be deficient in sensitiveness, and they endure with apparent impunity stenches that would make a European ill. Many of their rooms are dark and damp. The sewers in the cities are frequently foul, and often through superstitious notions are so constructed that the sewage collects in them instead of flowing off. Most of the villages in South China have pools into which all refuse matter is cast."

*"China is notorious for the entire neglect of proper sanitation. There is even a lively rivalry among its most important cities as to which deserves the prize for surpassing filthiness. Peking, the capital, seems to be by no means an unworthy candidate for the highest laurels in the contest, and has even been pronounced by competent judges as the dirtiest city on the face of the globe. 'Above all characteristics of Peking,' says Mr. Norman, 'one thing stands out in horrible prominence. Not to mention it would be wilfully to omit the most striking feature of the place. I mean its filth. It is the most horribly and

*Christian Missions and Social Progress. Dr. Jas. S. Dennis. Vol. I., p. 228.

indescribably filthy place that can be imagined; indeed, imagination must fall far short of the fact.'

*Dr. Theodore Duka, an Indian army surgeon, says: "It is almost needless to enter upon a description of the sanitation of an Indian village, for there is a total absence of it. The huts composing the villages and hamlets are erected for the most part on flat land or on slightly elevated ground, exposed to the scorching sun and fiery winds, or drenched by rain. The people drink from the pond in which they bathe and in which their cattle wallow, surrounded by the refuse of their daily lives. The cattle consist of cows and buffaloes, occasionally of goats, donkeys and pigs. All live under the same roof and lie upon the ground beside their master and his family. There is hardly a window or an opening for ventilation."

Moslem lands are equally wanting in common sanitary knowledge. The annual pilgrimage to Mecca by thousands of Muhammedans is a menace to the whole world's health. It has been stated that every cholera visitation in any land during recent years has been plainly traceable to Mecca as its source. The crowding of the pilgrims, the water used for drinking, and every other condition seems to present an almost perfect combination for spreading contagion. The superstitious fears which are entertained in these lands of anything like scientific investigation for the purpose of public health is well illustrated by a quotation from The Lancet: "The French Statistical Department, anxious to obtain definite information on certain matters from Turkish provinces, sent lists of questions to which they requested replies, to the various provincial Pashas. Certain of the questions were addressed to the Pasha of Damascus, and his replies ran as follows:

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Question: What is the death rate per thousand in your principal city?

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Answer: In Damascus it is the will of Allah that all must die; some died old, some young.

"Question: What is the annual number of births?
'Answer: We don't know; only God alone can say.

* Quoted from Christian Missions and Social Progress. Dr. Jas, S. Dennis. Vol, I., p. 219, 220.

† July 16, 1898.