DISSECTION DURING THE MODERN PERIOD 113 



In recent years, medical education in China has been toler- 

 ated rather than encouraged. Professional students, in this field, 

 were of low caste and physicians were not in good standing. In 

 Hong Kong, the British succeeded in making human dissection 

 a part of the medical curriculum. The teachers there found that 

 tlie Chinese made good students up to a point; they were good 

 dissectors, made neat drawings but were apt to memorize (Clark, 

 •13). 



In 1920, there were twenty-six medical schools in China, 

 most of them being regulated by foreign missions or agencies; 

 only twenty-four teachers devoted full time to the teaching of 

 anatomy. It was natural that they were very much overworked. To 

 get enough funds to pay the staff, was a considerable problem. 

 Only twelve of the twenty-six institutions had any sort of course in 

 human dissection; there was no regular and sufficient source of 

 bodies. Some were obtained after executions; these had to be 

 sewed up and buried afterwards. Willed bodies had to be returned 

 to the family and it was difficult to obtain the permission of the 

 nearest of kin. In the large city of Peking, four bodies were ob- 

 tained over an interval of one and one-half years. One school de- 

 voted 1,178 hours to the subject of gross anatomy. It was natural 

 that the majority of instructors eventually came to rely upon the 

 use of models. Skeletons, by contrast, were easy to obtain (Cowdry, 

 '20a). 



G. Japan 



Comparatively, Japan has been better off than China. In 

 1920, there were twenty- five medical schools of various types: 

 Imperial, War, Municipal and Private. Large, airy, and spotless 

 wooden buildings were used. Anatomical material was plentiful. 

 Kyota Imperial University used 438 bodies in 1913. The supply 

 was controlled by the government and they were obtained from 

 prisons, workhouses, university hospitals and old people's homes. 

 Equipment was up-to-date. Most of the teachers were trained in 

 foreign countries, and, in general, western standards were accepted 

 although prejudices existed as to the free use of human subjects 

 ^Clark, '13; Cowdry, '20b). 



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