106 



KEY. F. BAYLIS, M.A.^ ON 



which they could not bear, of cases beyond their skill. The 

 doctor thought he could do something if allowed, and with 

 difficulty persuaded the people to let him have a few cases to 

 treat in his hospital. In the end he succeeded with a fair 

 proportion of his patients. The people were astonished, grate- 

 ful, subdued. They could not do enough to honour the loving 

 skill they had witnessed. This man must be the official doctor 

 for their wounded soldiers, and the very literati who had done 

 their utmost to thwart his first efforts, when no doubt their 

 best name for him would have been, say, " Foreign Devil," came 

 to him when his furlough was due, to nmke sure about the 

 continuance of his work, and brought a fine address inscribed 

 " to the Angelic Healer from over the Seas." 



The gift was very definitely the gift of science, but the 

 channel for it was opened by Christian Missions. To a very 

 large extent this is still for China, for the Moslem world, and 

 for other great tracts of the world the relation between Medical 

 Science and Christian Missions. Science, as a power for good, 

 owes its opportunity to Missions. 



It may be worth while, however, to notice here, too, that this 

 relation is, to a large extent, a passing phase of the world's 

 history. The Missions will not long have the privilege of being 

 the first and chief channel for this sort of beneficence. 



Dr. Duncan Main, who has himself done yeoman's service in 

 Hangchow as a medical missionary and trainer of native medical 

 students, said at the Edinburgh Conference* : — 



" There is no medical education in China" (none, i.e., as the 

 context shows, in the normal course of things in China, no 

 " qualification " for doctors). " There is no greater need to-day 

 in China than for medical education. . . . Those of us who 

 have been engaged in the medical education for more than a 

 quarter of a century have had our hearts almost torn to pieces 

 by the suffering, the agony, the awfulness of what was called 

 Medical Science in China. The demand is tremendous, the 

 demand is everywhere . . . the Government wants medical 

 men, the railways want medical men, and they all want them. 

 The demand from the Government is so orreat that we cannot 

 keep sufficient men to carry on our own work." (This refers 

 obviously to the trained native assistants.) The Government 

 comes forward and says, "we will give you £15 and the 

 Missionary Society are only giving you £1. . . ." 



It is clear that the day is upon us when China will, in one 



* Report, vol. iii, p. 432. 



