The "Hakim Sahib", the foreign doctor : a biography of Joseph Plumb Cochran, M. D., of Persia / by Robert E. Speer.

  • Speer, Robert E. (Robert Elliott), 1867-1947.
Date:
[1911], ©1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The "Hakim Sahib", the foreign doctor : a biography of Joseph Plumb Cochran, M. D., of Persia / by Robert E. Speer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    charm to all that he said and did. He was not only a physician, but also a diplomatist, a counseller, a great public character, a missionary leader, and with it all a man so modest, so reserved, so incapable of self-advertisement, so unwilling to exploit himself even for the good of his work, that only a small circle knew what a unique character there was in Urumia, doing quietly in a far-off corner of the world a piece of work as true, as difficult, as representative of the central problems of modern life, and especially of the contact of Christian civilization with Asia, as any work that was doing anywhere on the earth. I desire to thank the friends who have spared no pains to supply information for this biography. The love and regard which all of us who knew Dr. Cochran felt for him make us eager to do everything we can to honour his memory, and to perpetuate the influence of his character and career. And to this end I have sought in this sketch to preserve, as much as possible, the spirit of the man and the contemporary and local colouring as these are embodied in his reports and in his own and his wife^s correspondence. Hakim Sahib was the title by which Dr. Cochran was known in Persia. Hakim is the Persian word for doctor, and Sahib, meaning master or sir, is the respectful term of address applied to foreigners in Persia and India. I hope that those who read this sketch may feel something of the simplicity and strength, the honour and truth of a life which coupled simple faith and ceaseless toil. R. E. S. New York City.