Report of the missionary hospital, in the western suburbs of Canton.

  • Hobson, Benjamin, 1816-1873.
Date:
[1855]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the missionary hospital, in the western suburbs of Canton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    meat, when peace and order is fully restored will show any sense of its obligations to foreign surgeons by conferring upon them some badge of honor, or some public token of their respect, is very doubt- ful ; most probably not; for the Chinese are slow to acknowledge any obligations to foreigners. But this makes no difference to the medical missionary in his treatment of the sick; his motto is: It is more blessed to give than to receive; and his consolation and reward are derived from the satisfaction he feels in alleviating to some extent the wretchedness and misery of his afflicted fellow men, and pointing them to Christ the Saviour. The following tabular statements will show the number of persons applying for relief from month to month, and also the attendance on the Sabbath days, throughout the year. Number of persons applying- each month for medical relief, three times a week. !1854-55 . July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. April May June Total. Men, 1220 897 960 1290 1416 1254 985 640 925 1322 1411 1421 13,741 I ' VVoinen, 477 525 551 856 923 676 559 348 512 654 856 800 7,737 12months 1697 1422 1571 2146 2339 1930 1544 988 1437 1976 2267 2221 21,478 Attendance of the sick and other persons in the Sabbath day of each month. 1854-55 July Aug. Sept Oct. Nov. Dec. J?n. Feb. Mar. April May June Total. Men, 486 316 376 587 568 520 445 361 433 486 418 385 5381 Women, 198 145 171 252 197 156 169 138 178 287 247 199 2337 12monthB 684 461 547 839 765 676 614 499 611 773 665 584 7718 The above lists are faithfully made out by the tract distributor Low tingsheen, who issues bamboo tickets numbered from 1 to 100 in two sets, for men and women; which he receives back, and re- gisters their number. It was formerly my practise at Macao and Hongkong to keep a record of individual cases, sirname, place of residence, &c.; as is still done by one or two medical missionaries in other places : but in Canton the applicants for medical aid, have been so numerous, that to save time and expense, we adopted the simpler plan of keeping a general record of the number prescribed for each receiving day, having no regard whether they have been before or not. But even this plan is but an approximation to the truth, for it does not include in-patients, or those who gain admis- j sion through a private entrance. The number in July, August, and September, have been fewer than proceeding years, owing to the dis- 4