Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 98, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1910 — MISSION DOCTORS IN CHINA [ARTICLE]

MISSION DOCTORS IN CHINA

•nrktcml Operations ta Foochow at RMlealoailr Low Price*. Soms of the best surgical work In the world is done by medical mlasiohwho often have the poorest kind of equipment in the way of building and apparatus, says the Boston Transcript. Dr. H. N, Klnnear, at the head of a hospital in Foochow, has been obliged to use the scitting room of his own house for an operating/ room, but last year he performed over 800 operations with only his wife and untrained natives for assistants. A* new hospital is in process of erection, on high ground, which will bring the buildings Into prominence from a large part of the city. Of the nearly 18,000 patients treated last year several cams from high-class families, and they were most appreciative of what was dons for them. A distinctive feature of this and all mission hospitals Is the person, usually a native Christian, who acts as a kind of chaplain. Many of the patients have never heard the gospel story, and while they are being helped physically they listen willingly to what Is told them. Religious services are also held every day in the room where people await their turn and receive the bamboo tallies that decide the orler in which they are to be seen. Fees are rldffculously small, according to our American standard, 6 cents being tbs maximum, except in special cases, when the munificent sum of 25 cents is charged! This allows precedence to men who wear the Ibng gown of-the literati and object to Waiting while laborers and women receive attention. Dr. Klnnear Is a resourceful man and often uses the Chinese queue to hold In place the dressings of wounds about the head or as a sling for the support* of Injured or diseased hands and arms. He writes that he considers medical missionaries the most favored of all workers. Yet his salary is far below what he could earn as a surgeon in the United States.