The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1865-07-15
THE ACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
SATURDAY,, JULY IS.
BY AUTHORITY.
Queen'- Hospital.

A meeting Of the contributors to the Queens Hospital was
held At the Courthouse on Monday, the 10Th instant, fer the
purpose Of choosing Trustees, as required by the charter The
following persons were elected upon the first ballot
Charles r. Bishop, Rev. :. c. Damon, :. y. Castle, Sam.
savidge and A. F. Judd. The remaining FIVE Trustees, yet to
be appointed, are to be nominated by the Minister Of the Int
rior.
The attendance was small, but We noticed several of our
most influential citizens present. Before the adjournment. DR..
Judd requested permission to make some suggestions, which, if
adopted, would, in his opinion, make the Hospital more efficient
as i means Of Sauiag the nation. He said the Hospital was
an excellent institution, but not as popular among the natives
as it ought 10 be, owing in some measure to the practice %
post mortem examinations. which he thought was unnecessary
for the education Of the present medical attendant, and had
better De discontinued and suggested that the Hospital be
made a school for the education of the young men Of the native
population to be doctors that they be taught good nursing,
when to use cold water, when to use hot, how to make broth
and Cruel, when TO administer them, and when to give fish and
poi or beefani pork in short, to have some idea of the diff
ference between diseases of debility and those of an infamma-
tory character. which might cas- lily be learned by a short at
tendance at the Hospital, provided it was made the duty of the
Hospital Physician to give them such instruction. They should
also be taught to use simple medicines.
The Doctor proposed that suitable young men from the diff
ferent districts be invited to attend the Hospital for one year,
to be boarded and their expenses paid as far as necessary.
They should be employed as attendants upon the sick, under
the instructions of the Physician. At the end Of the year they
should be returned home, with a license to practice and charge
for their services, remaining under the direction of the Board Of
Trustees or the Hospital Physician. Another class might then
be called for, who would be in tuition for a longer period, and
after that another set might be called for, or the first class be
made the beuefciaries of further instruction, as future expe-
rience may suggest, until the Islands are fully supplied. He
argued that there was as much necessity for native doctors as
for native lawyess and in one year a clever young man could
he made as good a doctor, and answer the purpose in that de
partment as well as our young lawyers do in theirs; sufficient,
at any rate, to answer the purpose, and take the place of the
present native doctors, who, with no education. no experience,
abandon the ordinary business of life and set up in practice as a
means Of earning a better livelihood. No law, he thought,
could put a stop to the dangerous proceedings of these people
until 4 substitute is provided, for it is no more the nature of
man to lie quiet in sickness without a resort to some remedy,
than to go to court without a lawyer. He was sure that the
judges and police must lie well aware Of the horrid practices of
those who call themselves doctors.
DIR. Judd also remarked that some two years ago he drew up
a memorandum upon this subject, with similar suggestions
which he placed in the hands of the Queen, who did not co ncur
with him in his proposed method of supplying the medical wants
of the people at places remote from the Hospital, it being her
desire to establish hospitals upon all the other Islands. To this
he replied that to supply fully the people with hospitals and
foreign educated physicians, would require the entire revenue of
the Government and said moreover that he had couversed
with several of our medical men, who were opposed to licensing
any one not thoroughly educated, for fear they might kill some
body but he thought his plan would be a great advance upon
the pre- sent state of things, and had seen no reason to alter his
opinion.
1t appears to US that this is a matter of great Importance.
which we wonder has not been advanced before. From the re-
port of the Treasurer it appears the Hospital has cost 100000
in the last six years, but has done nothing, absolutely nothing
towards neutrahzing the superstitiOus practices, by which old
women, boys and designing rascals have been wringing money,
to Ia last dollar rom n poor, nue. promises 10 cure them o r
their relations when sick. 1t is not uncommon even for those
who are quite well, to be persuaded to the contrary, take medi-
cine and die.
OF the practices of these Doctors almost every person who is
acquainted with the natives has abundant proof, and it is high
time something was done to counterfeit Their influence and over
throw this last stronghold of superstition and heathenism.
Whether Dir. judas plan is the best that can be devised, we
will not say, but there can be no question of ats Importance or
: Of the responsibility that rests upon the government. AS things
are at present there is a great rivalry on the part of the native
doctors, who use all the means in their power to keep the sick
in their own hands rather than apply 10 foreign physicians,
where they are accessible, and they cultivate q sentiment, which
is well expressed by the terms mai haole, mai maoli, mai
Pake," &c, by which they mean not only that foreigners and
Cinnamon have different diseases from the natives, but that ma
tives alone are competent to cure the Z" mai maoli."
AS to the charges for the services of the present native doctors,
we refer to the copy of II license which, in connexiOn with
other remarks on tis subject, can be found ON second pagek