Morning journal and courier., 1882-07-26
Medical Missionaries.
The Experience of Two Pretty Young Doctoresses Among the Chinese.
 From the Denver Tribuns1

The Experience of Two Pretty Young
 Doctoresses Among the Chinese.
 From the Denver Tribuns]
 People are very we'll acquainted with re ligious missionaries, and know their objects and ann and all about them, but very few are aware of the fact that there are such people as medical missionaries A reporter had the pleasure of meeting two of them on Satur- day. They are very charming and handsome young ladies-Dr. Ella Gilchrist and Dr. Kate Bushnell. The prefix Doctor" is used, as that is the one which they use in address ing each other. They are graduates of the Chicago Women's Medical College Dr. Gilchrist is small, we'll built lady, not more than twenty-five years old, and Dr. Bushnell is tall brunette, with pretty teeth, clear olive complexion, winning smile and very expressive eyes. They said they were grad.
 uates in medicine who had been sent to Chi
 na to teach the Chinese their system of doc- toring, and to assist the other missionaries ir Chrlstlanizing the people. The Methodist Board of Foreign Missions sent them and the Presbyterian Church also sent a few Women were sent, as men would not be al lowed to attend Chinese women. There were about fifty of these medical missionaries 1T that country, and they were accomplishing great deal of good.
 ''Did the people receive your administra tions kindly?' ?'' asked the reporter
 Very kindly, indeed. We had all the worl we could attend to. We had working witt us Bible woman and 8 teacher, and ". were able to assist them in marked de gree. The people whom we cured were very easy to influence and none disputed ou1 authority.''
 'sWhat systems of medicine do the Chinese doctors follow"
 ''No regular system. A Chinese doctor does not study and go through course 8. we do. Any man becomes physician wheI
 he pleasss An ordinary man, if he think. he can cure any particular disease, hangs out his shingle, declares himself and starts ou
 to kill or cure, generally the former. They pretend to discover all forms of diseases bJ the pulse, of which they claim to distinguish thirty two varieties. For instance they claim that a certain kind of pulse indicates disease of the liver and another kind disease of the heart, but they have no idea of the whatever. They have not the slightest con
 ception where the spleen or smaller organs are, and of course their treatment is the mer
 est quackery. The most ignorant man in the community can become physician by hang ing out sign5
 the patient violently. One often sees pa tients recovering from attacks, covered all over with purple marks, where they have been pinched until nearly dead with pain Another very common treatment practised is to cauterize. I have seen bodies with their oH>AAh l in trying to cure them of fits There is no system. Each physician gives his patient anything which his fancy may dictate The
 medicine, strange to say, is changed to suit the patient, the doctors seeming to think that costly medicine must perform cure and the costlier it is the quicker the cure The richer the patient is the more he has tc pay for his medicine, and we have seen even solutions of gold and silver given. In ex
 treme cases there is one remedy resorted tc which is simply horrible. Should the head of the house be dying and the doctors give only thing which will save him is piece oi warm human flesh. When this announce
 ment is made. one Of the daughters of the
 house is expected to offer herself as a sacri fee on the altar of ancestral reverence. The doctors cut out of her body Q large piece ot flesh, which the dying man eats As @ rule
 the patient dies, and also the heroic daughter
 The relatives thereupon erect @ monument upon her grave, inscribed with the story o1
 her sacrifice"
 ''What are the fees of Chinese doctors ?'' ''They have no fixed fees. When man is
 sick the family makes bargain with him
 If the family is poor the charge is small even as low as ten cents visit. If the fam
 fly is we'll off the fee may be as high as fifty cents, and for persons of great rank ol
 wealth even one dollar might be charged 1 but this would be very exceptional" t'How did the native phy sicians receive you?"
 Very kindly. We treated the families of
 several physicians, and they would come to
 for assistance when they would have s very severe case. One time we operated
 upon a woman and removed an immense
 tumor. Two native physicians who were in the case considered this a most remarkable performance, and they quietly wrote up 8 long article, which they had published in the Chinese newspaper at Pekin. It was very