The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-07-18
PLAN TRAINING OF
CHINESE DOCTORS
Country Still In Dark Ages of
Medicine.
MUST COMBAT OPPOSITION.

Territory So Vast Rockefeller Commits
sion Can't Supply Enough Foreign
Medicos-Natives Wary of Innova-
tions - Chinese Apparently Cannot
Even Set Bone.
The Rockefeller commission, which
/ is in Picking investigating China's
needs in a medical and surgical way,
/ already has found that a most impor-
tant point is this: The Chinese must be
/ taught to doctor themselves along mod
ern lines and not rely. except for the
present. upon the foreign medical men,
i The country is so vast and the need
of the medical men so extensive that
all the doctors and surgeons in Amer
lea could be utilized in China. Such
great invasion or even enough TO make
any wide impression is impracticable
The solution must he the training of
the Chinese doctors, says Il Picking dis
patch to the New York Times. At pres
ent there are only a few score of them
trained along modern lines, and these
Chinaman is suspicious of the second
hand training of the modernized Chi
nese doctor, and if he is moved to re-
sort to foreign treatment he prefers TO
go direct to the foreign doctor.
The commission, which is represent
\ ed in Picking by DR.. Harry Pratt Jud-
e son, president of Chicago university,
and DIR. Francis W. Peabody of Bos-
ton, has not gone far enough to COM
; NIT itself to any definite plan, but its
; report undoubtedly will be largely CON
! cerned with the problem of making the
foreign trained native doctor respected
in China.
! Government Aids.
Q The United States department OF
n state has temporarily detached Roger
+ s. Greene from his consular post at
: Hankow TO aid the commission as an
e Interpreter and guide in its tour of in
i vestigation, and the Chinese govern
ment, both central and local. has fur
thered rather than impeded the work
= of the commission.
O In the medical schools the commits
:. sion has found various men at work
o trying to coin medical characters and
n combinations of characters or express
/ sions in Chinese. 1t was only three
years ago that the first class Of Chi
I nese educated in China took their
; medical degrees from the Union col
a lege (where American and British
d missionary doctors work together in
5 Picking. Last year the first class, a
small number, of women doctors was.
: graduated. Because of prejudices
+ against the treatment of women by
y men, women doctors viii have a valu-
able place in medical work in China.
4 While the class of Chinese who pre-
n fer the old style Chinese doctors is
a still in the majority, the foreign doc
- tors have more than they can do.
- Chinese medicine is poor thing The
Of Chinese have had for centuries rene
1t dies for certain we'll known diseases
t remedies which are often very effec-
IN tive. But they have never apparently
studied anatomy and know little or
nothing of the reasons for actions and
counteractions. Much. if not most. of
their work is quackery. They have
= very little knowledge of surgery.
Cannot Set Bone.
~ As a rule. the Chinese doctor cannot
No set bone. Men whose broken limbs
he could be stuck together by an Ordi-
in nary man in Europe or America be
n come permanent cripples in China.
Ell Such are to be seen even on the streets
Is of Canton, Shanghai and Picking,
- where the services of the foreign doc
80 tors are always available. They are
is men who have gone to their own in
ter stead of foreign doctors and probably
Ter have received plasters or even med
To cine to take internally for their brok
"a en- bones.
he Some of the tales that go through
ow the country about the missionary doc
CIV tors are to these people like stories OF
ras the Bible. A man learns of n surpris
yer ing cure. which seems to him miracu
led lous. A friend has been shot by brig
ands or by marauding troops of the
government and is paralyZed dowI
ted one side as a result. The foreign doc
at tor opens his head, takes out a little
sea piece of metal, and the man begins a
once to walk and talk. Or it might be-
. in the case of a woman who wa:
blind from n cataract and received
sight.
n IL