The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-08-24
HAS ANYBODY
 GOT THE MAKIN'Sc'


 for August, 1918.
 It's a question that is frequently asked along the streets of China, es- pecially since the British and Ameri- can Tobacco Co. has deluged China with smokes" and made anti-cigar- cite crusades as widespread and as ar dent as the fight against opium.
 But you might ask exactly the same question with regard to western in novation that is meant to benefit China.
 Has anybody got the makin's for an up-to-date medical institution in that country whose medical practice be- longs to a prehistoric age, and results in filth, pestilence and pitiful waste of human life?
 What are the makin's of a medical institution, then You must have the wrapper, the filler and the light, just as with a smoke. The wrapper con- sists of material equipment, the filler of students and patients, while the light, of course, is the teaching and nursing staff.
 But why bother about sick Chi liC0O. oOAlAO pOOPlS doh I IlS GUILT try's oyer-populated now. It would l be much better for them to die off,"
 Aside from the fact that the sick | in China don't want to "die off D there are still cogent reasons why the Chi nese desire a lower mortality rate. l Health increases a nations productive power economically, just as disease | decreases it. Moreover, China, as a | whole, is not overcrowded. To open her mines, build her rail roads, reforest her hills, reclaim her low areas subject, at present, to de- vastating floods, China will need all the laborers she has. Once these projects are under way she can even support 8 population considerably larger than her present one.
 Most of the sick in China are af- f1icted with preventable diseases. They are consumptives, diseased from poor living conditions, lepers malarial pa- tients.
 Thousands of patients who come to the clinics look perfectly well. Al first the doctors used to wonder wha they wanted. Then as they barred theil |. arms, abdomens and thighs they showed an almost solid mass of pig mented scars-the result of morphine injections. Here and there are ab scesses, due to uncleanly methods O innoculation. And yet they beg to 1ot cured of the habit which is sapping their strength and their usefulness.
 China has about wiped out opium Yes! But certain other nations, whic1 in 1911 mutually agreed to help on ] another in restricting the evil effect of opium and other drugs, exportet . into China that year five and one-hal tons of morphine. By 1915 they hal tripled that amount. As result. O } this, supplemented by the advertisin skill of interruptions private ex ' ploiters, thousands of otherwise ire 4 Chinese adults face the menace o lifelong slavery to marphine. f The Chinese believe in mission doc . tors. Their belief amounts to rever f ence at times. The story is told tha when Dr. Samuel Cochran of Centre n China was lying seriously III with ty t phus in 1911 twenty or thirty heathe e men visited a neighboring temple an g vowed before their deity that the - would each give up a year of thei t own lives if only the life of Dr. CocH d ran might be spared.
 Mission hospitals, therefore, are dt l. ing a work which, In spite of the l. meagre equipment and overtaxed pc U sonnel, wins high praise. T. But 1t is hopeless if all medic lS I io fO 3,o U The missionary forces recognized thi IT V, and Indicated a necessary supp1emel .' tary work-medical education.