Western medicine in pre-Communist China.

Abstract

WESTERN scientific medicine. as distinct from empirical Chinese medicine, did not receive any significant utilization in China until well into the third decade of this century, as illustrated by the following incident. I was assigned temporarily, in the spring of 1919, to the Department of Medicine of Yale-in-China at Changsha. The acting director, Dr. F. C. Yen, called me to go in consultation to see the governor of Human Province. His lobar pneumonia had reached the point where his attending old-style physicians had pronounced his case hopeless and, as customary, had withdrawn. The Taoist and Buddhist priests had been called and his coffin brought in to the inner courtyard. We decided the ninth-day would take place within 24 hours and ordered a servant to come to the hospital. He was given a bottle of colored water vith instructions for the patient to take large doses at frequent intervals. The crisis favored us and another supporter for Western medicine was made. This type of occurrence was frequently repeated in the writer's experience during the next 20 years. It was indicative of the slight hold of Western medicine in China which was only a court of last resort.