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CANTLIE Dr. J. (2) Continuation.
The following relevant information has been gleaned from Dr. Cantlie's speech.
He was born in Aberdeen in 1851 and had a brilliant University career. His studies finished, Dr. Cantlie became attached to a well-known medical school, and devoted much of his time to research work and lecturing. He was particularly interested in young men whose aim was to join the R.A.M.C., or become imbued with their desire to study and cure diseases prevalent in the tropics.
It was that great pioneer in tropical medicine, Dr., later Sir Patrick Manson, who invited Dr. Cantlie to join him in the East. The young Scotsman lost no time in catching the first mail steamer to Hongkong.
On arrival in the Colony, Dr. Cantlie was shocked and disappointed to find not a single trained nurse on the island. He immediately wrote home and succeeded in persuading Sister Maude Ingall to come out to Hongkong.
She was the first trained nurse ever to practise her profession in China. On one occasion, when the Governor, Sir William des Voeux, was ill, Sister Ingall attended him at Government House. He was immediately converted to modern nursing, and the result was that when Dr. Cantlie left for Home, there was an able and efficient staff of nurses at the Government Civil Hospital.
In order that he might make a closer study of tropical diseases, Dr. Cantlie opened his own hospital on the Peak. The Hospital on the Peak flourished, and he took in as partners Dr. Stedman and Dr. Hartigan, who took over the management of the Hospital after Dr. Cantlie's departure.
During the nine years he spent in Hongkong, Dr. Cantlie waged a continual war on the small-pox scourge. He was wholly responsible for the establishment of a Vaccine Institute, and did his utmost to keep out lymph of inferior quality. As far back as 1796, lymph had been introduced to Canton by East India Company merchants. The Chinese appreciated its value, and a special hall was opened in Canton, where vaccination was authorised and practised.
Unfortunately, when the demand for lymph increased, the market was flooded with inferior material from Saigon and Japan. Dr. Cantlie urged that these products should be refused entry to Hongkong, and that a free supply of vaccine manufactured either in Britain or Hongkong should be given to every medical missionary in China.
Undoubtedly Dr. Cantlie's greatest work in Hongkong was the foundation of a College of Medicine for Chinese. Shortly after his arrival here, he called a meeting of scientific men and submitted to them the constitution for a College of Medicine. This constitution was adopted, and it governed the College for many years.
Critics of Dr. Cantlie's work were not lacking, but he was a man who took all obstacles in his stride, regarded them as an impetus to greater efforts rather than a hindrance. The general health of the Colony was a matter of great importance to Dr. Cantlie. He never tired of impressing on...