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But at the same time an attempt was made to introduce an amendment as to Chinese practitioners which, had it been carried, would have had the effect of excluding the graduates of the College from the right of practice until the institution had been brought up to the standard required by the above proviso. This was to be done by altering clause 2 to read as follows:-
This Ordinance shall not be deemed to prohibit Chinese practitioners from prac- tising medicine or treating surgical cases "according to Chinese methods or from or,, demanding recovering reasonable charges "for services rendered by them in respect "of such practice." The effect of this would have been, while allowing a Chinaman to prescribe animal's dung or any of the other althy articles included in the Chinese pharmacopoeia, to prohibit him from adminis- tering a wholesonic dose of salts and senna, and in the same way a Chinese doctor would have been prohibited from using European methods in the treatment of surgical cases. It took a good deal of argument to convince the Government of the absurdity of thus legislating against the use of European medicine amongst the Chinese while at the same time tolerating quackery, but the task was at last accomplished and the amendment was withdrawn.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
C
THE TUNG WAH HOSPITAL.
CE
In reference to the general management of the Tung Wah Hospital and the forcible removal of patients from that institution to the Civil Hospital Wayfarer" in our yesterday's issue says that "lay opinion is "bound to support professional opinion on what is a technical question.” We join issue with our correspondent as to this being a technical question. Whether an abscess should be treated with pitch plaister or the lancet is a technical question on which a layman would have no right to dispute the opinion of a doctor, but the question whether the sufferer from an abscess should be compelled to submit to treatment by European loctors against his will is one of general expediency upon which doctors are perhaps the worst judges, for they are apt to look at it exclusively from one point of view. Amongst the general body of Chincke there is an un- doubted repugnance to European medicine and to surgical operations and if the sick are compelled against their own wish and that of their friends to submit to treatment by foreign doctors it becomes a question whether general qvils! would not result which would more than counterbalance the good done to the patient in any particular As the law stands therefore any Chinaman case, During the plague exodus for every can practise medicine or surgery without person who left the colony from fear of the registration, no matter whether he be a plague there is good reason to believe that ooolie who adopts the profession of a quackten left from fear of the foreign doctors. It as an easy means of making a living or au is not desirable that that fear should be educated man who has studied under Euro-made chronic and that the Chinese should pean doctors either at the Hongkong Col-be made to feel that for the slightest lege of Medicine or elsewhere. The students accident or ailment they are liable to be of the College labour under no disability in forcibly subjected to foreign medical treat- that respect, but enjoy all the rights and
ment. That medical science should make privileges enjoyed by Chinese doctors in progress amongst the Chinese every one general. That they should not be satisfied must earnestly desire, but it is a case in with that position is natural and must be which persuasion, not compulsion, should accepted as a healthy sign. They very pro- be used, In cases of infectious discase the perly desire to have a recognised status measures necessary for the public safety differentiating them from the ordinary Chi-
must be taken, but where it is simply a nese quack. That desire has been anti-
case of sprain or abscess or any other cipated by the Government and its reason-ordinary accident or ailment We think ableness has been recognised in so far that forcible interference to compel the sufferers it is provided that they shall be entitled to
to accept treatment by! European doctors is registration on the same fooring as if they to be deprecated. had graduated at an English college so soon
At present, however it is only the un as they can satisfy the Medical Board that fortunate wretches who are compelled to their course of study and examination is seek shelter at Tung Wah Hospital that are equivalent to the minimum required in Eng to be the subjects of compulsion and it land. It may be that that is a standard may be argued that thus limited the practically unattainable for many years to system would not be likely to have any come and that it would be advisable in the prejudicial effect on the feelings of the con- meantime to recognise a lower standard inmunity at large, and at the same time that the case of Chinese doctors and admit them it is repugnant to humanity that the mass to registration in an inferior register, so that of suffering and misery in that institution while they would not be placed on the same should be allowed to remain unalleviated by footing as the graduates of European col-scientific medical care. But if people are leges they would yet occupy a position con- deterred by fright of the foreign doctors from siderably above the ordinary Chinese quack. going to the hospital might not a worse Auy proposition of that kind would be en-
state of things arise, a state of things in fact titled to consideration, but in the mean- resembling that which existed before the time the interests, of the College of establishment of the hospital? In those Medicine are not likely to be served by day's persons who were hopelessly ill were misrepresenting the actual position. It is taken to what were called dying houses or entirely incorrect to say that the graduates were otherwise dispose of according to cir- of the College are by law placed in a more cumstances and the misery they were com- unfavourable position than other native pelled to endure while the tide of life ebbed doctors. If a case were tried in the Supreme away was frightful to contemplate. Under Court in which a Chinese doctor sought to the strict sanitary inspection that now recover fees for medical attendance the fact prevails in the colony the re-establishment of that he had studied European medicine dying houses would be impossible, and pre- Would not in any way put him out of sumably the moribund who are taken to the Tung Wah under the present conditions would still be taken there and be A Ningpo letter reports that a large consign:allowed to die in peace
undisturbed ment of the new dollars and subsidiary coins of the Hupeh mint arrived recently in Ningpo. by the unwelcome attentions of the The coins were at once taken up by a number foreign doctors. As regards that branch of local banks, the idea being to replace the of the subject, therefore, perhaps the only Mexican dollars now in use.-N. C. Daily News, point calling for consideration is whether,
Court.
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[November 21, 1859.
in the event of the institution being trans- formed into a foreign hospital as far as regards the cases that are not hopeless, the Chinese community, disapproving of the change, might not withhold their customary subscriptions and so involve the institution in financial embarassment. That, however, is a remote contingency and should it arise it could be met by a vote of Government money if the Government thought it well to! carry on the establishment.
At the
Although the majority of the patients who are taken to the Tung Wah hospital are in a moribund condition on their arrival there is also a considerable proportion admitted whose case is not so desperate and some who are suffering from comparatively trifling ailments or accidents. As a curative institu- tion the Tung Wah, being until recently, entirely under the charge of native doctors, has not been worthy of the slightest con- sideration, but by affording to the patients what according to native ideas is regarded as fairly comfortable accommodation it has undoubtedly been a great boon to the Chinese community. Our correspondent "Wayfarer says that with some experience of other countries, and more especially India, he can venture to affirm that the condition of things in this Chinese hospital would be considered a reflection on our humanity and a disgrace to our country. We cannot claim any intimate acquaintance with the condition of affairs in India and consequently speak subject to correction, but it occurs to us that in the large towns of India the class of cases which in Hongkong go to the Tung Wah may be left in the homes of the patients and that the misery may really be much greater although not so apparent, being diffused in- stead of focused in one building. Tung Wah, although nothing may be done to cure the patient, he has wholesome food in sufficient quantity, has comfortable accom modation, and, if necessary, is supplied with clothing, his lot being much happier than if he werd left to languish in destitution in' some native hovel. But if, in order to ob- tain these comforts, the patient has to sub- mit to foreign medical treatment, he would in many cases prefer to be without them and to die quietly in his own way. If, then, the result of the introduction of foreign medical treatment into the Tung Wah be simply to frighten the patients away and to drive into unseen holes and corners the misery which now finds alleviation there it would be mistaken policy to insist upon it. That is is desirable the medical treatment should be improved so far as is practically possible without impairing the general use- fulness of the hospital everyone will admit, but the point to which such improvement may be safely carried is an open question.. It is not a technical question, but one of common sense, local knowledge, and general The Gover experience of human nature. nor, who will probably be called upon to give an official decision in the matter, will he ill-advised if he allows himself to be led entirely by medical opinion, which can We use the word hardly fail to be biassed. in an unobjectionable sense, meaning that the medical gentlemen will necessarily be inclined to set the treatment of the patients before all other considerations, it being canon of the profession that where there is sickness the appropriate remedy should be applied. We would suggest to His Excel- lency, therefore, if there is any idea of radi cally changing the constitution of the hos pital, that he should appoint a Commission composed of laymen or with a minority of medical members to inquire into the whole subject. It is the fashion to sneer at Com- missions, and no doubt they frequently