7. It is well-known to both Chinese and Western medicine that smallpox is a very difficult type of disease to cure for there are many types of smallpox and they differ in virulence according to different constitutions and to the quality of the bodily resistance of the victim. Therefore, I feel compulsory vaccination to be indispensable because prevention is better than cure.
8. I strongly urge everyone of you to remember these words of mine and if you have not yet been vaccinated not to delay any longer but to get free vaccination at once.
9. I, myself, am a very keen student of Chinese medicine and have studied various diseases and ills of the body for over 30 years and now I want to tell you in a few words how China discovered smallpox many centuries ago.
10. In the 25th year of Emperor Kin Mo () of the Han Dynasty (some 1,900 years ago) the Emperor ordered his able General Fook Po (#) to lead a huge army to invade Wu Ning (), a district in the modern Hunan Province. On the way, the General and many of his troops died from fever. Afterwards, the corpses were found to be covered with black or red spots, each the size of a pea. On account of the likeness of these spots to a pea, the physicians in those days called the disease the pea or smallpox disease. This is the origin of the name for this particular malady. The epidemic among the troops of the Emperor was so serious that he had to withdraw. But at that time though the physicians of the Emperor did their best to find out the cause of the disease and its prevention and cure, they were not successful, though many books were written on the subject.
11. The next stage of development came about 1,500 years later in the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368-1664). A famous doctor by the name of Lip Ku Ng (X) published a set of books entitled the methods of saving children from smallpox (). This publication dealt with smallpox and measles and contained many illustrations and records of cases met with by the author. He propounded the theory that smallpox was caused by the presence of poison in the embryo before birth. He opined that all men and women, rich or poor, must have this poison in their system because it was there before they were born. He then collected the scabs from the dried up pox of afflicted children and ground these scabs into powder and blew them into the nose of men, women and children as a preventive measure against the outbreak of smallpox. Here we have the principle of vaccination for the powdered smallpox scabs acted like the smallpox lymph in driving out the poison from the body and so rendered the attack less serious than it would otherwise be if the poison came out without "vaccination". This method of prevention, though crude, saved many lives.
12. It is true that during the Sung Dynasty (1127-1280 A.D.) the principle of vaccination was already known, but it hardly advanced beyond mere theory among Chinese doctors. It was left to Dr. Lip Ku Ng to give practical effect to the theories of his predecessors.
13. The third stage of development was brought about in the 52nd year of the Emperor Kiang Hsi of the Ching Dynasty (1664-1911 A.D.). The Emperor sent his own private physician by the name of Chu Shun Koo () to Mongolia and other places outside China Proper to carry out research into the origin of smallpox as well as to find out its cure and prevention. After a lapse of 26 years, he returned to China Proper and composed a book entitled "Smallpox and measles" which is a classic on the subject of smallpox. Instead of the method of blowing smallpox scabs into the nose, he advocated the inoculation of human smallpox lymph into the blood stream by means of vaccination of the arm.
14. Here we see the gradual stages of improvement of methods by the Chinese medical practitioners.
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7. It is well-known to both Chinese and Western medicine that smallpox is a very difficult type of disease to cure for there are many types of smallpox and they differ in virulence according to different constitutions and to the quality of the bodily resistance of the victim. Therefore, I feel compulsory vaccination to be indispensable because prevention is better than cure.
8. I strongly urge everyone of you to remember these words of mine and if you have not yet been vaccinated not to delay any longer but to get free vaccination
at once.
9. I, myself, am a very keen student of Chinese medicine and have studied various diseases and ills of the body for over 30 years and now I want to tell you in a few words how China discovered smallpox many centuries ago.
10. In the 25th year of Emperor Kin Mo () of the Han Dynasty (some 1,900 years ago) the Emperor ordered his able General Fook Po (# ) to lead a huge army to invade Wu Ning () a district in the modern Hunan Province. On the way, the General and many of his troops died from fever. Afterwards, the corpses were found to be covered with black or red spots, each the size of a pea.
On account of the likeness of these spots to a pea, the physicians in those days called the disease the pea or smallpox disease. This is the origin of the name for this particular malady. The epidemic among the troops of the Emperor was so serious that he had to withdraw. But at that time though the physicians of the Emperor did their best to find out the cause of the disease and its prevention and cure, they were not successful, though many books were written on the subject.
11. The next stage of development came about 1,500 years later in the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368-1664). A famous doctor by the name of Lip Ku Ng (X) published a set of books entitled the methods of saving children from smallpox (). This publication dealt with smallpox and measles and contained many illustrations and records of cases met with by the author. He propounded the theory that smallpox was caused by the presence of poison in the embryo before birth. He opined that all men and women, rich or poor, must have this poison in their system because it was there before they were born. He then collected the scabs from the dried up pox of afflicted children and ground these scabs into powder and blew them into the nose of men, women and children as a preventive measure against the outbreak of smallpox. Here we have the principle of vaccination for the powdered smallpox scabs acted like the smallpox lymph ̄in driving out the poison from the body and so rendered the attack less serious than it would otherwise be if the poison came out without "vaccination". This method of prevention, though, crude, saved many lives.
12. It is true that during the Sung Dynasty (1127-1280 A.D.) the principle of vaccination was already known, but it hardly advanced beyond mere theory among Chinese doctors. It was left to Dr. Lip Ku Ng to give practical effect to the theories of his predecessors.
13. The third stage of development was brought about in the 52nd year of the Emperor Kiang Hsi of the Ching Dynasty (1664-1911 A.D.). The Emperor sent his own private physician by the name of Chu Shun Koo() to Mongolia and other places outside China Proper to carry out research into the origin of smallpox as well as to find out its cure and prevention. After a lapse of 26 years, he returned to China Proper and composed a book entitled "Smallpox and measles" which is a classic on the subject of smallpox. Instead of the method of blowing smallpox scabs into the nose, he advocated the inoculation of human smallpox lymph into the blood stream by means of vaccination of the arm.
14. Here we see the gradual stages of improvement of methods by the Chinese medical practitioners.
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