Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 343

1850.

Reports of Medical Missions.

305

most of the opium ; the rest had been absorbed into the blood, and produced this state of mania. After a time, the stimulating and narcotic effects of the drug passed off, and she was restored to her usual health. It appeared from her account, that early in the morning they had each dissolved 2 drams of extract of opium and drunk it off-finding they could no longer live together on earth, they resolvod to die together, hoping to be reunited in the other world. The man left a wife and six children.

The fourth case was that of a young woman, whom my assistant Awing re- stored. He was called early, and succeeded in expelling the poison by the use of the stomach pump-a fact which it is very pleasing to record.

I apprehend we should find that suicide among the Chinese is very frequent. Feuds and jealousies in families, and distress and poverty among the working classes, are the chief causes. Women usually resort to hanging, and men to opium.

One case is mentioned of a patient afflicted with dysentery who hired a boat for himself, and moored it near the hospital; the treatment adopted was successful, and in order to show his gratitude for the aid received, he sent $14 to be expended in assisting needy in-patients with rice and fuel. Such cases are very rare, and we think it would not be amiss for the superintending surgeons of the missionary hospi- tals to encourage those of their patients who are able to give, to do something in this way, in order to perpetuate and extend the benefits they have received. That the Reports already published exhibit few instances of substantial gratitude from the patients is not, we are will- ing to think, wholly owing to the indifference and selfishness of the Chinese, but somewhat to the general impression that no pay can be given, as well as that nothing is expected. Dr. Hobson closes his Re- port with an account of his assistants, one of whom, Chan Atsung, ac- companied Dr. Parker to the United States, and was taken back into the hospital at Macao on his return; but such was the force of bad ha- bits and bad company, that all the efforts to reclaim him were ineffec- tual, and he died miserably from the combined effects of opium smok- ing and poverty. Another, Chan Apún, after receiving a thorough medical and English education, left the hospital to act as interpreter in a mercantile house in Canton; while a third, San A-on, proved in- dolent and unfit, and returned home to Cochinchina. Such draw- backs and disappointments are to be expected, yet we think the results of medical education are such as to encourage to continued efforts on the part of the superintending surgeons.

The number of patients recorded in the hospital books at Kam-lí- fau during the whole period embraced in this Report is not given; the average number who attended on each reception day in the summer of 1848 was 250; in the winter it was about a hundred; and during the year 1849, it did not vary much from 150. The reasons for this falling off are thus given :

YOL, XIX. NO. VI.

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