Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 345

1850.

Reports of Medical Missions.

307

delivered. Still, though we wait for the early and the latter rain to fructify this barren soil, it yet is cheering to hear the glad tidings of salvation intelligibly and earnestly made known from week to week, and to believe that in ful- filling the command of our Lord to heal the sick, and say to them that the king- dom of God is come nigh unto them,-the labor bestowed shall not, ultimate. ly, be in vain. May the Lord crown these humble and imperfect efforts of his servants with greater success, to the glory of his name, and the welfare of the idolatrous and benighted people around us.

Dr. Lockhart's Report extends over a shorter period of time than the preceding, and as it is not very long, we insert the whole of it, feeling assured that it will repay perusal. A notice of this Hospital was given in the last volume, page 506, and we refer our readers to that article for a general view of its operations. We observe, by a reference to the Treasurer's account in the Report, that almost all the expenses of the Institution have been defrayed by the residents at Shanghái.

The work of the hospital has been carried on during the last twelve months as in former years, with the exception of a short time in the autumn, when indisposition prevented regular attendance on the patients, though the hospital was not, at any time, wholly closed. In the last Report mention was made of the fact, that inuch sickness was the result of wet summers in this locality, and this has been especially the case in the past year: during the whole of the spring and summer months, much rain sell, more than has fallen at these sea- sons for many years: the consequence was that the ground was kept constant- ly wet, the cotton planted in the vicinity, and throughout a large district of country around, indeed almost everywhere to the south of the Yáng-tsz' kiảng, was destroyed to a great extent, and rice grown in its stead, wherever it was practicable; but even this could not be done in many places, for large tracts of land in the interior were completely under water for several weeks, the rivers and canals not being able to carry off the surplus waters. This state of things had a very injurious effect on the health of the inhabitants, who suf- fered severely from sickness; bilious remittent fever and dysentery being the most prevalent forms of diseases ; and from these diseases large numbers of the natives died. Many of the European residents suffered from the same diseases, and some deaths occurred among them in September and October; dry weather however set in early in the autumn, which materially tended to destroy the seeds of disease; and as the frost commenced, both Chinese and Europeana rapidly regained their health.

Notwithstanding the circumstance of the past autumn being so unbealthy, it is not sufficient to cause this place to be considered as on the whole insalubri- ous; for even in Europe, sickness prevails at times to a great extent; and dur- ing the past year, typhus fever and scarlet fever have committed fearful ravages in some places, far surpassing anything we have seen here; and while cholera has been carrying off immense numbers of people in other parts of the world, we have thus far been mercifully preserved from its ravages. It is quite true that ague, diarrhea, and dysentery afflict the Chinese to a great extent, and debilitate them very much during certain seasons; still, considering the habits of the people, they appear to have as good health as could be expected under the circumstances in which they live. Their cities are always in a most filthy state, being undrained.; and all those canals, into which the tide does not rise, are filled with putrid matter of every kind; these are seldom or never cleaned, and it is a subject of considerable surprise, that the inhabitants can live at all among so much filth in the canals, in the streets, and in their own houses. Several Europeans have had to leave Shanghái at various times on account of sickness, and return to their native land, finding that the climate did not agree with their constitutions; but it must be remembered that they are like exolics

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