RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f
EDITORIAL

The first volume of the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society published in 1961 contained a short account of the history of the original Hong Kong Branch of the R.A.S. which existed from 1847 until 1859. During this early period the original Society published six volumes of its Transactions. It may be of interest to examine the contents of these volumes, and to compare them with what has already been achieved in the two volumes of the present Society's Journal published so far.

The first volume published by the original branch was entitled Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1847. It was printed at the office of the China Mail at Hong Kong in 1848, and contained 14 pages of preliminary material and 78 pages of text. The last volume to be printed bore the title Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Part VI, 1859, and was printed at the office of the China Mail in the same year. It contained 8 pages of introduction and 164 pages of text. Surveying the articles printed in these six volumes one's main impression is that the subject matter was predominantly connected with China, and that the contributors were mainly missionaries or members of the British Consular service. For instance one of the leading contributors was Dr. John Bowring, who was Governor of Hong Kong from 1854 until 1859. Among others were T. T. Meadows, who was interpreter to the British Consulate at Canton at this time and wrote perceptively about China; the Rev. Carl Gutzlaff, principal Chinese Secretary to the Hong Kong Government; W. H. Medhurst, Jr.; Harry Parkes; Dr. D. J. Macgowan; the Rev. Joseph Edkins; the Rev. Samuel Beal and Alexander Wylie, printer to the London Missionary Society at Shanghai. To some extent this reflects the difficulties facing the Society at this period. It was forced to rely for its lectures and articles on a small number of scholarly people resident in Hong Kong and the five original Treaty Ports. The North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society which

1 Bowring was a man of scholarly interests and had received an honorary doctorate from Gröningen University for services to European literature. He was knighted in 1854.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f
2

flourished between 1858 and 1948 was more fortunate because it was able to draw on the services of a far wider group of people who came to work in China in the years after travel and residence there was no longer restricted. The present Society is luckier still because, thanks to air travel, we have been able to draw on an extremely wide range of contributors in the first two volumes of the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.

When examining the table of contents of the six volumes of Transactions published in Hong Kong between 1847 and 1859, one sees the titles of several articles which it would be most interesting to read if copies of these volumes were available in Hong Kong. For example, in Volume III Harry Parkes, at that time British Consul in Canton, and later British Minister at Peking, described proceedings in a criminal Court at Canton, while Dr. Bowring contributed an article “On the Character and Writings of Commissioner Lin Tsih-seu”, which at that time (1851) was still very recent history. In Volume VI (1859) Dr. D. J. Macgowan wrote on Chinese opium while the Rev. Krone contributed “A notice of the Sanon district *”. This is of particular interest since the Sanon district included all of what later became the New Territories. The full list of contents of each of these volumes can be found in Bibliotheca Sinica by Henri Cordier, Volume IV, columns 2401-2.

44

By way of contrast it is interesting to consider the contents of the first two volumes of the Journal of the revived Hong Kong Branch of the R.A.S. published in 1961 and 1962. Perhaps the first point which strikes one is the wider range of subject matter covered by these two volumes. In Volume I, Mr. Hugh Richardson, the last head of the British mission at Lhasa wrote on Tibet as it was, and Professor Drake reviewed the whole field of Western contacts with Asia. In Volume II Mr. Evan Luard's newly published book Britain and China, which covers the story of recent Sino-British relations, is the subject of a review-article by Mrs. Colina Lupton. Another noteworthy point is the number of admirable contributions from Chinese scholars in these two volumes. The six volumes of Transactions published between

* Although I have made extensive enquiries I have been unable to locate copies of the Transactions in Hong Kong. The City Hall Library ought to have a set. (Ed.)
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r
20

H. A. RYDINGS

other pests took their toll, the collection of the Medico-Chirurgical Society gradually became unwanted and unusable.

Some remarks should be made on the incorporation of the Society into "the Asiatic Society of China" which soon became the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (21). First, why was such a step necessary, and second, to what extent did members of the former Society opt for membership of the new?

In the account of the origin of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1) it is stated that the Medico-Chirurgical Society "in accord with the contemporary spirit of inquiry and the enthusiasm for better knowledge of Asia in general and China in particular, had contemplated setting up a Philosophical Society." Part of this story is recorded in the Transactions, p. 62-63. Dr. McGowan of Ningpo wrote a letter which was read at a meeting of the Society on 6th January 1846, "suggesting the addition of a scientific branch of this Society; or the formation of a Philosophical Society having a Medical Section. The matter having been briefly discussed it was the unanimous opinion of the members present... that the discussion of other scientific subjects should be left to other Bodies, of which members could avail themselves.

**

However, this resolve to go it alone was not to be achieved. It is stated in the "Journal of Proceedings" regarding the setting up of the "Philosophical Society of China" (afterwards the China Branch of the R.A.S.) that "the number of members of a scientific body called the 'China Medico-Chirurgical Society' had been gradually diminishing, so as to render it difficult to obtain any meetings except at irregular and frequently long intervals" (22). At the preliminary meeting held on 5th January 1847 there were eight doctors present, namely Drs. Balfour, Young, Barton, Dill, Harland, Bankier, Grant and Fletcher. Only four of these can be positively identified on the membership list of the Medico-Chirurgical Society (Transactions, p. 78), which includes 38 names—though of course others may have joined in the intervening year—but it appears that these four and possibly others had formed a splinter group sympathetic to those who favoured the formation of a "Philosophical Society", in the older meaning of the phrase.

There seems little doubt that the activities of the Medico-Chirurgical Society were on the wane, probably due to the death or departure of some of the more active members. Drs. Tucker,
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r
CHINA MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY

21

Duggan and Francis Dill had died (the Dr. Dill mentioned in the last paragraph as present at the meeting on 5th January 1847 was R. Dill), Dr. Hobson was in England, and J. H. Young and Dr. Gilbert had resigned. At least nine members were not resident in Hong Kong, in addition to the two honorary members, the Earl of Auckland and Rutherford Alcock. Several of the remainder were naval or military men who had quite likely been posted elsewhere. In such circumstances it would indeed have been difficult to keep the society going.

The meetings recorded in the Transactions were held on the following dates:

1845. May 13. Preliminary meeting.

May 16. Committee meeting.

June 3. President's introductory address.

July 1. Business meeting, followed by Dr. Little's paper.

July 8. Special meeting on Dr. Hobson's proposal to establish a medical school.

July 15. Committee meeting.

Aug. 6. Dr. Dill's paper.

Sept. 9.

Oct. 7.

Nov. 4. Special meeting on a proposed building fund. Dr. Barton's paper on diseases of the liver. Various matters, including Alcock's letter, and clinical discussion.

Dec. 2. Letter from the Earl of Auckland, case studies and clinical discussion.

1846. Jan. 6. Dr. McGowan's letter on a Philosophical Society, and discussion of the analysis of the mineral waters from Foochow.

Feb. 6. Case studies by Dr. Dill,

Mar. 6. Dr. Barton's paper on Varolous.

April 7. Clinical discussion.

In the Friend of China, later meetings were announced for May 5, August 4 and Nov. 3, 1846. Thus the frequency dropped from the initial monthly (plus Committee and special meetings) to quarterly, so the statement in the "Journal of Proceedings" regarding the setting up of the "Philosophical Society of China" because of the difficulties of obtaining frequent meetings of the earlier society was justified. The successor society, on the other hand, was able to hold monthly meetings during its first year.
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