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Hunan, China

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 22, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 16.

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Hunan, China

By Percival J. Laird

CHANG-SHA.—A few items gathered from our experiences in the dispensary during the past week may be of interest. One day four men of affluence and influence called to have their eyes examined for treatment. While two were having their eyes tested for spectacles, we had a most interesting conversation with them all, and found they were of the family who are running the largest girls' school in Hunan, which has between three hundred and four hundred girls. We hope, as a result of this visit, that we may be able to look over their school at some future date. When they left, each kindly consented to take away three tracts. This is but another evidence that “the medical work is the right arm of the message.” And when we remember that these men belong to the same household as the notorious man Chow Han, who is undergoing a life sentence at Changsha for publishing and distributing anti-foreign literature, which it is said was responsible in part for the murder of foreigners in the Yangtse Valley some years ago, we are glad that even these silent messengers for the truth have entered yet another of Satan's strongholds.It is interesting in this connection to state that although this Chow Han was at one time holding a high government appointment, yet he had his sons learn how to cut characters from wood blocks, because, it is said, he feared he would get no one else to prepare his literature lest they might be brought under the limb of the law.
The visit of these four men to our dispensary was a pleasant contrast to two cases of poor men who had come no less than fifty Chinese miles to see if the doctor could restore their lost vision. Four months ago one of these poor men had had no trouble with his eyes, but, owing to some slight affection, he rubbed them until he had destroyed his sight completely. We can almost hear his words now, as he said, in effect: “If only one had known what to do!” The other man will also soon be totally blind; and mainly through ignorance. O, how we long for the time when so many cases may not have to be turned away as at present! Our quarters are so ill adapted for surgery, and so badly lighted, that it would be very unwise to operate. Moreover, the doctor has no qualified nurse to assist her in such cases. PERCIVAL J. LAIRD.