Medical Missionary Department
By L. A. Hansen
Conducted by the Medical Department of the General Conference GEORGE THOMASON, M. D. - - - - Secretary
L. A. HANSEN - - - - Assistant Secretary The Washington Sanitarium City Dispensary
DR. H. N. SISCO, superintendent of the Washington Sanitarium, presented the needs of a dispensary in our educational work. He said in part:— "We best learn to do a thing by doing it. We shall best learn to do actual missionary work by doing it. This dispensary will enable us actually to do it. We have medical subjects in the postgraduate course. We have the theory, but this will be the real educational factor of the scheme—the doing of things—that will strengthen the course because it is a right principle of education. "Our sanitariums give an excellent training in rational methods of treatment of disease and in the care of certain classes of patients. We do not and can not, of course, expect a great deal of accident and emergency work, but the medical missionary must have it. He, therefore, needs something beyond what the ordinary sanitarium nurses' course will give him. The medical missionary nurse needs to know how to dress wounds in general, the different types of wounds, the best dressing, how to dress ulcers, how to care for many minor ailments, how to diagnose certain conditions, and what to do for them. This comes only by an acquaintance and association with work which can not be given in our sanitariums, but which can be given, and is given, in a good dispensary. From the standpoint of the education we are hoping to give our medical missionary workers, both for foreign fields and for the home field, this feature of the dispensary work, if there were nothing more to it, would be of great value. "The dispensary work brings the nurse in contact with a class of people quite different from those met in our sanitariums, people who are not so educated and cultured. The worker gets an experience that prepares and qualifies him for similar conditions of need found among the lower classes of the foreign lands, and he can more readily adapt himself to them. "Probably the most important standpoint from which this work will be of great value is the religious. Personal ministry to the sick and needy gives most excellent opportunity to speak words of comfort and encouragement. The individual whose Christian experience has not been the best, and whose light has perhaps shown rather dimly, will find abundant opportunity for letting his light shine brightly. He is to learn to do missionary work by actually doing it. There will be opportunity for giving Bible readings and inviting the people to helpful meetings. The dispensary work is to be not only a medical work, but a missionary work as well; and we expect it will be of the utmost value to those who enter it in developing Christian experience and in enabling the workers actually to do work for these needy people. "There is one more thing. Our city work is to go forward with an impetus and with a power that it has never yet had. It is stated that this work among all classes is to be the open door and the entering wedge. Jesus Christ's methods of medical missionary work can never be improved upon; and the more his life and work are studied, the more it will be seen that the medical, the physical part, was an important factor of his work. We shall expect that our Foreign Mission Seminary will be stronger educationally by preparing workers to go out into the great cities of our own land and other lands to work for God." Brother V. E. Peugh, manager of the dispensary, showed a map giving the section of the city in which the dispensary is located. In explanation, he said:— "The area of this section is one-half square mile, with a population of 16,862. The population in the alleys is 1,825. The death-rate in this district is 19.97. Over 333 die every year. There are 73 saloons, whose cost of operating is $81 for every family located in that district, which amounts to $16.66 for every man, woman, and child. Drunken men and women are to be seen on the streets. Children seem literally to swarm in the streets. "People are crowded together, perhaps a large family in one or two rooms. Damp cellars, garbage, littered yards, and many rats undoubtedly contribute in no small way to the high mortality of this district. Nothing is cleanly. Our nurses will regularly visit the homes of the people, and help them clean up; and, while doing this, they may also help them spiritually. I hope some day to see a little church in that district." The report of Mrs. M. D. Wood, one of the visiting nurses who had already been at work in the neighborhood, was an intensely interesting one, telling in detail of various visits to places of great need. Rational treatments gave relief to the sick, favorably impressed the physicians and people, and opened the way for other work. In some places a welcome seemed already waiting, with calls for Bible readings. On the night of the opening of the dispensary, several addresses were given, one of the speakers being Dr. H. C. Menkel, on furlough from India. He compared the dispensary to the rescue ship "Carpathia," which saved a number of lives from the "Titanic" wreck. He said many S. O. S. calls will come to this institution. We must not only save some of those who are floating, but we must go down into the depths of submerged humanity and save many. He had scarcely spoken the words when a door opened, and a voice asked anxiously, "Is there a doctor here?" A neighbor's child was sick, and, although the dispensary was not yet opened, the distress call came. Nurses were sent out, and gave the needed relief. The first day of its work saw several patients, and on the second day the first patient to stay in the building was received. The prospects are that there will be plenty to do, and that the institution will have a useful career. From what has been said, it will be seen that the influence of this work is more than a local one, that its results are to extend even to the regions beyond. Being connected with the Foreign Mission Seminary, it becomes a part of our denominational training-school for missionaries. The District of Columbia Conference, in assuming its share of the financial burden, takes upon itself a work that belongs to a larger constituency than its own. It is to be commended for placing itself under the load, but it should not be allowed to carry it alone. The rent of the dispensary building and the salary of the one in charge make but a part of the outlay necessary to carry forward this work successfully. If there are those who wish to assist in this enterprise, let them communicate with the District of Columbia Conference, Room 708, McLachlen Bldg., Washington, D. C. L. A. H.