HARVARD DOCTORS IN ORIENT

This month sees the second anniversary of the founding of the Harvard Medical School in China. In these two years, the school has made remarkable progress and has filled a long-felt need in the Fall East.

Long before 1912, it had been shown in what a terrible condition China, with its vast population of 400,000,000, was. There is scarcely a community which has not been at some time the prey of cholera, tuberculosis and the like. China, unaided by the science of the West, has been unable to cope with these conditions. In the entire country, there are but 650 trained physicians, one to every 600,000 people; or, at the same ratio as if there were but one doctor in Boston. There are 250 hospitals in China, averaging 30 beds each, which is as if there were one hospital of 12 beds in Boston. The pressure on the few competent men, mostly Americans and Europeans, is very great. Not until recently have the Chinese overcome the prejudice against surgery which prevented them from helping themselves.

Established by Dr. Edwards.

It was with this in mind that Dr. Martin Russ Edwards, a graduate of Michigan and of the Harvard Medical School in 1908, decided that a lasting service might be done through the establishment of a school in China. Through the aid of Dean Christian and of President Emeritus Charles W. Eliot, the Harvard Medical School of China was organized, and has since been incorporated under Massachusetts laws.

Shanghai was picked as the home of the school. An almost permanent agreement was made with the Chinese Red Cross Society, whereby the school was given the use of the Society's buildings. There is a main building containing offices, laboratories, lecture rooms and a small private hospital. Another building, a dormitory, is to be changed into a hospital, and replaced by a still larger dormitory. These facts show the kindly feeling of the Chinese to this American school.

Utility Proved by Growth.

The rapid growth of the school is striking proof of the splendid work it has done. When the institution opened, it had twelve students and a faculty of six physicians. Now, the number of students has been doubled; there are ten men on the faculty; and there is a plant valued at $100,000, soon to be enlarged by a modern hospital. The immediate plans and needs are many. Thirty thousand dollars is required to purchase the site for a new hospital, the building itself being paid for by an anonymous gift of $50,000. A further sum is needed for the establishment of an out-patient clinic for the Chinese in a thickly settled quarter. It is also planned to add two more instructors and three nurses.

When Dr. Edwards found it necessary to return and explain the enterprise here, Dr. Henry S. Houghton, of Johns Hopkins, was made dean in his place. Harvard is represented by four men, Johns Hopkins, Chicago, Oregon, California, Dublin, and Copenhagen, one each. As many more institutions of learning, here and abroad, are represented on the local advisory board, which is composed of Americans, Europeans, and Chinese. The purposes of the institution are: (1) To teach modern medicine and surgery to Chinese students; (2) to co-operate with the Chinese Government in inaugurating a greatly needed hygienic reform; (3) to study particularly the diseases of the Orient. In furtherance of the second provision, Dr. Edwards, who has just completed the work for the degree of Doctor of Public Health, will on his return take up the training of health officials.