ABSTRACT
Resumo Apresenta aspectos da história e do acervo documental do Grace Memorial Hospital, instituição criada em 1926 na antiga cidade de Ponte Nova, atual Wagner, na Chapada Diamantina (BA), pelo médico e missionário presbiteriano norte-americano Walter Welcome Wood. O corpus documental está sob guarda da Universidade do Estado da Bahia, campus II, Alagoinhas, desde o encerramento definitivo das atividades do hospital, e constitui-se em fonte de pesquisa para diferentes áreas de estudo, especialmente para a história da assistência à saúde no Brasil. Os documentos auxiliam as análises sobre a incidência de doenças, tratamentos médicos e outros cuidados com a saúde em uma população que não tinha acesso a outras instituições que atuassem nesse âmbito.
Abstract The paper presents aspects of the history and archives of Grace Memorial Hospital, founded in 1926 in the former town of Ponte Nova, now Wagner, in the Chapada Diamantina region of Bahia state, Brazil, by the American Presbyterian missionary and doctor Walter Welcome Wood. The documents in question have been kept at the Universidade do Estado da Bahia, campus II, Alagoinhas, since the hospital closed down definitively. They constitute a source of research for different areas of scholarship, especially the history of healthcare in Brazil. The documents are used in analyses of the incidence of diseases, medical treatments, and other care given to a population that had no access to other institutions working in this area.
Subject(s)
History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Hospitals, Religious/history , Protestantism/history , Medical Missions/history , BrazilABSTRACT
Protestant medical missionaries, who started entering China during the beginning of the 19th century, set the goal as propagating Western medicine to the Chinese while spreading the Christian gospel. Back in those days, China formed deep relations with their own ideology and culture and depended on Chinese medicine that caused major influence on their lives instead of just treatment behaviors. Accordingly, it is natural to see information about Chinese medicine in documents that were left behind. Yet, there are not many studies which dealt with the awareness of Chinese medicine by medical missionaries, and most were focused on the criticism imposed by medical missionaries regarding Chinese medicine. Thus, there are also claims amongst recent studies which impose how the medical missionaries moved from overlooking and criticizing Chinese medicine to gaining a "sympathetic viewpoint" to a certain degree. Still, when the documents left behind by medical missionaries is observed, there are many aspects which support how the awareness of Chinese medicine in medical missionaries has not changed significantly. In addition, medical missionaries actively used medicine like traditional Chinese drugs if the treatment effect was well known. Yet, they barely gave any interest to the five elements, which are the basics of traditional Chinese drugs prescription. In other words, medical missionaries only selected elements of Chinese medicine that were helpful to them just like how the Chinese were choosing what they needed from Western knowledge. The need to understand Chinese medicine was growing according to the flow of times. For instance, some medical missionaries admitted the treatment effect of acupuncture in contrast to claiming it as non-scientific in the past. Such changes were also related to how focused medical missionaries were on medical activities. The first medical missionaries emphasized the non-scientific aspect of Chinese medicine to verify the legitimacy of medical mission. Then, medical missionaries gradually exerted more efforts on medical treatment than direct mission activities so the need of Chinese medicine became greater. This was because Chinese relied on Chinese medicine the most and even used Chinese medicine terms that they knew to explain their conditions while getting treatment from doctors who learned Western medicine. Additionally, medicine missionaries witnessed patients getting better after receiving treatment so they could not completely overlook Chinese medicine. However, medical missionaries strongly believed in the superiority of Western medicine and considered that China certainly needed Western medicine from a scientific perspective. Chinese doctors who were close to medical missionaries and learned about Western medicine believed in Western medicine and thought that Chinese medicine only held historical value besides some fields like Chinese traditional drugs.
Subject(s)
Awareness , China , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Medicine, Chinese Traditional/history , Missionaries/history , Protestantism/historyABSTRACT
Esther K. Pak(1876-1910) is believed as the first medical doctor in Korea. Esther's life can be largely reviewed in three parts: school-hood at EwhaHaktang(currently Ewha Womans University), Education in the United States, and medical missionary work after coming back to Korea from the United States. The foreign Methodist missionaries was able to enter Korea after opening of its ports and establishing its diplomatic relationship with the United States. Esther met modern sciences and Christianity at EwhaHaktang, which was founded by those missionaries. She could dream of being an American-style medical doctor in the future, while she assisted medical missionaries at PoKuNyoKwan in EwhaHaktang. She could get substantial academic help from those missionaries. With the support of Dr. Rosetta Sherwood Hall, who first introduced the world of medial science to Esther in a real sense, Esther went to the United States to study the field in 1894. While learning it, she suffered from academic frustration, economic difficulty, her husband's death and so on, but she eventually got over those adversities and completed the four years of academic courses to become a medical doctor. Her religious faith and will to help Koreans as a doctor encouraged her to finish what she had originally planned. Esther came back to Korea in 1900 and began to work earnestly as a medical missionary delegated from Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. At PoKuNyoKwan in Seoul and Woman's Hospital in Pyongyang, She performed medical work and enlightenment campaign against the superstitious healing conduct. Esther also took part in the circuit missionary performances. She devoted herself for evangelical work at Bible Institute as well. Esther's activity made people understand the effectiveness of education. She helped people to recognize education for woman, occidental medical treatment and Christianity in a positive way. On April 28, 1909, based on these excellent performances for the social development, she was invited, honored and granted a testimonial at the first welcoming ceremony, which was held by the united body of civilians and officials, for students studying abroad. But on April 13, 1910, about one year after the ceremony, she died of illness. She was 34. Although she was born at the turbulent last period of Korea Empire and lived for only 34 years, Esther's medical missionary work was evaluated as the opening of woman's participation in medical science in Korea. Not only in the 'woman's' but also in 'whole' field of medical science, her performance left significant marks in woman's and Christian history in Korea as well.