The Early Medical Textbooks in Korea: Medical Textbooks published at Je Joong Won-Severance Hospital Medical School / 의사학

Kwang Hye Won(Je Joong Won), the first western hospital in Korea, was founded in 1885. The first Medical School in Korea was open in 1886 under the hospital management. Dr. O. R. Avison, who came to Korea in 1893, resumed the medical education there, which was interrupted for some time before his arrival in Korea. He inaugurated translating and publishing medical textbooks with the help of Kim Pil Soon who later became one of the first seven graduates in Severance Hospital Medical school. The first medical textbook translated into Korean was Henry Gray's {Anatomy}. However, this twice-translated manuscripts were never to be published on account of being lost and burnt down. The existing early anatomy textbooks, the editions of 1906 and 1909, are not the translation of Gray's {Anatomy}, but that of Japanese anatomy textbook of Gonda. The remaining oldest medical textbook in Korean is {Inorganic Materia Medica} published in 1905. This book is unique among its kinds that O. R. Avison is the only translator of the book and it contains the prefaces of O. R. Avison and Kim Pil Soon. The publication of medical textbook was animated by the participation of other medical students, such as Hong Suk Hoo and Hong Jong Eun. The list of medical textbooks published includes almost all the field of medicine. The medical textbooks in actual existence are as follows. {Inorganic Materia Medica (1905)}, {Inorganic Chemistry(1906)}, {Anatomy I(1906)}, {Physiology(1906)}, {Diagnostics I(1906)}, {Diagnostics II(1907)}, {Obstetrics(1908)}, {Organic Chemistry (1909)}, {Anatomy(1909)}, {Surgery(1910)}.

Kim Pil Soon, A Great Doctor / 의사학

Kim Pil Soon was born at Sorae Village of Hwang Hye Province, the birth place of the Protestantism in Korean. He was brought up under the strong influence of Christianity and received modern education at Pae Chae School according to the ecommendation of Rev. Underwood. In 1899, Kim Pil Soon, who had been working at Je Joong Won as an assistant and nterpreter of Dr. Sharrocks, was employed by Dr. Avison to help preparing medical textbooks and asked to participate in the medical education. He acquired medical knowledges through his work of translating various medical texts, and which enabled him to teach other medical students. He participated in the administration of the Hospital, taking charge of the provision of meals for in-patients as well as directing the construction of Severance Hospital buildings. And his experience of treating soldiers wounded during the turmoil of the forced dismission of the Korean Army by the Japanese lead him to reflect seriously on Korea's fate in peril. In addition, he became a member of Sinmin Society, a secret political association, to engage in the independence movement. In 1908, Kim Pil Soon graduated from Severance Hospital Medical School as one of the first seven graduates. On graduation, he was appointed as a professor and took the charge of school affaires in 1910. At first, he worked as a assistant physician of ward and surgery, then he took the responsibility of out-patient clinic in 1911. But suddenly, in December 1911, he exiled to China to escape from the Japanese police who was in pursuit of him on account of his involvement in the so-called 105-Person Affaire, a fabricated affaire served as a pretext for the persecution of independence movement. He continued the independence movement in the form of an ideal village movement and training the Independence Army. In 1919, however, he was poisoned to death in a mysterious way. Kim Pil Soon dedicated himself to the independence movement that demands personal sacrifice: giving up his prospective career as a doctor, professor, and hospital administrator. He no longer remained as a ordinary clinician who treats only diseased persons, but transformed himself to the Great Doctor, a time-old ideal type of doctor in the East Asian countries who treats and cures the diseased nation, by dedicating himself to the independence movement.