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Lu Taifu
“Lu Taifu”
CHARLES LEWIS, M.D.
A Pioneer Surgeon in China
A
k
Robert E. Speer
The Board of Foreign Missions Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y.
Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine
This book is printed privately but can be secured for one dollar per copy, postpaid, from the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
PREFACE
THE preparation of this memorial has been only an editorial task. There were available for it Dr. Lewis' letters and annual reports to the Presbyterian Board of For¬ eign Missions and especially an autobiographical manuscript which he dictated the last year of his life. Dr. Theodore C. Greene of Peiping , zvho secured this, zvrites :
“When I became familiar zvith Dr. Lewis’ career I felt that here was a life which should be recorded for the benefit and interest of others. During a period equivalent to four full days ( during the Chinese New Year holidays, 1931, February 17 to 23 inclusive ) Dr. Lewis talked informally about various incidents of his life. These incidents were put down in a rather disconnected form, just as they came in conversation. Later they were re-arranged and amplified. Except at Chinese New Year holidays it was exceedingly difficult to get him away from his work.
“In spite of Dr. Lewis’ cheerful and interested co-operation in this matter, there is one outstanding and inevitable thing lacking in what is recorded — an adequate description of the man himself.
“Outstanding impressions obtained in securing these notes have been the untiring energy of Dr. Lewis, his desire for the work to be as independent as possible, his lack of fear of any danger connected zvith his work.”
The recollections as dictated by Dr. Lezvis zvere not chronological and they did not represent a continuous and connected story but I have done the best I could to arrange them and to supplement them from his letters and reports.
/ have also my own memories — very dear and very clear . I met Charles Lewis first at the Student's Slimmer Confer¬ ence at N or th field in 1889. He and the other members of the Washington and Jefferson delegation were quartered in the basement of Stone Hall and there, and sometimes under the trees, were the talks and prayer times which resulted in his decision to be a missionary. Many of the letters quoted are personal letters to me, though / was not his official cor¬ respondent. Across the whole forty-two years of his college and medical school course and his life of rich service in China, our friendship zvas full and true and it has been a joy to try to put into form this simple record of his strong and noble life.
— R. E. S.
CONTENTS
Page
I Boyhood and College Days . 1
II Medical School . # . 19
III First Years in China. Boxer Experiences . 30
IV Beginning Work at Paotingfu . 46
V The Hospital Staff, Plant and Work . 55
VI A Day at Paotingfu . 79
VII Work with Pneumonic Plague . 86
VIII Visitors to Paotingfu . 98
IX With the American Red Cross in Siberia in the World War. 104
X Horses and Hunting . 122
XI Furloughs and Furlough Study . 132
XII Experiences with Chinese Wars and Militarists . 146
XIII Extracts from Dr. Lewis’ Annual Reports . 167
XIV Ambitions and Dreams . 190
XV His Last Letters and His Home Coming and Home Going. 201
Chapter I
BOYHOOD AND COLLEGE DAYS
HARLES LEWIS was for thirty-five years a medical
missionary in North China, but he was also incidentally an army surgeon in China and Siberia, a Red Cross worker, a lover of horses, a great hunter especially of Chinese wild boar, and he was skilled in the art of friendship and of true and noble living.
His boyhood was spent on his father’s farm in Perry Township, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. There he was born on November 3rd, 1865, and his own recollections best tell the tale of his home life and early boyhood:
“Though one has nothing to do with choosing his birth¬ place, had I been privileged to choose mine I would not have chosen other than where I was born, in the beautiful hills west of the Alleghenies in Western Pennsylvania, on a farm in Perry Township, Jefferson County — a spot chosen by my grandfather, Stephen Lewis, who came with his bride, Ann Hopkins, to cut out a farm in a wilderness where no one had yet settled. So he took his choice of land, with a roundtop in the middle of a farm of 300 acres, with a fine spring of good soft water on the flat east of the hill. This was the location of the home. A log house and barn were built, and the farm was cleared field by field. An orchard of twelve acres of apple and peach trees was planted on the west side of the roundtop. A deer pen, furnishing venison as needed, was enclosed by a rail fence ten feet high, with a stream running through it abounding with trout. A coal bank and lime quarry were opened on the farm, and many years
I
2
Lu 7 aifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
later a good gas well was sunk near the first house built.
“The 300 acres and the neighborhood about it for some six miles, including Frostberg, our post-office, a village of a dozen houses, and Punxsutawney, a town of possibly a thousand souls, but now having a population of ten thousand oi more, was my known world. But I knew every inch of it, and like Whittier’s Barefoot Boy I knew all the inhabitants of the woods and their habits, and how to hunt them.
My father, John Hopkins Lewis, was born at Roundtop harm, taking charge when he was eighteen years of age, at the time of the death of my grandfather who was injured while plowing stumpy land. He developed a traumatic abscess in the region of the liver, which ruptured into the abdominal cavity and ended his life. My father married Isabel Diltz, daughter of Judge Peter Diltz, of Indiana County, Penn¬ sylvania. Their entire lives were spent on the Roundtop Farm. Fourteen children were born to them.
“Here on November 3rd, 1865, I was born — and grew up on this farm. Three of the children died while small during an epidemic of diphtheria. One son died in infancy. Five boys and five girls grew up together. I was the tenth in the family of fourteen. With so many older ones I was naturally kept well in place.”
One of the family recalls his relation to his grandmother:
\\ hen Charles was a little fellow, although unusually mischievous ie was an affectionate lad. He was the favorite of his Grandmother Lewis, who lived in her own house near theirs. This grandmother was skilled in all the old arts of housewives, including the weaving of beautiful bed spreads, making natural hair flowers and wreaths, and braiding straw hats — in fact, she made all the straw hats for this large family. Charles learned from her how to do this and in the summer of 1930, when he spent a month’s vacation at Yu tao He, Shansi, and saw considerable wheat straw near the cottage he occu¬ pied, he could not resist making a straw hat which he then wore wherever he went.”
3
Boyhood and College Days
“Up to the age of sixteen,” Dr. Lewis continues, “for six months (October to March inclusive) I went to school, when the farm work was the lightest, but at times, when the farm work was not finished in the fall, after school had begun, my father would have what farmwork he could done at night, such as husking corn (by the light of a lantern), so that we should not miss a day at school. The school work stopped in the spring, when farm work picked up again. My father was more zealous for my education at that time than I was. The first schoolhouse was on my uncle’s farm, and later there was one on my father’s farm. It was one single long room twenty-five by thirty feet. There were from thirty to fifty pupils under the charge of one teacher. The ages of the pupils varied from six to twenty years. The subjects were the three ‘R’s,’ Geography and Spelling. Locking the teacher out was one of the school pranks. I remember when I was a small boy our locking the teacher out on two occasions. I was often a leader of those of my age in much mischief. We went down to the woods at the noon hour to strip the birch trees. We would knock the bark off the birch trees, cut it into plugs, carry them around in our pockets and chew them as one would tobacco. In going on these expeditions I would often lead the crowd so far away that we could not get back in time for school and often the whole class got a birching for this.
“I was not a zealous seeker after knowledge except in my interest in history, but was much more on mischief bent. I was an ardent lover of the boys I liked. I did little good in school during these ten years, preferring rather to have fun with the teacher — but it was more often turned against me and ended in my getting a birching, which of course, in the game, meant that I should try again to get even with the teacher. In those days the teacher started in by bringing
4
Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
his thorn withe with him the first day of school.
From my earliest memory the custom* of morning and
ening prayers was followed in our home. No one could absent himself from the family worship unless he was sick or had some similar excuse.”
Charlie s sister, Dr. Elizabeth Lewis, who was for twenty- one years a medical missionary in China, has contributed a fuller word about the character of the old father and mother in their home :
My father and mother were the type of people who were known as the salt of the earth.’ My father was school director for years. He saw the value of education, and he was careful to secure a good teacher for the Lewis school. As five months were all the county furnished in those days Squire Lewis saw to it that a summer school of three months for children and those preparing to teach was made available for our community at a small cost to each pupil. These summer schools made it possible for many country boys and girls to secure an education which enabled them to teach school.
Mother Lewis did her share by opening her home and available out buildings to full capacity to boys and girls who did not come from nearby homes. Teaching a country school was the goal of many who attended Lewis Academy and Squire and Mrs. Lewis were happy to have eight of their children teach school as stepping stones to future usefulness.
“Charlie was kept in school both summer and winter after he had his leg broken.
Father was a very firm man, though kind and just. I recall Charles telling how disappointed he was once at a school meeting in our township. There were five directors. Two had promised him their support for a school. Returning from the election Charles said he could not understand why he did not get the school, for two had promised him their votes. Father replied, ‘It takes three votes to elect. Did I not tell you a month ago that a boy who would go to that dance in Frostberg was not fit to teach in our township?’ Few men would have the courage to stand for righteousness as he. Such f a character left his imprint on his family.
“His reply to mother when asked to help one of his children get her first school was — ‘I have done what I could to get her prepared
Boyhood and College Days
r *
5
to teach. Now, if she can’t get one herself she is not fit to teach it.’ He insisted on his children early learning to ‘stand on their own feet.’
“He was an elder in old Perry church for sixty-two years. Faithful were both parents to all church activities.”
Mrs. Charles Lewis recalls and describes the strong char¬ acter of Charles’ mother :
“ ‘Mother Lewis’ thought nothing of climbing a cherry tree to pick cherries when over seventy years old, and would ride a horse at seventy-two years of age to see a sick neighbor and take a glass of jelly to tempt the appetite. It was no wonder three of her children were doctors and one a nurse, for although such a busy and thorough housekeeper, she was the one always sent for, in her younger days, all over the neighborhood when people were sick. She told me that when a girl at home, one day she saw a chicken had swallowed some corn she had soaked in arsenic for planting (the arsenic to prevent the corn being eaten by insects, etc.) She spe’d to catch the chicken, cut open its crop, emptied out the corn, sewed up the incision, with the result that the chicken flourished and the corn was planted and grew.
“One of the pretty quilts she gave me once, came with the ex¬ planation that the Missionary Society had made it and not having a ready customer for it had decided to raffle it. This, she decided, would be a disgrace to the church, so she bought it and gave it to a missionary family.”
Dr. Lewis’ recollections continue :
“At the age of sixteen a desire for an education began to possess me. For three years I attended school in the sum¬ mer and taught in the winter.
“In the mornings and evenings we had chores around home, such as feeding and watering the cattle and stock about the barn, and carrying in the coal. In the spring, after school was out, we did regular farm work, plowing, harrow¬ ing, and planting corn At harvest time the harvest machine, known as the dropper, drawn by two horses, would go over the wheat field, cut the wheat, and drop the sheaves, and it was our task to follow behind and tie up the sheaves and move them to the side, after the reaper went around once.
6
Lu 7 aifu — Charles Lewis , M.D.
There were four brothers of us who worked at this. I was the youngest. Each one had to tend one-quarter of the piece which was being cut. I got so tired at times that I would ha\e given anything I possessed to lay down in the shade of a shock or a tree and rest for a while, but the reaper was coming around again, and I had no time to rest. I have often thought that it was this working beyond the time when I was dead tired that put real reserve strength into the muscles, not only for the time being, but it seems to me that it made a sort of habit that one has carried throughout life and which has helped me through many hard places.
“While unloading timber, a log forty feet long, eight by ten inches, fell and struck me on the back part of the thigh. Had it fallen six inches higher my back would surely have been broken. A fracture has practically no pain. I did not suffer from the injury, only my leg failed to rise when I attempted to lift it. Neither at the time it happened nor later, did I suffer any pain with the fracture. Some pain was experienced in the setting, when two men pulled in one direction and two in the other. I made no sound until they had finished but then I felt it was my part to let them know that there was something the matter, so I yelled as loudly as I could when the operation had been done, but was sorry afterward, because it hurt my mother more than it hurt me. From this time I learned the lesson that it doesn’t make so much difference if you suffer a little inconvenience at the time, if it will avoid a life time of inconvenience. I tell the Chinese patients wrhen they have inconvenience or pain in the immediate treatment of some surgical condition, that the life-time is more important than the time of treatment. This was also a lesson in the treatment of fractures, for no continued extension was applied to my leg.
Two days after the accident the swelling had subsided. I
7
Boyhood and College Days
could feel inside the splint a large bump and I knew that something was wrong, this bump being the proximal end of the distal fragment. The doctor in charge admitted that something was wrong, but said that it was too late to make a change then. This of course was not true, and the present day treatment would have saved me the lifelong shortening of three inches of my right leg. This has given me a great deal of inconvenience all through my life, as I have always had to wear a high shoe. After this accident I began to realize that with this handicap it would be better for me to lead some other life than that of a farmer. So I attended a summer school held in our district schoolhouse, which was on my father’s farm. The teacher, Mr. George R. Bell, had the rare ability to incite a desire to study, where formerly there had been none.”
Mr. Bell is still living and writes of these days of long ago :
“Dr. Lewis and the writer were born and raised in the same locality, our parents having attended the same township school before we were born. His father, John H. Lewis, was one of the leading citizens in our community. Dr. Lewis and I were school-mates for a few terms, but being some nine years older than he, I became a teacher, while he was still a school-boy. Having taught a few terms, Dr.’s father, who was school director, asked me to teach this particular school. Charles had met with an accident, which caused him to be crippled, and the father believed he should educate him. It was customary in this school for the pupils to test the metal of the teacher. Knowing this, and not having been exactly a model pupil myself, I said to Mr. Lewis that I was not sure that I could make a success. He assured me that I could, and I made the venture. I soon discovered that if I could win some four boys, one of whom was Charles, that my success was assured. Of the four he was leader, just as he later proved to be in anything with which he was connected. Dr. Charles Lewis was a pupil of mine for six successive terms, and I can truth¬ fully say that he was the most outstanding character that I met in eleven years as teacher. In taking up a new subject in class he always wanted to go to the bottom of it, and leave nothing he did not under-
8
Lit Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
stand. In fact, I think he practiced this throughout his entire life
remelhe ‘° ?“ h\m °ff When he firSt left for China, and
oaasba W g Ve °f his father on that Particular
‘‘Dr. Lewis’ success in China is so well known that it is useless for me to comment on that. I might add that on a visit to the home
P ? a. few years smce’ he surPnsed me by telling me that when
fir^ b“an?e a. f'P'1 of mine> he had all arrangements made to learn the blacksnuth trade with a neighbor we knew-. But, he sai<l a little talk we had had changed his plans, and his entire life
I know of no one who has made more of his surroundings and been of more aid to his fellows than Dr. Charles Lewis " ’
The memoirs go on : “When I was seventeen we attended a Sunday School Convention at our church. Folks had to have their horses fed, so they trusted some of us boys to take the horses to various farmers’ homes and feed them Of course, we felt that service of this kind deserved some reward, so we took long drives in these buggies. One muddy day we had a beautiful buggy that was lovely and clean and a good horse. Two ladies from Punxsutawney arrived in this buggy. We fed the horse and then took a good long drive, going as far as we could. The buggy was very badly spattered and it looked more like a mud pile than a buggy when we returned. The Superintendent of schools was paying attenhon to one of the young ladies. He punished me by withholding my certificate to teach school. He relented and tiring that winter there was a school which the teacher had ett, and the Superintendent sent me a certificate and a letter saying that I might secure this school if I went. At that time I was going to a select school that was carried on in the summer time by subscription. The first winter that I taught school I was given a school nine or ten miles from home, a school that had a very bad name. They always put the teacher out but they gave me this school. I got along very well, but there was one man in the community who was
Boyhood and College Days 9
very domineering, and who wanted the school to go his way. If he was displeased, the teacher would be put out. He had a bad boy and I had to thrash him — that was the technique of those days. He took it very seriously, cried, and told his father about me, claiming that he had the skin cut on his thigh. This was reported, but there was no proof and I never believed it. The father called a meeting of the board of directors, to have me put out of the school, and he brought three charges against me. One was cruelty, another was in¬ competency, and a third immorality. The cruelty was for beating his son, the incompetency was that his daughter brought the evidence that I had called burst ‘bust/ and had said, ‘That’s the stuff.’ The immorality was that I had been drunk during the county institute. The directors said that as far as cruelty was concerned the boy probably deserved all that he got. They didn’t see anything wrong in saying ‘That’s the stuff,’ and ‘bust’ isn’t much different from ‘burst’ ! There¬ fore they dismissed those charges. They asked me about the third charge, and I said that it wasn’t my business to say, if they proved it that was another thing. They told me to go on with the school. The man was determined to get me out and he went to Brookville where the county institute had been held. We had carried on in a rather lively way and had gone to the skating rink and there was evidence of liquor. The man got a lawyer and took the names of the people who had been there. We had been too lively, very noisy, and had almost got into a fight. Some boys gave evidence against us, that we were under the influence of liquor. We did not deny that — but we were able to walk around and skate, though it made me feel badly. My father went with me to the second trial where we had a lawyer from Brookville. The man who was bringing the charges was a sort of bully in the com¬ munity and the others were afraid of him, so they did as he
10
Lti Taifa — C harles Lczsjis, M.D.
wished and ousted the teacher. During the winter of 1887 there were revival meetings in the Presbyterian church. Those who wished to have the prayers of the church were asked to rise. This was the time that the change came in my life — from that time my life had a purpose.
“I spent one year in the Elders Ridge Academy and three summers in the Belleview Academy. This was in preparation for entrance to Washington and Jefferson College. It was during my Academy days that I was converted under the influence of the Rev. J. S. Helm, our pastor. ”
Mr. Helm well recalls the boy:
One element in Charlie Lewis’ life and contributing to his success, and as the writer thinks, the chief element, was his happy, hopeful Christianity. It was so from the start of his religious experience. On his return to the academy the next summer after his conversion he took the lead among the boys and in such a way as to win their love and respect. This spirit was equally manifest throughout his college life and as well in his medical preparation. In China this happy devoted Christian spirit was even more manifest. One of the names by which the Chinese spoke of him was Lu Chang Lo— ' ‘Lewis happy, the happy man or laughing man. It was this disposition — a dis¬ position that came out of his faith in Jesus Christ and love for Him. that made his great work so appreciated and successful. He was a gospel preacher by his life and words, whether in the operating room
or m the wards or out among the people in the compound or in the city.
The Rev. J. F. Jamieson, Superintendent of Missions for the United Presbyterian Church in Illinois, was one of Chailes teachers in Belleview Academy in the summer of 1887. He writes:
W e organized a Christian Association for the students .and Charles was the president of it. We had a considerable number of young people who had no interest in such a society but Charles had their respect in a very great degree. He recited to me in Greek, Latin and Algebra and indicated enthusiasm in all of his studies!
Boyhood and College Days' 1 1
Notwithstanding his lameness, he played first base with our ball team and could get around the diamond as fast as any of the players.1'
Charles proceeds :
“I was in the academy studying for the summer time and went home after school was finished. It was just the time that the oats were ripe. My brother was cutting oats and I was put to the task. I was soft, as I was fresh from school and had not done farm work for some time. Very soon I found myself dropping behind. My older brother was nearly across the field, when I was only half way. I was much chagrined, because I had always been able to do as much as he. Before I came from school, I had seen a summer school friend who had been canvassing stereoscope views in the county seat. He could make $5.00 a day, and I thought if I were paid wages on the farm I would not get more than $1.00 a day for cutting oats, and probably not that much, as I was not able to do the work. If the other man could canvass and make $5.00 a day I could do so too. So I deter¬ mined in my own mind that farming was not the thing for me to do, and I asked father if I could go canvassing with my friend. He said he had never known of a Lewis in his life who could sell anything and didn’t think I could possibly do it. but he said he didn’t suppose there would be peace until I tried to see what I could do. I told him I would need money — thought I would need $10.00 anyway. He gave me $10.00. I went to the county seat carrying a little valise. My friend had no regular outfit box but he had a friend who kept a shoe store, and he got a shoe box and made of it a case in which to carry the views. He cut a hole in the end of the box and stuck the stereoscope through the hole. It was not as long as a regular one should be but the first afternoon I took thirteen orders. Each order included a stereoscope for ninety cents, and a number of views which were $2.00 a dozen.
12
Lu 1 aifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
Those who had stereoscopes gave us orders just for views. When I came in, the man asked me how I had done, and when I told him he said it was as good as he had done in a day. I went on through this one canvass, took orders for ten days, then ten days to deliver them. When the canvass was completed, I had worked twenty days and had $110.00 clear money, besides the $10.00 that I owed my father. I was suc¬ cessful in selling all the goods I had, except a few views which I wanted to take home to show my parents. This was in the early days of stereoscopic views, which later found their way to the parlor table of so many homes in the nine¬ ties. In that day the stereoscope held a position somewhat comparable to that of the radio of the present day. It is in¬ teresting to note, however, that aside from the popular use, stereoscopic views are still used in the scientihc world to piesent anatomical dissections, views of skin diseases, of gastronomical processes, and certain scientific instruments. Many amateurs derive pleasure from taking their own stereoscopic photographs. My explanation of my success in this work was my intense belief in it. In a short time I could make the most skeptical person believe in the scientific accuracy and the lifelike appearance of the views. A lady, cross-eyed to the extent of being able to use only one eye, enjoyed the stereoscope so much that she bought many stereoscopic pictures. When I returned, my father wanted to know how I came out — did I bring ten cents back ? He had told me before that he wouldn’t see ten cents out of the ten dollars. I gave him the ten dollars. Then he wanted to know how much more I brought back. When I said $110.00. he was skeptical and wanted to see it. I handed it over and he said I could make money faster than he could.
“At this time I was preparing for college and expected to enter the sophomore class in the fall, but in looking over
Boyhood and College Days
13
the catalog found that I would be conditioned in one or two subjects. I consulted my pastor, Mr. Helm, under whose influence I had been led to Christ and for whom I had the deepest respect and regard. He told me that although my father was quite able to send me to college, if I could make my own way as easily as that, I would always have a feeling of independence. He said he would advise my going on canvassing until Christmas, then enter the freshman class one term advanced, so that I would be in the class of ’92 instead of ’93. I went to Altoona and Johnstown with stereoscopic views. I used this as a way to make money to put myself through Washington and Jefferson College and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. After com¬ pleting these courses I had $700.00 left over which, added to the money provided by the Woodland Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, provided the means of sending me to the mission field.
“During these years I not only canvassed personally, but introduced this work to other students who needed help. The company for which I worked paid me a small commis¬ sion on what they sold. During the summer of 1890, working under Ralph B. Reitz, now of Brookville, Pa., as general agent, I took twenty-five fellow students to Michigan. There we canvassed the greater part of the state. The company for which I sold views made me the offer of taking their busi¬ ness to Australia after finishing my medical course. This would make it possible for me to make $20,000.00 in four years. This plan appealed to me for a time because by so doing I could become a missionary and be financially independent. But when I thought of getting so far out of touch with medicine and the possibility of losing my missionary spirit, I threw the offer aside. In my younger days my whole ambi¬ tion was to get rich, but that ambition was gone.
1 4 Lu 1 aifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
“After my conversion, I decided to be a minister because that was what my father wished, and I could be most useful in that way. I kept that idea until at Northfield in 1889. where I decided to be a missionary.
My father, while he was a farmer, had never had a great deal of opportunity to get an education. He had only a com¬ mon school education. His father died when he was eighteen years old and he had to take care of the farm. My father was strong and able bodied. A neighbor told me that he had probably done more physical work than any two men in the community. When he was eighteen he was known to hire two men in the community to help him in binding wheat cut with the old-fashioned cradle, a device attached to the scythe which allowed the wheat to fall in even swaths. My father walked down the field, raking the swaths from both sides, in this way keeping up with the two men.
When my father was eighty-seven years old he told me that he had not known the feeling of tiredness until he was seventy-five years of age. He had been an elder in the Pres¬ byterian Church from young manhood through his life. He was very religious. His religion was exemplified by his spirit in the community in which he lived, and by gifts to the church. When he was eighty-seven years old he told me that at about the age of thirty-seven he had heard for the first time the hymn, ‘From Greenland’s Icy Mountains,’ and he said that when he heard this hymn it made a missionary of him. But he was a farmer, had a family and could not go to the mission field, so he simply went on in his work, but from that time, every morning and evening, he prayed for missions along with other causes mentioned in the prayers in family devotion. From his continued prayers for missions it was evident that he would be pleased by having some of his childien take up this work, but he never mentioned it directly
Boyhood and College Days
15
— in fact, he never discussed missions outside of prayers, and when I informed him of my intention to be a missionary he made no comment. He never said anything for or against my going to the field.
“All those younger than I, except one sister, have been on the mission field. My next younger sister, Nora, never married, remained home and looked after father and mother all their lives. She was interested in mission work and was one of the leading spirits in the missionary society in the home church. My brother, Stephen, was a medical missionary for over twenty-five years in Hunan, and later a medical missionary in Arizona among the Indians. My next sister, Carrie, while she was not under the Mission Board, came out on her own accord and responsibility as a trained nurse in Peking, and did independent nursing among the mission¬ aries. My youngest sister, Dr. Elizabeth Lewis, was in North China in the mission field for twenty-one years. All these children were born after my father’s interest in missions. The last time I was home my father asked me to stay. How¬ ever, I think this was because he did not think he would live long. It was not to keep me from mission work. As an inducement, he offered me the farm if I would remain, but because of my work in China I could not consider it.
“In the first week of January, 1889, I joined the class of 1892 in Washington and Jefferson College. During the earlier years of my college course I had the desire to be a minister of the gospel, but although I joined a literary society with the intention of developing myself in public speaking, I found that I was constantly paying fines for non¬ performance because of my dislike for public speaking. This continued until, in my junior year, I began laboratory work in chemistry, and developing a great fondness for this I found where I belonged in life. Consequently, I made up my
La 7 aifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
mind to study medicine and spend my life as a medical missionary.
I had already volunteered for foreign mission work in 1889 at Northfield, Massachusetts. With the exception of 1890, I attended the annual conferences at Northfield from 1889 to 1895, enjoying the stimulus which these conferences gave annually.
“At the Northfield meetings 1 heard Moody and Sankey speak several times. I also heard Henry Drummond, the author of the Greatest Thing in the World/ and was es¬ pecially impressed by his sermon on ‘Our Life as a Three- Story House/ the first story as our physical life, the base¬ ment where most people live, the second story as the mental, and the third story as the spiritual. He urged upon us as students to live in the second and third stories. The base¬ ment was dark and dreary. It was there also, that I first met a new and life-long friend who said, ‘Are you as a Christian, willing to follow where the Lord wants you to go?’ Our lives ought to be thought of as engines on a rail¬ road track, the main track of the world’s greatest need. Were we willing to push on into the most needy field, unless we were switched off onto another track? That is what the Volunteer pledge means — ‘I am willing and desirous to be a foreign missionary, God permitting/ — tfiat is to go where the need is greatest. I saw no reason why I shouldn’t follow in that line, therefore I signed the Volunteer pledge. I have never regretted the signing of that pledge,— I think it helped in steadying my life along a definite line, which brought me into probably the most useful field that I could have occu¬ pied in my life.
“My canvassing experience, I ought to add, not only proved lucrative, but gave me a spirit of independence and a useful fund of knowledge of human nature and of how
Boyhood and College Days ij
to deal with people of all classes. So that for practical pur¬ poses in life it probably was as useful as my technical edu¬ cation.
“One feature of our college life which I have always valued was a daily class prayer meeting held just after lunch each day, throughout the four years of our college course. Sometimes not more than three or four were present, but the meetings were kept up in spite of all the distracting features of a college course from the time they were instituted until the day of our graduation. Many of the attendants at those prayer meetings have commented since upon the good influ¬ ence the meetings have had upon their lives in after years.
“After graduating from Washington and Jefferson in 1892 as a B.A., I entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in the class of 1895. While in college at Washington my church affiliation was with the Second Pres¬ byterian Church of which Dr. James H. Snowden was the pastor. His powerful sermons influenced a large number of the student body and were a great factor in the development of character and Christian faith in a large number of the students.
“Of this class of 1892 the first honor man of the class is at present the head of the Africa Inland Mission, Dr. Down¬ ing. The second honor man is the President of the Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny, Dr. Kelso ; another is Professor of Greek in that same institution, Dr. Farmer; another was the President of Ohio Wesleyan University, Dr. Hoffman ; one was President of his alma mater, Dr. Baker (Washington and Jefferson) ; another has been mis¬ sionary pastor of the largest Presbyterian congregation in the world, Dr. W. C. Johnston of Africa; another is editor of a National Temperance paper, Dr. Chalfant. One was a judge in Washington County, Judge Hughes. Another is a
i8
Lit Taifu — Charles Lewis , M.D.
judge in his county in Maryland, Judge Sloan; another is judge in Allegneny County. All the others are filling places in professional life of usefulness (with possibly the excep¬ tion of one or two), an unusual record for a single class of thirty-five, — strong argument for a small college where men came in daily contact with such strong men as were the Presi¬ dent, Dr. Mofifatt, Dr. Lynn, and others of that capable faculty.”
President Kelso writes of these college days:
Charles was one of the most popular men in his Class. The reason for this position was his unfeigned sincerity and his complete natural¬ ness. In the class-room he never attempted to bluff his way by trying to make the professor think he knew the subject when he was ignorant. A e can still recall his cheery laugh when the professor discovered he was unacquainted with some fact which he ought to have known. However, he was a diligent student and a commendable and con¬ sistent worker and had an honorable standing in the class not only for his character but also for his scholarship.
In business capacity he ranked head and shoulders above anv other member of the Class. Through his influence and guidance be enabled many a student to earn a large proportion of the money needed for his college expenses.
“In college his life was distinctly and openly Christian. For two years his Class maintained a brief daily prayer-meeting (excepting Saturday and Sunday). The average attendance of these meetings which were held after dinner in a student’s room, was about thirtv per cent of the Class. Dr. Lewis was a regular attendant at these meetings The Class prayer-meeting was informal and spontaneous without the slightest touch of the morbid. The men who were leaders in this religious worship were normal youth, for many of them also were leaders in the college pranks. They did not hesitate for one moment to participate in the cane rush with the Freshmen although thus time-honored institution had been tabooed by the ^resident and acuity. Charles Lewis took his part in such events as much as his physical disability permitted.”
And it was amazing that it was allowed to interfere hardly at all. In most activities few were a match for him.
Chapter II
MEDICAL SCHOOL
IN the autumn of 1892 Lewis entered the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, working his way, as already noted, by selling stereoscopes and stereoscopic pictures in the summer time. His own recollections carry on the story of these years, through his hospital interneship in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and a remarkable summer experience as an “eye specialist" in Maine:
“The class of 1895, University of Pennsylvania, in medi¬ cine, was the last class to finish its course in three years, as the medical school was passing from a three-year course to the course of four years. As it was necessary to have a grad¬ uating class in 1896, the course was made sufficiently difficult to cull from the entire class a sufficient number to fill up the class of 1896, so that from a class of 350 about 200 were graduated. This required very close attention to studies and required long hours of work.
“Our teachers in medical school were Pepper, Ashurst, Guiteras, J. W. White, Tyson, S. Weir Mitchell, who gave a number of lectures on the conduct of a doctor in caring for patients, H. C. Wood, Pearsall, John B. Deever, Willard Billings, and Hunt. There was an elderly German doctor who was very good in orthopedics. I learned plaster-cast making from him, the principles of which have stood me in good stead all my life.
“We had to work late at night and often until early morning. It was hard work all through, but the last year was the most difficult. I had been called home on account
19
20
Ln Taifn — Charles Lewis , M.D .
of my father who had pneumonia. It was near examination time. When I got back there was an examination in pre¬ scription writing the next day after my return. I had not known and was unprepared. I was poor at this in any case, having had no practice. I took some caffein in order to keep awake to study and I studied until two o’clock in the morn¬ ing. This made me so wide awake that I could not go to sleep then. The next day when I went for the examination I couldn’t keep awake and couldn’t think. I think I made a complete failure of my examination. But when I was exam¬ ined on therapeutics later by Professor Woods, whose ques¬ tions I answered without hesitation and correctly, he looked at my examination results in prescription writing and asked what was the matter with me then. I told him that I had had no sleep the night before, and he said he knew that some¬ thing must have happened.
“In those days we had very little practical work. We had to write up some cases. As medical students we had a great many of our ward classes at Blockley. They were very good, especially those under Drs. Hughes and Stevens.
“It was in medical college that I met Dr. Griggs who has probably been the closest friend I have ever had in my life. He came to Peking, and among other duties built the house in which these notes are now being written. He did as much in three years as many men do in a lifetime. He built the An Ting Men or ‘Peace Gate’ Hospital, the first one having been destroyed by the Boxers. He built the Chiao Tao Kou chapel and dispensary. He dug a well, installed a windmill and put in a water system for all the houses in the compound and for the hospital, in which were some of the best opium cures that have ever been done in China. He treated many patients for the opium habit, and a number of these we know definitely to have remained cured. His first opium patient
Medical School
21
became an earnest Christian and remained to help others. Dr. Griggs had the remarkable ability of speaking Chinese fluently, and also reading Chinese newspapers in spite of his few years here. He also had the care of an invalid wife. Finally her illness forced their return to the States, where he became a successful practitioner in Tacoma, Washing¬ ton, known and loved for his ability and his staunch Chris¬ tian character.
“I remember the case on which, on completing my medi¬ cal course, I was examined, in applying for my interneship
a case of Jacksonian epilepsy caused by a gumma of the brain. At the time of the examination my diagnosis was merely Jacksonian epilepsy, which then seemed to be a suf¬ ficient diagnosis in itself, and later I found it was the diag¬ nosis which was already on the patient's chart in the hospital. On further study as an interne in this hospital, I decided that the cause of his epilepsy was a luetic lesion of the brain, and I instituted anti-luetic treatment which promptly cured the patient.
“I took an eye course of ten weeks’ post graduate work in the Polyclinic in Philadelphia. Having heard that skin diseases were common in China, I observed this branch of the clinic with close care. While taking this eye course, I met Dr. George Yardley Taylor, my predecessor at Paotingfu, who was on furlough. I roomed with him for a week. He was a man of great culture, extremely well educated, but so modest that he wrould not want me to be present at a lecture that he was to give.
“My interneship at the hospital in Scranton was both medi¬ cal and surgical. The surgical work interested me the more and I was given much more responsibility and more liberty in operating that I could have had in hospitals in lai^er cities. As I look back, I think that was one of the best in-
22
Lit Taifu — Charles Lewis , M.D.
terneships I could have had for the country I was coming to. Sometimes four or five cases with burns would come in at one time. I was given a great deal of freedom in conducting my cases, in fact I was told not to call the chief unless I needed his advice.”
The Superintendent and student nurses of the Scranton Hospital testify to the many times he instructed the nurses in anatomy, using every amputated limb or organ to demon¬ strate to them. His business ability extracted a small fee for medicine or treatment from many of those who were taking advantage of the free clinic. This helped the meager finances of the hospital. His strong Christian attitude won so much confidence in the hospital that the Superintendent used to ask him to chaperone the students going out in the evening, which is quite the opposite of the usual feeling of Super¬ intendents toward an interne. Of an amusing experience in 1893 he writes:
While attending the Northfield Students’ Conference in 1893, on July 4th, Mr. Dwight L. Moody drove up in front of Marquand Hall where a crowd of us delegates were watching a baseball game, and asked for a doctor. As no one responded, he asked for a medical student. At that time I had only completed my first year in medicine, so I said noth¬ ing, as I could not respond to the call for a doctor. But J. B. Ely of our college deputation said to Mr. Moody that he knew a medical student there and would find him. Where¬ upon he pulled me out of the crowd. I went very reluc¬ tantly, as I felt my inability to do anything in that line. But Mr. Moody reprimanded me and said, ‘Get in here; if you know anything, why are you not willing to use it?’ I told him the trouble was that I knew nothing practical. I went with him and found a middle aged man lying with a dis¬ located shoulder. There was no anaesthetist. I had seen Dr.
Medical School
23
Ashurst illustrate to a senior class the manner in which Sir Astly Cooper reduced a shoulder dislocation, by removing his shoe and putting his heel in the axilla of the patient’s dis¬ turbed member, and using his heel as fulcrum and the humerus as lever, he easily pried the head out beyond the lip of the socket and pushed it in. I did not think this pro¬ cedure dignified even for a medical student, so I devised a fulcrum of towels folded up, kindly furnished me by the lady of the house. My plan worked and the shoulder went in with a snap. 1 he patient uttered sounds expressive of some feeling, whereupon, I informed the gentleman that there was an abundance of nerves in that region, and of necessity some pain. Imagine my chagrin when this gentle¬ man informed me that he had been a medical missionary in China for many years. I his was Dr. B. C. Atterbury, who has been my lifelong friend since that day. We had many a laugh over this occurrence since. He took my address for the summer at Bar Harbor, Maine, and later sent me five dollars which I invested in a half dozen silver spoons which I gai e to my mother, my first fee in medicine. At her death she gave them to me, and I have them yet.
After graduating from the university in June, 1895, I w7ent, as I have said, to the Lackawanna Hospital, Scranton, as an interne, where I stayed until the next March, when I i etui ned to Philadelphia to take the post-graduate course on the eye, at the Philadelphia Polyclinic. Then I was a substitute for a classmate at the Presbyterian Hospital in I hiladelphia for about a month on the gynecological and children s wards. Upon completing this work I went to Maine, to Houlton, Aroostock County, and having taken the state examination in Portland, began the practice of medicine as an eye specialist. I lived in the hotel and spent as much time fishing as in practice on the eye. I continued
24
Lu Taif u — Charles L ewis, M.D.
as an eye specialist during1 the summer. One case in par¬ ticular, brought me in the greater part of my practice. This particular case was that of a man of about thirty years, who had lived a very reckless life, and was well known by every person in the town. He had developed an eye condition for which he had been treated in Portland at an eye hospital. The condition was chronic iritis with a distinct history of lues. Not having the experience of an older doctor, but with a clear conscience I concluded that all the man needed was a new pupil, the old one being completely occluded, as he was totally blind. A friend of his offered to take him into his house if I would treat him. I decided to do an iridectomy but found that the iris could only be removed in small frag¬ ments. After doing my best at tearing out as much as I could of the iris in one place and getting no vision because of the plastic condition back of the iris, I had very little hope of his seeing. I started up an inflammation with the use of absorbents, potassium iodide, mercury, and salyciliate of soda. After the first week there was sufficient vision so that he could see a clock on the wall, and after a few more davs he could tell the time of day by the clock, and in the course of three weeks he could recognize people, and finally devel¬ oped fair vision in the eye. This man who had been totallv blind, now recognized his friends on the street. Naturally every one began to talk of the new eye specialist that had come to town, and in a short time my fishing was very much interfered with. Crowds of patients came to the hotel and my three months of practice in Houlton were very success¬ ful from a financial standpoint as well as professionally. I did five cataract operations in those three months. At the end of this time I returned from upper Maine to Belfast, to the home of Miss Alice J. Davis where she and I were married, the first of September, and started for my home in
Medical School
25
Pennsylvania, where we stayed until November getting ready for our trip to China to which we had been appointed as missionaries in the Shantung Mission of the American Pres¬ byterian Church.”
Miss Davis was a woman of high aspirations and strong character. After her conversion she led her whole family to Christ. Upon her engagement to Dr. Lewis she left her position of teaching school, in which she had been engaged for some years, and took a music course in Boston, in prepa¬ ration for the mission field.
There are several respects in which this entertaining ac¬ count of Dr. Lewis’ medical course should be supplemented. The only one of the diaries which he kept which has been preserved is a coverless Excelsior Diary of 1893 full of characteristic and entertaining entries regarding his work in the University, his friendships and his recreations and the beginning and growth of the friendship with Miss Davis which issued in their marriage.
He records a number of the books that he has been read¬ ing. On Sunday, January 29th he records:
“To Dr. Dana’s Church in morning; he preached on the life of Phillips Brooks; Y. M. C. A. meeting in the even¬ ing ; wrote a letter to my Sunday School Class at Hamilton ; wrote home and read in the evening ; finished life of Dr. Livingstone, a grand life.”
The Sundays were full of faithful attendance at church, of activities in the Y. M. C. A., of reading, of mission work and of participation in the Sunday evening services for students in the Walnut Street Theatre. He was very fond of the theatre and records his having gone to see “Robin Hood,” Denman Thompson in “The Old Homestead,” Julia Marlowe in “Romeo and Juliet,” Joe Jefferson, Wilson Barrett, and others. He had one or two severe attacks of
26
Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
sickness to which he made no surrender. In spite of his lame leg he went out for the crew but without success, b inancially he had to watch the outgo very carefully and writes on March 8th — “Left my order for a suit for $22.50 and came up to Perry’s and bought an overcoat for $6.00, one-half the regular price.”
On April 20th, when the year of the medical school was over, he had a prayer meeting in his room and then left for New England with a group of companions to make some money by canvassing for the sale of stereoscopes and stereo¬ scopic pictures. The diary is full of amusing accounts of his experiences and preserves in a most naive and uncon¬ scious way the developing friendship with Miss Davis whom he met the first week in May, 1893. It was a most successful summei both in his canvassing and in his courtship. At the close of it he made a trip to Chicago where he said he was doubtful if any American boy saw more of the World’s Fair than he did. The summer included also many religious discussions and theological debates with some types of re¬ ligious opinion that were new to him. This summer also, in the interval of his canvassing in Maine, he went to North- field and found there fresh confirmation of his missionary purpose. He makes special mention of addresses by Dr. Faunce, Dr. Purves, Professor Harlan Beach and Professor Henry Drummond. On December 19th he wrote a poem in bis diary which seems wisely to have been his first and last attempt. Then he went home for the holidays, travel¬ ing in a day coach to save the Pullman sleeper fare. As always he took his hand in helpful work, and records on December 28th that he was home all day on the old farm “and helped butcher three hogs in P. M. and examined some parts. The diary shows that he closed the year with assets, after all debts were paid, of $672.50. From April
Medical School
27
20th to September 15th in his stereoscope sales he had cleared $1,003, over and above all his expenses, which amounted to $194.00.
Two letters from classmates, one in college and one in medical school, bear witness to the esteem in which he was held. Dr. H. M. Chalfant of his college class writes:
“Bv common consent of the men of 1892, at their Fortieth Reunion, he was accorded easily first place for the good he had done and the honor he had brought to the class.”
Dr. Woodbridge O. Johnson of Los Angeles, California, who was for sixteen years a medical missionary in Korea, writes :
I he two strongest impressions of him I have are — a man who constantly did personal work for Christ and a man who was fearless.
“He was a classmate at University of Pennsylvania Medical School, Class of 1895. One of my most distinct memories of him there is that of an arm over my shoulder or a friendly slap on the back ac¬ companying a cheery ‘How7 are you, old man? How goes it?’ and turning I saw the pleasant, broad smile of Charlie Lewis. I have heard him referred to by others as ‘the most friendly fellow in the Class,’ and the impression he alwrays gave was ‘friendly, cheerful, smiling.’ Some one who was in a position to know, another interne, told me he had spoken to every single person he came in contact with in the Presbyterian Hospital, Philadelphia, about their personal rela¬ tions to Jesus Christ. This was while he was substituting there for a period of several months. I can well believe it as Charlie was constantly offering at our Student Volunteer meetings to speak to this or that student whose name had come before our group. He was so tactful, so deeply interested apparently in the one he spoke to, that no offense could be taken.
“He also had the faculty of cheering up’ others who needed it. He radiated cheerfulness while at the University Medical School.
“As to his fearlessness: he never appeared to have any fears or doubts in strange places or unusual circumstances. I was much im¬ pressed by this trait when staying alone part of a summer, inside the native city of Taiku, Korea. It was about the time of the Boxer trouble in China, and there was apprehension among the Korea
28
Lit Taifu — Charles Lewis _, M.D.
missionaries lest violence toward them might develop in Korea Rumors were prevalent that all foreigners would be driven from the country. One evening after a disquieting day I sat talking to my cook about the situation when suddenly a loud knocking at the com¬ pound gate startled us both. Cook ran to see who it was and a minute later who should come hobbling across the court yard but a foreigner in a big pith hat, Charlie Lewis, whom I had not heard of for a year or more, and that last in Tsinanfu, China. It was one of the most pleasant meetings of my life. He told me that since missionary work at Tsinanfu had been interrupted by the troubles he decided he would ‘run over to Korea and have a look around.’ Arriving on a little steamer at the port of Fusan he discovered that recent floods had washed away all bridges, telegraph lines, etc., and that most of the road to Taiku, 100 miles away, was covered with water. He could get no message through to me. He dickered half a day with the Koreans for a pony to ride but they all declared the roads absolutely impassable and refused to hire him a pony. ‘Finally,’ as Charlie related, ‘I got tired waiting and started out alone walking. After a few miles up behind me came one of the mafus leading a pony for which I had offered a big price. He agreed to try it.’ ‘Charlie,’ I asked, with all roads overflowed, how did you expect to get here?’ ‘Well,’ he replied, ‘I knew I could take to the hills and I did that; the mafu led the pony up the steep ones and I hung on by the pony’s tail. When he slid down the other side I followed.’ ‘How much did you ride?’ I inquired. ‘Not much. It was all hills,’ he said. ‘How about the language, can you speak Korean?’ ‘Oh, no!’ he replied, ‘but I write the Chinese characters a little and so do the Koreans. When I wanted to communicate I’d make signs for writing material and so I got food and lodging at the inns.’
“‘Where is your mafu and pony, Charlie? I don’t see them in the compound.’
“‘Well, they were so slow that I left them behind about noon time today and jogged in here alone.’
“It was true. He was a man of iron constitution and had actually dog-trotted the last ten or fifteen miles into Taiku in order to arrive before the city gates should close at dark.
“After a week’s visit with me at Taiku we both traveled down to Fusan over washed out roads and he took steamer to Chemulpo and Seoul.
Medical School
29
He did not seem to think he had done anything at all unusual in making that 100 mile trip into the interior of a strange country among a people of whose language and customs he knew nothing.
Ever since leaving medical school we have corresponded but un¬ fortunately I have not preserved his letters. He was a splendid friend and his passing was a great loss.”
Chapter III
FIRST YEARS IN CHINA. BOXER EXPERIENCES
LEWIS wrote to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. in 1895 asking for blanks for application for appointment as a missionary and in the spring of 1896 made formal offer of his service for China. He was well known to some officers of the Board and very few testimonials sufficed. All certified to his effici¬ ency and faithfulness, and his former pastor who admitted him to the church wrote :
“A little more than ten years ago he united with the church under my ministry in his home church. I never saw a more radical change in an individual than there was in him. He seemed to have made a complete surrender of himself. His life was an earnest, consistent Christian life from the beginning. I have kept in communication with him ever since and have noted with pleasure his continued growth in grace, and in enthusiasm in Christ and His service. He has taken pains to cultivate that tendency by attendance at Moody’s summer school and other evangelistic meetings. His Christianity is of a sturdy, frank, practical character. That is his natural disposition.
“Besides he has eminent business qualifications. He has paid his own way through school. Since entering college he has made the money during the summer vacations. He always worked for the same firm. So highly did the firm value his services that two years ago it asked him to carry their business to Australia for a period of five years. He assured me that should he take the offer he could easily clear $20,000 in the time. To show what was in him he thought of taking the offer with this in view. The Board was in debt. Had he the $20,000 he could go out at his own expense. He asked me about it. I told him not to delay his work for this. I feared that his ability in the line of business might draw even him from his great
First Years in Chi
na 3 1
purpose. I might write you much more in commendation of him but retrain.”
He and Miss Davis were appointed on July 23, 1896, and later were assigned to the East Shantung Mission, special funds for his support having been promised by the Wood¬ land Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, then under the pastorate of J. Stewart Dickson, D.D.
His first service was in the station of Tengchow where Mrs. Lewis died on May 30, 1897, but he was soon trans¬ ferred to Tsinanfu, the capital of the Province. Of the trip out to China and the experiences of these first four years, he wrote:
We arm ed in Chicago the morning of November 3rd, 1896, to hear that William McKinley had been elected Presi¬ dent of the United States. As our train on the Denver and Rio Grande road was entering the tunnel at Leadville, it crashed into a cattle train. Fortunately no one on our train was injured, but the baggage cars were smashed to ‘smith¬ ereens. I went to the baggage man on the train and showed him my baggage checks. The next train that came through was without accident. We got off the train that was wrecked at Glenwood Springs and went up to Aspen to see my sister. Then we came back and took the next train. That train had our haggage on it, and also the Rev. John Murray who was on his way to Shantung. The next train after that was wrecked, so we had got off without injuries, and our bag¬ gage was not harmed.
WT sailed from San Francisco and had a pleasant un¬ eventful voyage to Shanghai, on the Rio de Janeiro, which was wrecked on its next trip. From Shanghai we went in a coastal steamer to Chefoo, arriving November 28, 1896. In Chefoo we began the study of the Chinese language, liv- ing in the home of Mrs. John L. Nevius, the widow of one
32 Ln Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
of the ablest missionaries in China who was famed for his help in introducing the self-support policy into Christian churches in Korea, and for introducing fruit trees of es¬ pecially fine quality into Shantung.
“At Christmastime I was invited to Tengchowfu, and was escorted to that place by the Rev. J. P. Irwin. This was the station that I was to occupy as a medical missionary, as Dr. Seymour had been suffering from what was supposed to be a tubercular knee-joint, and it was thought it would be a matter of only a short time until he would be compelled to leave his station. Dr. Calvin Mateer, then the senior mis¬ sionary in Tengchowfu, was strongly of the opinion that we should remove to Tengchowfu and study the language in the place where we were to work. Therefore, Mr. Irwin and I returned to Chefoo and brought Mrs. Lewis and part of our belongings to Tengchowfu, where we continued to study the language. This language study was somewhat interfered with by my being called to the hospital frequently to oper¬ ate upon patients. The study was further interrupted by the death of Mrs. .Lewis from malignant small-pox on the 30th of May, 1897, and still further by dysentery and gen¬ eral bad health during most of that summer.”
Some of those who were in Tengchowfu at that time re¬ call how amused they used to be at Dr. Lewis’ way of man¬ aging beggars, who were plentiful there and new to him. When he and Mrs. Lewis went out for exercise and were followed by these persistent folk, he would promise them some cash if they would go into the sea near by and take a cleansing bath.
Dr. Lewis continues :
“In September, an urgent request came from the Tsinanfu station, for my removal to that station to prepare to take the place of Dr. J. B. Neal as he was to leave on furlough
First Years in China
33
the next spring and Dr. Seymour had practically recovered from his knee condition. The mission agreed with this re¬ quest, and in September I removed to Tsinanfu. My first months in Tsinanfu, from September until the Chinese New Year, were spent in studying the language. Dr. Neal who had charge of the medical work would call me occasionally to see cases. I had five months of uninterrupted language study with a good teacher and I got the greater part of my language there. Dr. Neal went on furlough and I was put in charge of the McElvain Memorial Hospital. I dressed in Chinese clothing and cap. I did not follow the custom of some, which was to pin a queue on the back of the head and cover it with the cap. I did not wear a queue.
“When dressed in Chinese clothes we were much less of a curiosity and generally could pass along the street without being much noticed. I was never stoned in Tsinan as some of my predecessors had been. I not only wore the Chinese clothes but also lived in Chinese buildings and often had Chinese food. Our Chinese buildings had board floors as a concession to our western habits and comfort. However, we had a Chinese room that was arranged exactly as a Chinese reception room, in which I could observe Chinese customs. The Chinese seat of honor is the one farthest from the door. There I could receive my Chinese guests and they felt per¬ fectly at home, much more so than they would in a foreign style house, and I was interested in ‘things Chinese.’
“The medical outfit, McElvain Hospital, was built in Chinese style with good bricks. Such buildings, though per- * haps less efficient from our point of view, in connection with medical work, in those days were doubtless . more effective in introducing modern medicine into China, because the patients felt much more at home than they would have felt in a typical western hospital building. There were a dis-
34
Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis , M.D.
pensary and operating room with a plain wooden table, a simple outlay of instruments and accommodations for about twenty-five patients. Beds were boards on trestles, such as the patients were used to sleeping on at home. My language was not sufficient at this stage to allow me to help carry on the Peripatetic Medical class; that was carried on by Dr. Neal and Dr. Johnson. This was a medical course of five or six years; part' of the time was spent in Tsinan under Dr. Neal and part of the time with Dr. Johnson at Ichowfu for other subjects. Although the number of teachers was limited to Dr. Neal and Dr. Johnson, the students received excel¬ lent personal instruction. Probably twenty students passed through this course. This work lasted about ten years in all until it was interrupted by the Boxer uprising. Later it was continued and those classes were really the origin of the medical department of Cheeloo University (Shantung Chris¬ tian University), this medical school is one of the best medi¬ cal schools in China and has a faculty of about thirty mem¬ bers — about fifteen Chinese, fifteen foreign — all men with first-class training. Operations during these years included a great many cataracts and other eye operations and opera¬ tions for osteomyelitis.
“British Consul Campbell was sent to Tsinan to settle the case of the murder of Mr. Brooks, an Anglican mis¬ sionary, by the Boxers. Being an old friend, Yuan Shih Kai did all he could to bring justice in that case. Mr. Campbell visited his camps near Tientsin where one day on the parade ground Yuan noticed one soldier who didn’t salute. He ordered this man to be shot. Campbell said, ‘Do you mean to say you are going to shoot a man for not saluting?’ He was advised not to interfere. Yuan Shih Kai said, T have just one way of punishing my men, that is to shoot them.’ There was no Chinese army that had the discipline of that army.”
First Years in China
35
One day Dr. Arthur H. Smith, who at that time lived in Pongchuang, was in Tsinanfu and wished to call on the Governor, Yuan Shih Kai, so Dr. Lewis took him and in¬ troduced him. Dr. Smith was famous for several things — one thing was his ability to speak very rapidly and this he did in Chinese as well as English. After he had talked a little to Yuan, the Governor interrupted him and turning to Dr. Lewis, asked, “Do you have many people in your hon¬ orable country like this man?” Dr. Lewis had to admit that they were scarce. Yuan Shih Kai marveled at the unusual intelligence of this visitor, and perhaps it was because of his having met such foreigners that he not only refused to kill them but gave them military protection.
“Soon after coming to Tsinan,” Lewis continues, “in the spring of 1898 the southern bank of the dyke of the Yellow River broke and flooded the whole district between the Yel¬ low River and the Hsiao Ching River. This district was about five miles in width and ten miles in length. Most of the people were living on the dykes of the river. We saw many hardships. People had died and been put in coffins and the coffins hung up in the trees ; there was no place to bury them. The flood came with such a rush that many were caught in their houses and drowned. Some climbed up on the tops of their houses for safety as the flood rose, but be¬ cause they were made of mud the houses melted. This of course was not an extensive flood, but was very acute where it existed. There were places in the larger villages where they had a kind of watch tower, built of brick and high. Some went there for safety. The scene presented was dis¬ mal, with the isolated trees, and the watch towers of the towns rising out of the water. A number of people who had taken refuge in the trees were later rescued by boats. We got grain (millet) and took it to the people. I did not my-
36 Lit Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
self do relief work as I was too busy in the hospital. I reported the flood to the Philadelphia Ledger.
“During the spring of 1900 we saw the beginning and growth of the Boxer movement. During that year I was appointed to take care of not only the Tsinanfu station, but also of the medical work at Tsiningchow, since we had no doctor there during that year. After operations had accumu¬ lated at Tsiningchow, I would go there on a bicycle to do the operations that were waiting for me, then return to Tsinan, thus taking care of both stations, which, of course, was much more than any one person should do. This was necessitated by the scarcity of doctors. One morning at Tsining I did seven cataract operations and four the next day, beside several other operations.
“On one occasion while in Tsining I was called by tele¬ gram to Ichowfu, where I went across the hills on my bicycle past Chufu the birthplace of Confucius. I could only carry one blanket with me on my wheel and ate the native food ; sleeping one night at a mountain inn. On the second day I was chased by a mob of people at a fair, a crowd largely made up of the Boxer element. I reached a stream which had only a single plank across it, but got there some little dis¬ tance ahead of the crowd and was able to carry my bicycle across the foot-plank and get away from the other side be¬ fore the crowd had crossed, thus avoiding what might have been a very unpleasant encounter with the Boxers. This errand was for a consultation with Dr. Johnson of our mis¬ sion, upon the case of Mrs. William Chalfant, who returned home to America and died of tuberculosis some time after that.
“On my return to Tsining I chose a different route and went through Yihsien. Before reaching this city, upon enter¬ ing a very stony village I saw a mob collected. Many of the
First Years in China
37
people had stones in their hands when I rode up. When I came into the village a small boy had his arm drawn, with a stone in his hand to throw it at me, and before making up my mind what I was going to do I was off my bicycle, had taken him by the crown of his head, and whirled him around. He had a crock of vinegar in his hand; this flew out of his hand, struck on some stones and broke in many pieces. Without asking any questions or saying a word, I jumped on my bicycle and started off, leaving the crowd in utter astonishment, with their mouths opened looking after this queer foreign devil who had done such an unheard of thing. This uncommon proceeding seemed entirely to non¬ plus the crowd. But my curiosity got the better of me. When about a hundred yards away from the crowd I turned to see what had become of them. Whereupon, they ran in full force after me, but with this start I was soon out of their reach, and never saw or heard anything more of them. I took good care to go far enough away from that village to stay overnight, so that they wouldn’t hear anything more of me.
After returning to Tsining I had another experience with Boxers. In going back to Tsinanfu a number of men in an open cart hailed me to stop ; as they were driving along in their cart I had passed them on the road. As Mr. Brooks had been killed in that district some months before I did not feel like too much intimacy with strangers and did not heed their call. So they whipped up their mules and made them go as fast as they could, and tried to run a race with me, but I soon ran away from them. I never knew, of course, whether their intention was good or bad, but did not think from the looks of them that it was good. That was in May, and in June all the missionaries of Shantung were compelled to leave their stations and go to Chefoo. As long as we stayed we had a fine military guard from Yuan Shih Kai and he
38 La Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
provided a good escort when we left for the coast.
“We went by house-boat from Tsinan to the mouth of the small river leading from Tsinan to the sea. There a steamer had been provided by the American Consul, and we were taken to Chef 00.”
As indicated in this statement Dr. Lewis’ location in Shantung brought him into the heart of the Boxer Move¬ ment which upheaved Northern China in 1899 and 1900. More or less mystery surrounds still the origin and char¬ acter of this organization, popularly called in the West, “The Boxer Society.” Some writers have identified it with the Triad Society but there is no evidence of this, and there is the contrary indication in the fact that the Triads were an organization in southern China rather than in the north. The Triads had not been as active as either of the other great societies, the Ko-lao Hui, which General Tseng Kwo- fan founded in the days of the Tai-ping Rebellion before the walls of Nanking, and the I Ho Ch'uan, the “Righteous Harmony Fists,” or “Boxers.” All these societies had been hostile to the Manchu dynasty, even the Boxers, who were later patronized by the Empress and used for her own pur¬ poses. The great anti-foreign movements were caused by the latter two, the Ko-lao Hui having fomented from Hunan the riots in the Yang-tse Valley in 1891, and the Boxers having brought on the fiercest anti-foreign movement in the history of China’s dealings with the west, in 1900.
The failure of the poppy crop in northern Kiang’su and the overflow of the Yellow River in Shantung in 1898, led to conditions which favoured the growth of the I Ho Ch’uan, especially in the western section of Shantung, where it ap¬ pears already to have acquired no little popularity. The great flood swept away thousands of villages with their crops, and left multitudes of people destitute. Many of these
First Years in China
39
swelled the number of the wandering brigands who lived on what they could secure. Others were forced to organize m their villages companies for self-defence against robber bands. The origin of the Boxers is quite obscure but “Vol¬ unteer Associated Fists,” another rendering of the name of the society, would just describe the character and purposes of such societies for the maintenance of some semblance of order. The chasm between the criminal class and the police force is not wide in some civilized lands. It was yet nar¬ rower in such a state of society as prevailed irr-west Shan¬ tung, where the people were in great poverty, and some stole simply because they seemed to have no other way to live. Any great purpose which appealed equally to both classes of people, which offered some employment and some escape from the existing social conditions, and which more¬ over allowed some vent for the existing feeling of dis¬ content at a situation whose causes were not analyzed, was sure to unify these people and to make of them a disturbing power.
Antagonism to the Manchu dynasty was not sufficient to accomplish this. In the Tai-ping Rebellion it was not hos¬ tility to the dynasty alone that accounted for the startling success of the movement. To this were added religious feel¬ ing and the influence of Western nations. In the case of the Tai-pings these produced friendly feelings towards the West, for the religious element was supplied by a distorted form of Christianity, and was aimed against Chinese superstition, while the Tai-pings showed no political resentment at the Opium War. They only lamented its effects in paving the way for a larger opium trade. They were influenced deeply by the fact that the war had shown only more clearly the impotence and corruptions of their rulers. Both religion and political interference in China had, accordingly, increased
40 Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
the Tai-pings’ hostility to the throne. In the case of the Boxer Movement, these two elements were also present, in addition to traditional antagonism to the dynasty, but in¬ stead of increasing the latter, they for the time being over¬ came it, and the Boxer Society (as indeed also the Ko-lao Hui, in which however the religious element was Confucian rather than Buddhist, and therefore more passive), which had as its main object the expulsion of the Mandarins, became the ardent supporter of the reigning dynasty ; and took as its motto the words “Protect the Ch’ing dynasty; exterminate the foreigners.”
The movement first began to attract the attention of the West in the winter of 1899. It had begun in Shantung province in some attacks on Roman Catholics, which soon extended to embrace Protestant Christians also, and on De¬ cember 31st, issued in the murder of the Rev. Sydney Brooks. Frequent warnings of what was coming were sent to Peking by missionaries and others, but little attention was paid to them, and the disturbance extended to Chihli province, the first outbreak occurring in an attack upon a Roman Catholic station on the same day on which Mr. Brooks was killed. Meeting with no opposition, the Boxers swept north, fell on the Roman Catholic villages near Paotingfu, shut up in the city the missionaries located there, poured up the Lu Han railway, destroying it as they went as a foreign abomination, and killed some of the Belgian engineers at work on it, the rest barely escaping with their lives through an aroused and excited country, to Tientsin. The Boxers rushed on north to Peking and invested the city, having burned and looted every station on the railway as they came. The movement swept east to Tientsin, and surrounded that port, while in Peking, admitted to the city, and practically capturing the reins of Government, the
First Years in China
41
Boxers surrounded the foreigners, destroyed their chapels and outstanding buildings, and finally drove them all to¬ gether into the British Legation, and laid siege to them there, violating the sanctity of the persons of the representatives of the Western powers, threatening their utter destruction, and affronting the civilized world. The tide of hostile feeling which had thus in six months driven almost every foreigner out of the interior of the two provinces of Shantung and Chihli, laid siege to all who had taken refuge and were de¬ fending themselves in Peking and Tientsin, and destroyed hundreds of Christian chapels and massacred thousands of native Christians, swept over the whole Empire, and but for the position taken by the governor of Shantung and the gov¬ ernors of the provinces south of the Yangtse, might have fulfilled the desire of the Boxers and driven every foreigner out of the Empire. The attitude of these governors, how¬ ever, confined the disturbance to the provinces of Shantung and Chihli, Honan and Shansi, and as the only foreigners in the latter were missionaries, they were soon killed or expelled, and the struggle was confined to Chihli. Tientsin was relieved on July 13th and 14th, 1900, and after a summer of suffering, not the least part of which was separation from communication with the outside world, the besieged company in Peking was rescued on August 14th, the Boxers fled, and the Chinese court, conscious of its guilt, fled with them, and took up its headquarters at Singanfu, to await the issue of the tedious negotiations for a basis of settlement, rendered the more tedious by the complication of the situa¬ tion on both sides, on the side of the foreign nations by their diversity of interests and their mutual suspicions, and on China’s side by the doubt as to her responsibility for what had taken place, and as to her ability to carry out any requirements imposed upon her.
42 Ew Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
Dr. Lewis' relation to the movement began, as we have seen, while he was in Tsinanfu. When he left this station and came to Chefoo he did not purpose to be idle, and offered his services at once to the American authorities to serve as a medical officer, in either the navy or the army. He writes :
“Before leaving Tsinanfu, I had offered my services as a surgeon to Yuan Shih Kai to help to look after his soldiers, but he informed me that he might be ordered by the Empress Dowager to take his army to Tientsin to fight the foreign¬ ers, in which case, if they found a foreign doctor with him, the doctor might lose his head and also Yuan Shih Kai. So he advised that I go to Chefoo, which I did.
“The Admiral asked me to take a position on the York- town, an American gunboat. This was an entirely new ex¬ perience to me, and a rather amusing incident occured on the gunboat in the Chefoo harbor. The American Consul had given a warning that there was to be an attack made by the Boxers upon Chefoo one night, and a landing party was ordered to be made ready. Having just joined the service I had no suitable clothes for a landing party, having noth¬ ing but white duck — which was too good a mark for the Boxers. So one of the Ensigns loaned me some dark clothes. I told him this was a new experience to me and that he would have to help me get fitted up to go along and look after the wounded. So the lieutenant-commander fitted me out with an emergency outfit slung over one shoulder and a large Colt revolver with ammunition over the other shoulder for defense if necessary. He remarked that I could shoot them down with one hand and patch them up with the other. But the final call to land never came — so all this prepara¬ tion was of no avail. I was on this gunboat for a month gs its medical officer, when the relief surgeon came.
“After this I went to Tientsin to the American Army
First Years in China
43
Hospital, where I met with a classmate, Lieut. Schreiner. He and I had also been internes together in the Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia. He asked me to join their staff of doctors, and he made application to take me on as a contract surgeon in the army. For this I took the examina¬ tion and was given the contract for a month, with the under¬ standing that I could be released at any time in order to go back to my mission work. Later on, when the time came that I could go back, I asked to be released and was in¬ formed by the new commanding medical officer that no one could resign from the American army on foreign soil. So I was at the mercy of the Army to remain as long as they wanted to keep me.
“In November of 1900, the Tientsin Hospital was moved to Peking, to Camp Reilly in the grounds of the Temple of Agriculture. There I was given charge of the surgical work of the general hospital. The troops included in all about two thousand men. I was in Camp Reilly from November, 1900, to November, 1901. Camp Reilly ran about fifty sur¬ gical beds. I remember having forty pneumonia cases during the winter when every dust-storm would blow in a few cases. This was in addition to surgical work. In the spring of 1901 the troops were returned to Manila and I was left as medical officer for the Legation Guard, with the rank of First Lieutenant. The first of November, 1901, I was given leave to go to Japan to meet my sister Carrie, who was com¬ ing to Peking as trained nurse for the Customs, Hongkong- Shanghai Bank and in the American Legation. I was away about a month and upon my return had paratyphoid fever from which I made a good recovery, being nursed by my sister.
“There was not much doing with about 130 healthy men and I was more helpful as a guide in Peking.
44 Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis , M.D.
I think one reason they kept me on was to act as an interpreter. I had the privilege of taking Mrs. Taft about Peking and through the imperial grounds. Mr. Taft was then the governor-general of the Philippines. Fifteen or twenty of the soldiers were detailed to guard the Forbidden City. In these days immediately after the siege the city was in con¬ trol of various foreign troops, each nationality having juris¬ diction of a certain section.
“The duties of the American detachment were to guard the Imperial Palace until it was taken over by proper Chi¬ nese authorities. Prince Ching in making a speech gave high praise to the Americans for their careful guarding of the Palace. I know, personally, that the soldiers did all that could be done to prevent any removal of objects. Leading a num¬ ber of these groups through, I frequently took my camera along on bright days and in this way was able to get a rare collection of photographs of the Imperial City.
“I rented a small building outside of Chien Men — this was out of personal funds. I ran a dispensary there the spring and summer of 1901 but in the autumn it was turned over to the Methodist Mission. I sometimes had thirty or forty patients a day. There were some in-patients and I did a little operating. One man needed an amputation of the leg. I took him out to Camp Reilly and amputated his leg. He made a very unusual remark as he came out of the an¬ aesthetic, saying, 'Isn’t this Heaven?’ Later this man, Li Chung Sheng, became one of our most devoted helpers in Shuntefu.
“In the spring of 1902, I had leave of absence from the army to go to Shanghai to meet Miss Cora Savige who was to become my wife, and we were married in Chefoo at Dr. Elterich’s home. We then returned to the Legation Guard where we lived until May, when an order came for my trans-
First Years in China
45
fer to Manila. This trip we took as our honeymoon. Upon returning to Peking from Manila, where I had resigned from the Army, in early June, we removed to Paotingfu and began what has proved to be my real life work.”
Chapter IV
BEGINNING WORK AT PAOTINGFU
PAOTINGFU is one of the most important cities in Chihli province, or Hopei as it is now called. It is situ¬ ated on the main line of the railway from Peking (now Peiping) to Hankow, about ninety miles southwest of Pek¬ ing. It was occupied as a mission station by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1873 and the Congregational missionaries had established their com¬ pound in the south of the city. The Presbyterian mission¬ aries began their work at the northern end of the city in 1892. Both compounds with all their buildings and also all the missionaries, both Congregational and Presbyterian, were destroyed in June, 1900 by the Boxers.
Dr. Lewis’ account of the beginning of his work in Pao- tingfu is as follows :
“I arrived in Paotingfu, June 26, 1902. The Presbyterian Mission work in Paotingfu had been opened in 1892 and the medical work had been carried on by Dr. Atterbury and Dr. George Yardley Taylor. The beginning of the work there was north of the north suburb, about a mile north of the city, as no property could be purchased nearer at that time. The place in 1900 had been destroyed and the people who were present in June, 1900 had all been killed, including Dr. Taylor and Dr. Hodge who had charge of the medical work. I had been assigned to Paotingfu to take his place.
“Every trace of the hospital was gone, not even a half brick was left on the place. Even the bricks walling up the well had been taken out.
46
Beginning Work at Paotingfu 47
A plot of land had been given to Dr. Lowrie of our mission after 1900 by the gentry of the city who loved and trusted him, and it was on this piece of ground that the
present mission station is located, in the west suburb of the city.
“Ihe classmates of Dr. Taylor at Princeton, of the class of 1882, gave money for a hospital in his memory. This $7,000.00 of American money given by his class built the first building of the Taylor Memorial Hospital. Although I had no knowledge of architecture or of drawing, I had to draw the plans and construct the building. I had some as¬ sistance from one of the railroad engineers, who was also an architect and who drew the elevations.
Until this could be built, I opened a small dispensary in the autumn of 1902 in the city, where we had a small chapel. There were also a few mud buildings that we used for wards and patients, and in this dispensary we carried on a daily clinic and operated on urgent cases that could not be delayed. This work in the city was carried on entirely by myself, as I had no assistants at that time. However, I trained a young man as an anaesthetist and carried on the work in this place until the autumn of 1903. The work grew very lapidly and in these small quarters within a year we would have probably as many as a hundred cases a day in the clinic. Dr. Taylor, in his six or seven years of service, had done a very good, conservative work, and had gained the confidence of the people, so that a great many patients came desiring to be operated on, a condition that one would not find in an entirely new field, but which was caused here by the confidence inspired by Dr. Taylor’s work.
In the spring of 1903, work was begun on the new hos¬ pital building. This was in the present mission compound. The hospital was completed and opened in October, 1903. I
48 Lit Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
secured an assistant from Tsinanfu, Dr. Kao, who had been with me there before Boxer uprising.”
In the beginning of medical work in China, separate hos¬ pitals for men and for women and children were built to meet Chinese ideas of propriety. Separate hospitals are now no longer necessary, but were advisable at the outset. Taylor Memorial Hospital was for men.
“The Hodge Memorial Hospital for women and children had been built during the summer of 1902 and work had been opened in it. I had also assisted in the operating work in that hospital, at the same time carrying on the clinic in the city, where considerable operating was done at that time. Although we had a very little space in which to keep our in-patients, very soon after the hospital opened in the west suburb, patients began to come in greater numbers and with¬ in a few years the clinic had growm to rather large propor¬ tions and there was a great demand for more space for in¬ patients. Because of this I made an appeal to a friend in America. Mr. E. B. Sturges, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, who gave the hospital $2,000.00, with which a large out¬ ward, an isolation ward, a kitchen and a bath-house were built. At this time because of having no bedding or clothes for patients, and no one to nurse the patients except a few Chinese boys whom we were training, the friends of the patients would nurse them. They supplied their own food, although we furnished the kitchen and a cook to assist them.
“During these years the expenses for running the hos¬ pital were raised by volunteer gifts from the Chinese officials and grateful patients and Chinese friends of the hospital. Another source of income was found. I acted as the medical officer for a Chinese College in which there were half a dozen foreign teachers. At this school, known as the Pro¬ vincial High School, I held a clinic every morning. This
Beginning W ork at Paotingfu
49
brought an income of 65 taels of silver a month, so that during all these years the medical work was carried oil without any expense to the Mission Board. Not only was the work self-supporting, but also every year a deficiency in the evangelistic work of the station was met by funds from the hospital used for paying rents for country chapels.
“During this time also the hospital kept a student in the Peking Union Medical College, educating him for the stafif of the hospital. The first one was Dr. Wang Chiu Te, a member of the first class of Peking Union Medical College. This man has always had the interest of the hospital at heart. He has been most faithful in its development, and always zealous for its good name, and a professor of the college said of him that he in himself justified the existence of the medi¬ cal college. After his graduation a second student was en¬ tered by the hospital, Dr. Chao Hsueh I. His support came from a Bible class of the First Church of Baltimore, taught by my good friend, Elisha H. Perkins, whose interest was enlisted in this phase of the hospital work by a talk I made while at home on furlough in 1908. My own support was then furnished by that church. An interested group of men in the First Church, headed by Dr. Hiram Woods, who ever since has kept me in touch with the ophthalmic profession in America, supplied a much needed steam sterilizer which met the hospital needs for many years.
“During the years from 1903 to 1911 the hospital had but one qualified doctor beside myself. After Dr. Chao’s graduation in 1911, we had two Chinese doctors and we also had one foreign nurse. During these years Mrs. Lewis trained a number of Chinese nurses, beginning about 1908, and these young men who were trained by her furnished the nursing for the hospital up until 1918. During this time there was an average of eight or nine hundred operations every
5° Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis , M.D.
year in the hospital, whose reputation grew ever wider and wider.
I made several trips to the county seats during religious fairs that were held from time to time, and a considerable amount of itinerating work of this kind was carried on in order to make the people aware that there was a hospital in Paotingfu. Thus the circle of those who knew the hospital continued to grow. In the autumn of 1913, Dr. Atterbury, who was administering a fund for Miss Katherine Stokes, gave $8,000.00 to the Taylor Memorial Hospital for a new annex. This building was begun in 1914 and completed in 1916.
“When the foreign troops occupied Paotingfu after the Boxer uprising. Dr. Lowrie had accompanied the British troops as interpreter and guide to the expedition from Tientsien. He was furnished supplies and went to Paotingfu with the British troops. After he arrived in Paotingfu he became attached to the German staff which here had taken the supremacy. They had come down from Peking and were first on the ground. General Von Ketler, the leader, was much attracted to Dr. Lowrie and they became very fond of each other. The Germans had plans to destroy the city, or at least to level the city wall because of the massacre of the foreigners and they started out with that idea. Dr. Lowrie s influence over the German general modified his ideas so much that he satisfied himself and his desire for revenge by knock¬ ing down one corner of the city wall where some of the foreigners had been massacred. Dr. Lowrie remained with the General as interpreter through the winter months. In every case of injustice he assisted in getting out all the rec¬ ords. He gathered also evidence against the treasurer, the leading official of the Province in Paotingfu. The leading military man had not done his duty and he and the man who had charge of the men here, and the ones who should have
Beginning Work at P noting fu 51
prevented massacre, were taken out and either beheaded or shot at the corner of the city. The rest were saved. Dr. Lowrie was the just judge. Prisons were cleaned out of pris¬ oners illegally imprisoned. One old woman had been incar¬ cerated without ever being brought to trial at all. She had been in prison twenty-five years. Nothing was found against her and she was released. Time after time, Chinese have come to me and told me of injustices done to them and how he had interceded and they got justice. They would have liked to have Dr. Lowrie as their everlasting Judge. The people appreciated his kindness and justice and he was and is considered by them the ‘Saviour of Paotingfu.’ It was commonly known that he was the man who saved the city from the Germans. In gratitude they presented this land for our compound, about twenty-five acres, to Dr. Lowrie as a personal gift. They wanted Dr. Lowrie to select the place, in or out of the city as he wished. He looked at several places and got a committee to come from Peking, and they decided which place would be the most convenient. The site chosen is ideal, between the west gate of the city and our own country field where the people cross the compound. The railroad is nearby.
“The popularity of Dr. Lowrie has been a great help to our work ; medically, too, my name being the same as his in sound but not in meaning — Lu. Patients called me, thinking I was Dr. Lowrie, Lu Mushih, and I got the advantage of the name. They argued that I would not do anything to the patient, being such a good man.
“My predecessor, Dr. Taylor, was a Quaker, extremely conservative. He would not operate unless he was quite sure the patient would recover. In that day, before the Boxer outbreak, there was not a more conservative place than Paotingfu. The people were exceptionally suspicious about
52 Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis , M.D.
the removal of eyes, tongues, hearts. Dr. Taylor, knowing this, was extremely careful in little things and did everything as openly as he could. I could not have had a man precede me who would have made the way easier for me.
“At first there were only a few poor mud buildings with tile roof for medical work. And there was a building that was used for a chapel. When the meetings were closed we put beds in there where I could keep ten patients. We had quite a number of very severe cases. The operating room was in the dispensary, which was a two chien room. The patients waited in the chapel. After the church was put up in 1902, we used the chapel for a ward. In the dispensary we had the bottles displayed on shelves around the room. There were two things, a cupboard and an operating table, that had been secured from some source, of the things that had been Dr. Taylor’s. The operating table was a plain board on four legs. It was very strong, hollowed out a little, and lacquered with Ningpo varnish. I was busy in this building doing operations such as amputations and removing tumors. One day, Dr. Kao was in the dispensary. He had performed an operation on what he thought was a wen on a man’s head. It proved to be an angioma, a vascular tumor. When I reached the dispensary, the man had almost bled to death. The doctor had made a cut and couldn’t stop the bleeding. As quickly as I could I got a rubber tubing and wrapped it around the man’s head. This stopped the bleeding and the patient recovered. A man next door had a very large fibroma in his jaw. He was very anxious to have this attended to at once. I made a friend of the people who were in his shop, by that operation.
“I usually went out with an evangelist to the religious fairs where there were always many things for sale. There was such a crowd that we would have to keep them back. I
Beginning Work at P noting fu
53
took two boxes with compartments for my medicine, which included all that was needed in a daily clinic. We would find a table and a couple of trestles and also a place for the patients to sit. We put all the drugs on the table, then the crowd would gather around leaving us no place to work. However, we avoided that by driving stakes and roping the area ofif. We had an opening for a door and no one could see the doctor unless he went through the door ; they were not allowed to jump the rope. One old man preached that the one who came in anywhere but the door was a thief and a robber. Here we did the pulling of teeth, treating of scabies, trachoma, the sewing up of hair-lips, etc., and I always kept the crowd in a good humor. It makes a friendly impression to joke with the people. I have seen as many as 250 patients in a day. Of course most of these had common complaints that could be simply treated. 1 would take the point of a knife, use a grain of calomel and a grain of sanotin, put this on a little boy’s tongue, then send him to his nearby home for water. Dr. Chang, for several years at Paotingfu and at present a member of Douw Hos¬ pital stafif in Peking, told me that the first time he saw me was at one of these fairs. He was one of several youngsters who had pushed their way into the roped area and I had touched their noses with iodine to make them retire. I took a wen cyst ofif the top of a man’s head. As it was necessary to hold the edges together, I took a few silk sutures. He came back the next year with the same silk sutures in, with no signs of infection.
“We always told where we were from. The main thing was not the small amount of good done at the fair, but to get them to come to the hospital in case they needed to do so. We often went as far as two hundred li, partly by train and then by foot and would be away for a week or ten days at
54 Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis , M.D.
a time. People came from all directions. There was a wide range of territory. We never charged at these fairs for treat¬ ments, not even charge for sanotin in those early days.”
In a letter dated April 28, 1903, he tells of the early work in Paotingfu and also of his country medical work:
“The springtime here is a busy time with us in our Hospitals. Last month I had forty-five operations and have done thirty already this month, and have from fifty to seventy out-patients each P. M. There is no time when I feel as well as when I have lots of operating. A great part of the operating this spring has been heavy surgery — bone surgery and tumors — this is the kind of work that uses up nerve force, but when successful makes happy men. There ?*re those too who leave the hospital leaving the burdens of their hearts behind them. This is the part of the work which makes it a delight and for which we are here of course. I went with Mr. Miller to a fair up in the country this month which was very interesting indeed. I saw 150 patients in an afternoon. Such trips advertise the work very widely as there were probably 50,000 people there. I have never seen people so convulsed with the simple pulling of a tooth. The whole crowd went wild with delight and admiration when the offending member left its moorings, and appeared before the amazed gaze of its delighted owner. I have seen some of those since, who were at the fair, and they at once told me, ‘Oh, yes, I saw you pull teeth at the fair.’ I have found there is no instrument I can carry so conveniently, which will make such an impression on a Chinese crowd as a pair of universal tooth forceps.
“The spiritual interest in the hospital has been very good during this spring. There have been some marked conversions. One was of a man who came in almost dead with a large carbuncle, which covered half of his side, and I feared there was no hope for his life being saved. I talked to him of the change he must pass through soon, and of his only hope. I operated, cutting away the entire carbuncle, and though his life seemed in the balance for several days, it turned in favor of life, and the man was not only happy for physical life, but he had received ‘the more abundant life,’ and said that from the time I told him that his only hope was in Christ, he had trusted Him for salvation, and the Lord had thrown a rope about him keeping out the Fox that had haunted him for over two years, and brought this malady upon him. He now says that the ‘Fox’ was the Devil.”
Chapter V
THE HOSPITAL STAFF, PLANT AND WORK
TA R. THEODORE GREENE summarizes the three stages of Dr. Lewis’ medical work:
“Like Gaul, it is possible to classify Dr. Lewis’ surgical career into three parts.
1. While at Tsinan and at Paotingfu until the new hospital was built, Dr. Lewis’ work was done in very simple Chinese buildings. Antiseptic surgery was practised for diseases of the external part of the body. Operations were performed on abscesses, osteomyelitis, tumors, fistulae, diseases of the eye and of the extremities. With a few exceptions Dr. Lewis confined his surgical work to the type of operations that were performed in the days before Lister, for two reasons. He did not wish to open the serous cavities of patients under conditions which would endanger the patient. In those days it was not advisable to perform operations which might fairly soon be followed by death. Such a death, in spite of the most careful technique, would have been laid at the doctor’s door, and would have jeopardized the entire medical work.
“A In the new building at Paotingfu better facilities made it possible to practice aseptic surgery and to open the abdomen with comparative safety. Also, increasing confidence of the community made it possible to take more risks. The operating work grew to great proportions and was skilfully done as judged by the most critical standards, but the nursing was not all that one might wish. What perhaps might better be termed a ‘hostel’ was in operation. Food, bedding, and much of the nursing service was contributed by the amilies of the patients. Records and laboratory work were not what the staff wished them to be.
3. The third period began when China Medical Board grants for ward equipment and increased staff helped to bring the wards, nursing, records and laboratory to modern standards. Thanks to the perseverance of Dr. Lewis, who through all these years never lost sight of his goal, work which began in a simple dispensary of a few
55
56 Ln Taifu — Charles Lewis , M.D.
rooms grew to its present state, and is carried on in a large hospital with the facilities of a modern operating room, wards, laboratory, X-ray and other equipment.”
Dr. Lewis’ own reminiscences cover the development of the hospital staff, and its work and policy. They describe the work as it was in 1930:
“The hospital staff consists of the following: I have the position of Superintendent and have worked on the surgical service since 1902. Dr. Wylie is the chief of the medical service. He has been here since 1916 and is especially inter¬ ested in tuberculosis. Dr. Wang Chiu Te, a graduate of P. U. M. C., has charge of the eye department, and of medicine during Dr. Wylie’s absence. He has been here for nineteen years. Dr. Chao is a graduate of the P. U. M. C. He is on the surgicel service and has been with us twelve years. These two men have been the mainstays of the hos¬ pital. They have both declined positions elsewhere, at a much higher salary, in order to remain in mission work and they consider themselves a part of the institution. Dr. Yin has been with us four years and is now carrying the brunt of the medical service. He has an interne under him, Dr. Ma. Dr. Yin and Dr. Ma were trained at Hopei Medical School. Dr. Sun of the medical service has been with us over a year ; he was trained in a government medical college in Shanghai. Another interne, Dr. Hao, a graduate of Hopei, has been with us six months. Dr. Tu, who used to be in charge of the laboratory, died, and a technician trained by her is now taking further training at the Peking Union Medical College. Our laboratory staff is financed by a fund given by the Sinclair family in America. A sum of money is sent out regularly for the salaries of the technicians.
“I wish to say something more about our fine Chinese associates: Dr. Wang had a very good mother and was
Dr. Lewis Operating
School of Nursing
Laylor-Hodge Memorial Hospital, Paotingfu, China
57
The Hospital Staff, Plant and Work
graduated from Truth Hall, our Boys’ School in Peking, before 1900 and was teaching Chinese to Dr. Hodge. He escaped from the compound and went to the hills during the Boxer time. The Boxers soon found out about his being connected with foreigners, but he made his escape by hiding in the fields. At one time, the Boxers were almost within reach of his hand but they never found him in the koliang (tall grain). They called back and forth but he avoided * them completely. When he got back to his home, it was only to find that his people were all gone. His mother had been killed, the others had fled. He determined to study medicine as a result of his admiration of Dr. Taylor’s work.
“These men, Dr. Wang and Dr. Hsueh, who offered him¬ self for home mission work and is now in Yunnan, were the first class prepared at the Peking University but they were not up in physics. I tutored them in physics, Steele’s Natural Philosophy. The book was in Chinese. This tutoring was done at Peitaiho.
“Dr. Chao was brought up in a little country school. He was employed as an assistant, and learned tablet making, how to prepare the granulations and run the tablet machine. In less than a year, he could make tablets as well as I. He was not satisfied; he wanted to be a real doctor. So he went to Trut)i Hall. Then when I was home in the spring of 1907-1908, I made a talk in the First Church in Balti¬ more and I told them about conditions in China. Mr. Elisha Perkins, the leader of the Bible class, inquired if they would like to do something in connection with my work. All wanted to, and asked me for some object. I told them of my medi¬ cal student and said that if they wanted to do a definite thing they might educate him. They took his name and be¬ came deeply interested and I sent them his photograph. They provided $75.00, enough in that day for school expenses.
5^ Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
An important thing to impress upon any young man starting work in China is to get hold of a good reliable man who is worth training and train him as his successor — with the knowledge that he himself is not going to last for¬ ever. Three things have been kept prominent in my mind during my work. (1) Develop a staff for the institution. (2) Keep up the constituency of the hospital, do itinerating work, tell the people about the institution. (3) Provide the budget for the carrying on of the institution and the staff. The spirit of the institution is its life. If the spirit is lost, the ideal and aim, you cannot carry out these things. Keep up the spirit by prayers every morning. This keeps every¬ body in the frame of mind for good work. Have a daily preparation for their work.”
The third man of the staff was Dr. Yao, another gradu¬ ate of Truth Hall, who taught in our Paotingfu Boys’ School and read Shakespeare with Mr. Whallon. Dr. Yao was later in the Department of Health of the Mass Edu¬ cation Movement. He then went abroad on fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation and studied at Johns Hopkins in 1931-32. On his return to China he joined the National Health Administration of the Government of China in Nan¬ king and writes from there, on February 24, 1933, of Dr. Lewis :
“ 1 he late Dr. Charles Lewis so cruelly taken away from our midst, is certainly deeply mourned by all his friends as well as by all those who have known him in his practice.
‘Dr. Lewis came to China many years ago and during all his lifetime was an ardent and indefatigable worker. He was superintendent and surgeon in the Taylor Memorial Hospital for about thirty years and also was the surgeon for the Paotingfu railroad. Besides his practice of medicine, he rendered most valuable services in various social works.
59
The Hospital Staff, Plant and Work
He gained the confidence of the Chinese and people came from far distances to ask for his assistance.
“He obtained funds for several medical students, among whom I was one, to enable us to follow our medical studies.
“He taught and trained up nurses, preached to his patients, led Bible classes and contributed generous gifts for Christian and medical works. He not only gave material relief to his fellow-men, but also high moral support.
“I stayed with him for a week just before his death, but all that I could possibly do to lighten his last days, could not in the least repay him for what he had done for me. When nearing his death his last words were: ‘Don’t let the Taylor Memorial Hospital run down.’ Alas! Our friend is no more among us but his spirit will remain with us and his name will live on in our memory.’’
Dr. Lewis’ account continues :
“The nursing is at present under the direction of Miss Marie Rustin. She has four Chinese graduate nurses, and twenty-five student nurses, all men. We have one unusually able evangelist who spends all his time in the hospital among the patients. There is another man who spends twenty days each month in the country, and ten days in the hospital. He travels by bicycle to the country and does follow-up work, visiting the former patients until he can connect them with our country evangelists in some little chapel of the district where the patient lives. In the other fields from which our patients come, the American Board Mission field and China Inland Mission field, a list is sent to the district where the patients come from.
“There are two pharmacists — one registered with our American Consulate in Tientsin, to fulfill our United States Government consular laws. He was locally trained.
“There are four or five laundry-men, three or four cooks,
6o
Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
two engineers, six floor coolies, two dressers, and there is one furnace stoker, a night orderly, and an outside ashman who also hauls river water for the rain water cisterns when they run low. Mr. Tai Ai Chen, commonly known as Diog¬ enes, keeps the hospital accounts — he is our business man¬ ager. He has an assistant. There is a hospital gate-keeper and assistant, and a general buyer who looks after the ad¬ mission tickets.
“The Senior Chinese doctors on the staff are provided with some insurance, one year of leave for study after ten years of service and a house, besides their salary.
“The plant consists of the two main buildings, which are joined together as one — the first one being the first building given by Dr. Taylor’s class of 1882, Princeton. The other is the Stokes Annex which has a basement and three stories, eighty feet long and forty feet wide. There are half a dozen supplementary buildings and there is also residence for guinea pigs and rabbits, used in the laboratory. Most of these outer buildings and the gate house were built with money con¬ tributed by Mr. E. B. Sturges of Scranton, Pennsylvania, who visited us in 1902,
“Hopei Medical School: There have been contacts with the provincial medical college. When Dr. Wang took his eye course at the P. U. M. C. we secured the services of Dr. Shan Kwang, dean of the provincial school, to head the medical department. Then when their surgeon failed to materialize at the beginning of the term, last autumn, I was asked to take the clinic and teach clinical surgery to the class until the surgeon came. This I did about six weeks. From that time the senior medical students have availed themselves of the use of our operating room for observing operations. We telephoned every day a list of operations for the morning and as many as could came over. Plowever, I
The Hospital Staff, Plant and. Work 61
limited the number to seven at a time because it was all the room we had for observation. This medical school had few facilities for hospital patients.
“Mrs. Lewis’ work: Mrs. Lewis is a trained nurse, having had her training at Scranton in the Lackawanna Hospital. About 1908, she started the nurses’ training schools in the women’s and men’s hospitals. She had to do a great deal of translating, because then there were very few hooks on nursing translated. She started with a book on the Ethics of Nursing. She often had to use English and then translate for the pupils. She did very little beside training because at that time our patients furnished their own clothes and bed¬ ding. The nurses were operating nurses. They did the work in the operating room, acting as anaesthetists, making dress¬ ings, doing ward care, and also helping with the dressings. These essential parts in the work of the hospital were the results of Mrs. Lewis’ training. Without this help, the hospital could not have progressed as it did. She also trans¬ lated a cook book which has been used all over China. It has been through two editions of a thousand each. It is known as the Carbondale Cook Book, and (as I put it in medical terminology) each contributor of the Carbondale church brought her best ‘prescription’ for food which had been prepared for her family to compose the cook book.
“Miss Rustin was transferred from the Douw Hospital to Paotingfu in 1918 and from 1923 Mrs. Lewis was free for evangelistic work. While training the nurses she also had much work in calling on the women in the better homes for many years. She still has about one hundred women on this calling list. For nine months she has ten days of teach¬ ing a Bible class, then twenty days of calling, alternating throughout the year. The classes are held in the city church compound. This church has about 120 members. 1 he women
62 Lu Taifu — Charles Lends, M.D.
of our churches meet once a month to sew garments and prepare dressings for the hospital. They take a great in¬ terest in the work. It is fine for the hospitals and at the same time develops the women’s work. Mrs. Lewis has helped to establish the old ladies’ home. For the last seven years her main work has been developing a self-supporting church in the city.
“I have had an idea all along of developing branch dis¬ pensaries in the country. Our hope is that we will have a doctor situated at each county seat where we are responsible for the evangelistic work. This has been very effectively started in the interior. In Hsinan, a wealthy gentleman who was very charitable, and in gratitude for Dr. Til’s services to his daughter, as a matter of charity, gave a fine set of well-built Chinese buildings. It contains a waiting room for the patients, one room for doing dressings, examining rooiu, office, operating room, a small laboratory, and a small phar¬ macy. Everything is very neat. Eye operations, hare-lips, and minor operations are done there, and everything severe is sent to the Paotingfu Hospital. The dispensary is as nice a one as I have ever seen. It has been entirely self-supporting. Mr. Tung gave the buildings for this use and also gives $70.00 a month for running expenses. The gentry of the city raise another $30.00. There is this income outside of any other receipts for work done. At the present time, the account has a balance of over $300.00. Doctor’s salary and the nurse’s salary and costs of drugs come out of the monthly income — so this is one of the things that has been of no expense to Taylor Memorial Hospital. Sometimes when the doctor takes his vacation, Taylor Memorial furnishes a doctor, but with this exception it has made no financial contributions to this work.
“One of the requirements for beginning such a dispensary
The Hospital Staff , Plant and Work 63
is that the city in which it is opened must bear all the ex¬ penses connected with it. It must be self-supporting from the beginning to the end. Another county seat raised about two-thirds of the fund necessary and wishes us to give the other third, but so far we have held to our original idea. We furnish them a doctor, whom they finance. This one at Hsinan has been going for about eight years. We sent a doctor two weeks each month for the first three years and then it more than paid expenses. One man gave $50.00 monthly and .this more than paid the full salary of the doc¬ tor sent. This place is about ninety li from Paotingfu and is very easily reached by house-boat. It is a walled city of 20,000 or 30,000 people. It is the greatest fishing market in Chihli. Fish obtained in this region from the river and lakes are sent all over Chihli — largely to Peking. Cormorant fishing is also done here. Sometimes a cormorant catches fish twice its own size, and another cormorant will come to the rescue and help the first to land the fish.
“In this dispensary from thirty to fifty patients are seen daily. Nine thousand visits were made last year, and many home calls were made. A number of severe cases were sent to the Paotingfu Hospital. We call the former the branch and the latter, the central hospital. Our hope is to put such a dispensary in each of the county seats all over the eleven counties in which we do evangelistic work. Our policy all along has been to make our work self-supporting.
“Policies: We have tried many times to make Dr. Wang superintendent. Since nationalism has come into China so largelv, we do not want to seem to be a foreign institution. However, Dr. Wang, having been a student of mine and an observer of old Chinese style, absolutely refuses to be superintendent, and probably will refuse as long as I am here, but when I am gone, I believe he will be superinten-
64 Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
dent. In preparing our staff we have held that we are not here permanently, and after we go the work will be kept up by Chinese. While it may not be the time yet for for¬ eigners to go entirely, my own desire is to open new stations and start new work, rather than to stay in the hospital. I think that a very good work for our hospital in the future would be to train a number of these internes whose training has been deficient, in laboratory and practical work. With a good intensive training and a good deal of time put upon their training by the present hospital staff, we feel that we can do a very useful piece of work for the country. It means to many of them, the difference between being a really use¬ ful doctor and being of practically no value to their fellow countrymen. This training has been given more or less in groups and in personal instruction in the ward and operating room, both in practical work in medicine and in helping them with various pre-clinical subjects. For example, I have promised to give them a thorough examination in osteomyelitis. I constantly give them practical demonstra¬ tions of these subjects. It is real clinical training. Dr. Francis Peabody, the late lamented professor of medicine of Har¬ vard, who once visited Paotingfu, told a young doctor that he considered his obligation to his internes as his most im¬ portant duty in his medical educational work.
“In the summer of 1919 the governor of Hei Lung Chang asked me to go to his provincial capital, Tsi Tsi Har, to treat his eye. This would necessitate my being away from the hospital about a month, which I informed him I could not do — so he came to Tientsin, not being able for political reasons to go to Paotingfu, where he had formerly been in military service. He asked me to go to Tientsin, which I did. He needed an operation for pterigium, a growth which came out and almost covered the pupil, affecting one eye. I asked
The Hospital Staff , Plant and Work 65
him to go to Paotingfu to be operated on there, which he said he couldn’t do, but asked if I could go to Tang Shan Springs, seventy li north of Peking. This I consented to do as it would only necessitate my absence from the hospital a lit¬ tle over a week. I operated on him. A young relative, Chang Hsueh Liang, later the noted Marshal, came to speak English with me in case I became tired while waiting to take out the stitches. When I left, Governor Pas Hai Cheng presented the hospital with $1,200.00 Mex. and gave a testimonial tablet as a memorial to my service; ‘His heavenly skill has opened my eyes.’
“In the early ’20’s I operated for mastoiditis on the eldest son of Feng Yu Hsiang. I operated also on many generals and other officials.
“In 1914, we began the building of the Stokes annex. We exercised rigid economy in this. We watched carefully the materials used and the work that was done. I had taken a course in college on truss building, and a course in en¬ gineering and surveying. I framed this roof according to my own teaching and have as economical a roof as has ever been made and have made all allowance for snow fall and
windstorm with no loss of material.
“I had a special course on the diseases of the eye and refraction. I found it very inconvenient to fit glasses for patients because I had to order the glasses from America and it took three months to get them. I would have to get lens grinding done here in some way. On my furlough in 1907, I took instruction in lens grinding in Philadelphia for three months until I could do lens grinding for the trade. Then I bought surface and edge grinding outfits and a three horse-power oil engine. When I came back there was so much work to be done and so many things were waiting for me, that I approached Dr. Ingram of the American Board and
66 Ln Taifu — Charles Lewis , M.D.
suggested that he put it up at Tungchou and I would teach his man to use it. This he did and I taught this man to grind. He was the first man in North China to know edge and surface grinding. He ran this for years. Later I sold it to Dr. Hopkins of the Methodist Mission in Peking. It was the starting of optical work in North China.”
Dr. Lewis was greatly cheered when Dr. J. Herman Wylie was appointed a medical missionary by the Presbyterian Board and joined him in 1916. Dr. Wylie had specialized on surgery in his preparation for the foreign field, but when he saw how fully Dr. Lewis was absorbed with that depart¬ ment of the work he set himself to be an internist, and in spite of the fact that at first the medical cases were nearly all of the hopeless variety he kept prayerfully and courage¬ ously at it until the medical clinic became as large and popu¬ lar as the surgical. Dr. Lewis appreciated fully this spirit of cooperation in Dr. Wylie and his introduction of better systems of record keeping, hospital reports, etc. They worked together like brothers and Dr. Wylie never lost anything by always showing the deference of the younger brother to the elder. Most of all was Dr. Lewis thankful for the strong evangelistic spirit of Dr. Wylie. The two men to¬ gether with their co-workers in T. M. H. and the Chinese and foreign doctors of the T. M. H. have in putting the evangelistic aim in the foreground been a joy to the other workers of the station, instead of having friction as is some¬ times the case in a mission station.
Dr. Wylie was obliged by home obligations to return to the United States in 1928, but the love of the two men was unchanging. Dr. Wylie wrote after Dr. Lewis’ death :
“I myself feel that I have lost a great friend and fellow worker. Dr. Lewis was always so very considerate of me and my desires. I am sure that no young missionary ever fell in with a more agree-
The Hospital Staff, Plant and Work 67
able older companion on the mission field. We at times saw differ¬ ently in our problems but that never made any difference in our rela¬ tion to each other. Surely it was a joy and comfort to have such a companion. Dr. Lewis was noble in relation to those with whom he worked. It was a joy to have had the privilege of such fellowship.”
The review of his medical work at Paotingfu by Dr. Lewis in his written reminiscences should be supplemented by extracts from some of his letters:
“Poatingfu, June 20, 1909.
“A week ago yesterday evening I thought I would take my exercise by changing the two copper wires to my hospital to one telegraph wire to save battery. I had changed them on the first three poles from this end and was up on the ladder changing the wire on the fourth pole, in the church yard, when the pole, which was rotten under the ground, broke off, and we all three, pole, ladder and self took a sail across the fence or hwa-ch’ang-tze, onto the brick wall. I lit on my hands and left side of face, cutting my brow open about an inch, requiring one stitch, bruised my cheek and jammed my hands and fore-arms. I couldn’t move either hand or arm for two days. But since that I have been improving rapidly. I even did an operation on Thursday, but have no strength at all in my arms. The muscles were set when I fell and such a weight coming on them so suddenly nearly tore them from their attachments. My right got the worst of it and the wrist and elbow are both fearfully stiff. I hope they may limber up this summer. Chapin said he thought when he saw me fall. ‘That will fix Lewis for baseball this summer.’ ”
“February 13, 1917.
“The work ahead of me this spring is simply much more than I can do. This is what is looking me in the face: installing the new heating plant, the plumbing of four bath rooms; with sewers, etc.,— and a septic tank engine house to be built and boiler engine and electric plant installed, painting and finishing hospital, starting the new system of caring for the patients and getting sixty new beds rigged” up and in order, caring for the work at Woman’s Hospital, about fifty patients every A. M. and operating every Tuesday and Friday P. M. there. Caring for Men’s Hospital work, about 120-150 patients every P. M., operating every A. M., and dressing all the cases. Staff for this, the native doctors (foreign trained), Miss Mason
68
Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
and myself, with a staff of one head nurse and four in training at Woman’s and nine in training at Men’s Hospital.”
“Paotingfu, November 30, 1917.
“We opened up our new Hospital on the fifteenth with about 700 guests and are now in full swing with fifty in-patients and a large out-clinic every day.”
“Tangshan, May 21, 1920.
“Remember I do all the operating at the Woman’s Hospital and we have a work larger than any other Hospital in our mission except Canton — larger than Tsinan. We get no support from the Board for running expenses. Our budget last year was over $14,000, all met on the field. Being older on the job, I am called away from the work quite often. I am at present up here on a trip which takes me away from the work almost a week. But it will bring in over $1,000 gold for the Hospital. I came up here to operate on the eye of a Tu chun or Gov. General who has a pterigium. This is thirty mi. from Peking, near the Ming Tombs. The springs are walled in by great blocks of marble put in over 600 years ago and in good state of preservation yet.”
“Paotingfu, Nov. 8, 1920.
“We have had more conversions this last year than ever known in the Hospital. We are now employing three evangelists and have another from the A. B. C. F. M. working among the patients from their field. I do not think there is any other branch of the work that will bring in anything like the returns in spreading the Gospel, that the medical work will do if it is properly cared for and followed up. I hope you will do all you can to help us develop this work and make it the best possible. We have a most successful annual rally of our Christians here, and I feel sure they have gone back to their homes more on fire to make Christ known among their neighbors than ever before. The prayers of all the Christians arc just now full of pleading to God for His Spirit to be in the sessions of the Pacific Conference — that the spirit of justice may prevail.”
“Paotingfu, Jan. 4, 1922.
“I wrote you, some time since, with regard to the uniting of the Men’s and Women’s Hospitals here, and how wre could save by having one out-patient department, one operating room, and one man¬ agement. This would, as I count it, effect a saving of almost one- third of our expense for the entire work here, and make a much more
6q
The Hospital Staff , Plant and Work
efficient plant and staff, and in the end enable us to accomplish much more in all ways. I am certain we are doing much more in the evangelistic line than we ever did in the old way. The patients are not so cold and uncomfortable as not to be able to think of something outside their physical sufferings. I have always felt that it was diffi¬ cult to get a man to take much thought for his soul, when the physical was shivering with cold. Since we have made our patients comfort¬ able, and put them in happy surroundings I find we get much better spiritual results.
“This would require a woman’s building much the same as we now have for the men, connected by a bridge or corridor to our present operating room, which is as good as is to be found in all China, the Union Medical College not excepted, not as expensive as theirs, but just as useful and clean.”
“Paotingfu, Nov. 11, 1929.
“Last Saturday — I operated on one of the worst cases of glands of the neck I have ever seen and that is going some. I was just three and three quarter hours doing it, and when I started to walk to the wash-up sink my old legs would hardly move. They seemed to have grown fast to the floor and almost cramped — I was tired by that long pull. Then I had another thing on Friday that tried my strength — a hip, and that had been out just four months to the day. One man held the pelvis, and one helped me push the thigh up on the abdomen and then hold down on the trochanter while I brought the leg down. The first time was a failure, but the second time we got it flatter against the abdomen and kept it well averted as I brought it down and got it in perfect position, and it has stayed there. The acitabulum is evidently three-quarters full, but it will make its old bed over again in ten days or two weeks. The man has no pain and is very happy.”
“Paotingfu, Feb. 3, 1931.
“This morning a boy was brought in shot by a heavy gun last night. It struck him on the outer side of thigh and shattered his femur and tore out the muscles behind and back inner aspect. There was about two inches of the bone destroyed. The vessels were all intact and not disturbed. The sciatic was intact. We cut away the bruised skin-fat and facia as well as muscles — washed all the spicules of bone out and removed all detached bone — cut off the sharp ends and joined the ends by a steel plate and put in Dakin tubes, sutured the heavy muscle sheaths behind and put on a Thomas splint. We will
yo Lu Taifu — Charles Lends, M.D.
Dakinize him well for some days and if we can keep down the in¬ fection — will give him tetanus antitoxin • too. I think we may save his leg. A boy left the Hospital very recently whom we treated thus with a fine result. Great care in removing all that should be removed and thorough cleansing and keeping up the Dakins does splendidly.”
Something should be added with regard to his operating room, one of the best, as he said, in China. He had great difficulty in getting a stone floor absolutely smooth and without cracks. As last he secured consent to use a great stone ancestral memorial tortoise. This he ground up and mixed with cement and laid with his own hands, securing a perfect floor, polished and absolutely level.
A special word must be spoken of Dr. Lewis’ conviction and practice with regard to evangelistic work outside and inside his hospital. As a medical student he was always try¬ ing to lead men to Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Dr. Woodbridge O. Johnson, now of Los Angeles, writes:
“I think, and I have heard other fellows say the same, that Charlie was the finest ‘personal worker for Christ’ I ever knew. He was so friendly and sympathetic with everybody he met, that when in the most natural way imaginable he began to talk about Jesus Christ and their relation to Him, it was not possible to take offense. Those he talked to could always see that he was truly and sincerely inter¬ ested in them. Griggs told me once that when Charlie was substi¬ tuting three months for him as interne at the Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia he found and made opportunity to talk to practically every attendant nurse and fellow interne he met about Jesus Christ.”
When he went to China it was as an ambassador of Christ and he was as friendly and unceasing and efficient in his work as an evangelist as in his remarkable work as a sur¬ geon. One of his ordained associates writes :
“More than any other friend I ever had he exemplified the type of ‘Beloved Physician,’ giving freely and cheerfully his service of healing to a needy people. I was always sure of cheerful, stimulating companionship when ‘Lu’ was with me and this buoyancy of spirit
The Hospital Staff, Plant and Work 71
and outlook he imparted alike to friend and patients. I have heard the Chinese give expression to this trait in Dr. Charles most appre¬ ciatively : ‘Lu tai fu hen hwei nao che war.’ (Dr. Lewis is full of fun.) Another expression was ‘Lu tai fu ti shou hen miao.’ (Dr. Lewis’ skill is marvelous), referring, of course, to his exceptional ability as an operator in surgery. His facility in this respect and the spirit of the Master in which all his service was done will abide always in the community where he lived and labored for a generation or more.”
And the head of another mission in China, who was one of his hunting companions, wrote to him of his disappoint¬ ment that he could not be on the expedition of 1932 :
‘‘I should like to write you a real love letter this morn. As I was writing the circular to the Gang a frog got in my throat. I just said, well we will have to get along without Dr. Lewis this time. This I want you to do. Make sure to give me your home address in U. S. A. so that I can send you a line occasionally.
“Our fellowship in the past years has always been so pleasant that it gives me real grief to think that we will not get together for some time.
“Nearly all my associates on these hunts in the past have been younger than myself. You are the only outstanding exception. My explanation for that is that you have been a young man in your # fellowship with us.
“I have appreciated your friendship and fellowship more than I have ever told you and more than I can tell you now. To me you have been an ideal in service. I pray that you may be made well for further years of service. Not that I don’t think you have done a man’s job, for I think you have, and I sincerely doubt if there is a man living who has done as much for China in a medical way as you have. May God bless you and yours for it.
“In behalf of the Gang this year I must extend the regrets of every one of us that you could not carry out your cherished hopes and have another good outing with us in the Tzu Loa region. I will give the temple Priest your Ping An (Peace). Last year you gave him a pair of socks or gloves, I forget which. This year we will try to treat him square even though you are not there to remind us of our duty. The mule driver and the cook are all wishing ‘Kwai (Cripple) would come along. That was their way of knowing you.”
72 Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis , M.D.
Two statements by Dr. Lewis himself show what his spirit and fundamental purpose were. One is a paper which he wrote on the subject of “Hospital Follow-up Work”:
“While there are, we believe, great possibilities in wise plans for following up our hospital efforts, and the full execution of these plans, there seems to have been no universal plan adopted thus far in China.
“Judging from replies coming from different parts of the country, one is led to believe that a practical and efficient plan for following up our patients after they leave us, would be universally welcomed ; so that we may know, not only how successful our efforts to cure disease have been but of still more importance that we may con¬ serve whatever impressions for good have been made upon the patients, and see that the seed sown is watered and brought to fruition.
“From the very fact that some have dropped their field evangelist and have committed his duties to the regular church evangelists, as a more efficient method, while others have reversed these methods, it appears that the efficacy is not so much in the method as in the ele¬ ments in the execution of the method. So that while wc think the method is important we feel that the wise carrying out of any plan is probably of much more importance.
“Given a number of evangelists, however, of equal tact and devo¬ tion to the cause, we believe that the one giving his whole time and working directly for the hospital, and held accountable for a report of his work, will accomplish very much more than a number of men can do, who are located throughout the field, and who have their regular duties to carry out, and their obligations to meet for the one in whose direct charge they are.
“In our work, previous to four years ago, we depended upon the church evangelists working through our country field to do our follow¬ up work ; to take the names of the patients from their districts, and visit them in their homes, and further instruct them as wrell as ascertain their physical condition ; but many proved to be only partially interested, and their reports to us were very meager, and in many cases nil.
“Four years ago we secured the services of a genial, and earnest, as well as strong young man, whom we provided with a bicycle to do the follow-up work in the district worked by our mission. This man spends twenty days in the country and ten days in the hospital
73
The Hospital Staff, Plant and Work
each month. This enables him to meet most of the in-patients, and become acquainted with them, so that when he calls upon them in their homes he has the vantage ground of an old friend, he knows too about what progress the man has made in his knowledge of the gospel. Where the distances are not too great it would be a better arrangement to have the man spend ten days in the country and five days in the hospital at a time, as by this arrangement he would meet practically every in-patient.
“This evangelist collects the names of all the patients living in a section of country he proposes to visit, and going on his bicycle travels from village to village seeing all of the patients of that dis¬ trict in their homes, being careful to avoid the taking of meals with them, or making himself in any way a burden to any. When lie finds those interested, or studying the books they have received at the hospital, he spends more time in instructing them, and in many instances he has found the members of the family and the neighbors interested through his patient, and so had a nucleus for a new group of those interested in the Truth.
“His report for the last year shows that he has visited 332 dif¬ ferent patients in ten different counties ; many of these were visited several times. Of these two were admitted to the church as members, fourteen are candidates for church membership, and five others have joined enquirers’ classes. Besides these the number of relatives and friends coming in with them of whom he kept no record, there have been many.
“The new map of our entire field just completed will be a great help in keeping closer tag on these patients; and we plan to have a doctor visit some of the centers where there are a number inter¬ ested, and where it is convenient to go. Dr. Wylie has made one such visit to a region where there have been a large number of Kala- azar patients. This trip has been with great profit to the doctor as well as to the patient. In this way the doctor can study the etiology of certain diseases peculiar to certain regions and at the same time prove a stimulus to the spiritual growth of his patients.
“Our medical field includes the territory worked by three different missions, and our traveling evangelist works only that district which is occupied by the Northern Presbyterian mission. We have promise from the American Board of a man to give his entire time to this follow-up work throughout their field. And we will send the names and addresses of all the patients coming from the C. I. M. field, to
74 Lw Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
the man in charge there. They have formerly been of great help to us in gathering information in regard to patients. We hope in this way to be able to follow-up the impressions made for good upon all of our patients, and be able also to keep track of our medical and surgical results.
“There is another possible way of keeping in touch with our patients, which was impossible before the Chinese postal system had become so extensive as it is at present. This is by the use of blanks for the patients to fill out. These are enclosed in a stamped addressed envelope accompanied by a letter expressing our deep interest in his welfare and may include any special information or request desired. We are giving this plan its initial trial with us, and it remains to be seen what results we will have.
“I believe all hospitals should keep at least one traveling evangelist with a good map of the field, upon which he could continue to fill in roads and villages as new ones are added to his list. Records of all interested patients should be kept, and these men introduced to the church evangelist working in that district. When this shall be accomplished in all of our patients I am sure that we will all agree that the hospital has fulfilled its mission to the Church, and justified its existence.”
The other statement is a clearer revelation still. It is a letter which he wrote to his dear friend, Dr. Griggs, on March 11, 1923:
“I have just finished my lesson with the nurses. It was on Geth- semane. I hope they felt it as much as I did. I could see my Lord there in that agony for me and I made a mighty resolve to keep nearer to Him lest I sleep and opportunities go by me that I miss them. That is a wonderful lesson. We have twenty-five of these boys in our nursing school, and how much they need to feel that each sin is another pain in spirit to Him. I am sure we all came out of that class better than we went in.
“The work has started off in full blast. Last week I operated two full days of ten and thirteen hours, and half-day the other days. I am beginning to think I wall surely become an operating machine, as I find myself doing operations in prayer meeting even; at table, in my sleep and all the time. I have been wondering what I would do in Heaven— no operating to be done. Guess I will rest. I don’t seem to get tired at all — I think it is because of my hunts. When
75
The Hospital Staff , Plant and Work
a fellow gets his tissues toughened to that point by exertion and fresh air — preserved in ozone, there doesn’t seem to be any limit to the exertion they can undergo. Joe, you ought to get a ten day tramp once or twice a year at any cost. It preserves a man for old age_in fact he does not become old at all.”
This was the man as he was, in love and truth.
Mrs. Lewis has gathered some notes with regard to her husband’s work and ways in and out of the hospital :
‘‘Dr. Grey, for many years the very much respected physician for the British Legation, who conducted a dispensary for the poor i° connection with his other work, in which he used Chinese Christian graduate doctors to help him, visited us once, and remarked on the thoroughness of the work done in the Taylor Memorial Hospital. He said he never had seen a daily clinic give such thorough examinations and treatments.
‘‘The Chinese love to have a letter of introduction from some special friend of the doctor when they go for the first time to a clinic, to insure a more painstaking examination. Dr. Lewis had a way of placing these letters on a shelf or window sill to be perused at leisure, when dispensary was over. This he did to show the patients how unnecessary such a letter was, and to show them that without letters of introduction, everyone received the same special care and pains¬ taking attention.
“One time, in writing to an intimate friend, he said, I like to think of that “inasmuch” of Matt. 25 :40 applying to my work. I wonder if it is sacrilegious to think of that “ye have done it unto me” as applying to the patients on our operating table.
“It should be mentioned that he was passionately fond of children. In almost all of our station or mission group pictures you will notice that he is holding one of his little friends. During the first eight and a half childless years in Paotingfu, two little Chinese girls were taken into the home, the last one being cared for from her birth until she was four years old. He was very patient with this little waif, who was particularly stubborn and difficult to manage. Although it meant disturbed nights and careful persistence in training, he entered into this in the same wholehearted way he did other things, and uncom¬ plainingly ‘spent heart’ on these children for the sake of their after life. Of course we also had Dr. Griggs’ little Rebecca from the time her mother went home ill, when she was fifteen months old, for a
y6 Lu Taifu — Charles L ewis, M.D.
year, when her father returned to America and she and Charles dearly loved each other. A useful man in the work of the world recalls painful treatments which he underwent at the age of ten but without fear or faltering because of his trust in Dr. Lewis and his love for him.
“Dr. Lewis did a good deal in photography his first years in (?hina, in those days developing and printing the pictures himself. He took great delight in producing a particularly good picture. A magazine gave him $25.00 for one he took while in the army in Peking. He never lost an opportunity to visit any exhibition of pictures. This was the great attraction to him in selling stereoscopic views.
“Something should be said about Dr. Lewis’ unusually cleanly habits. His daily bath, out-door sleeping, active out-door exercise and dislike of anything that bordered on the unclean of thought, word or deed made him a particularly wholesome sort of person. While not a dandy or giving undue thought to appearance (in fact he delighted in wearing old clothes and when he died had very few clothes to give away) even the Chinese used to remark how his shoes always shone. He often washed other people’s heads or cured their bad breath. As fond as he was of reading matter relating to travel, particularly of central Asia, he would refuse one author be¬ cause of his expressions sometimes bordering on the ‘smutty.’ He gave lectures to men students on Social Hygiene, and tried to teach his patients self-control and purity of mind and body. In spite of his having so much in his work, of treating ‘bad’ disorders, he would lay aside a book or story ‘sexy’ in flavor, with the remark, ‘I feel as though I needed a moral bath: how I dislike such stuff.’
“When Dr. Griffith Thomas was in Peking, Dr. Lewis enjoyed his inspiring messages but remarked, ‘Why doesn’t someone cut his hair?’ This he proceeded to offer to do as soon as he could speak to him in private. Dr. Thomas was surprised and delighted. He said he had been warned not to allow a public barber to touch his head and was greatly relieved (as were his audiences), when he emerged from the surgeon’s hands.
“The last few months of Dr. Lewis’ life in Paotingfu he wired our own house for electric lights (to save considerable money — although we had local electricity men who could do it well), also wired the Mather house. When building the ‘X-ray building’ which was not finished when he left China, he kept close daily watch and although he had a trained builder (Chinese) he discovered one day
77
The Hospital Staff , Plant and Work
that a foundational partition on the first floor which must hold con¬ siderable weight on the second and third floors was not plumb and he pointed this out to the builder, who was embarrassed and glad to correct it. He had a keen eye for arches or corners of buildings which were not plumb. He put on all the hinges and locks and knobs in our house when it was built in order to have it done properly. Afterwards he climbed to heights on ladders where local tinsmiths were afraid to go to solder or adjust eaves-troughs. It was because no one else dared to or knew how to repair our compound telephone back in the pre-telephone days of Paoting that he was up on a pole doing over our waring when the pole broke and let him down over the church yard wrall onto the brick walk on his palms and head, and crippled his elbows so he never could straighten them out again.
“Charles looked for the coming of our Lord in a most wholesome way. He used to say he hoped Jesus would find him at his work when He came. And once he wrote that if it was not irreverent to say so, he liked to think when he was treating the sick or operating, that it was ‘done unto Him.’ In the operating room there has been for years a prayer offered before each operation.”
And this chapter should close with another word regard¬ ing Dr. Lewis’ Christian spirit and purpose in his medical work. He and his work were a complete refutation of the idea that missionaries are mere word-sayers on the one hand or that medical work is sufficient by itself, without a spoken word for Christ, on the other hand. He wrote to Dr. Helm who had led him into the Church as a boy :
“My stomach is not behaving well just now. If it was O. K. I would now be at a Chinese feast to which I have been invited today. This is Florence Nightingale’s birthday and the day our nurses grad¬ uate. The service was this A. M. and we were invited to a feast with the graduates, but I excused myself and am drinking milk and writing to you instead. I am still of the opinion that I have an ulcer on the back wall of my stomach, which was not found when I was operated on. I have many signs of it, and when I work too hard the symptoms return. With proper care and rest I get right again. It depresses me somewhat, if you can imagine me being depressed. That is when a man’s Christianity comes in in good stead. It beats all how prayer relieves that depressed feeling. It gives one the upward
78 Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
look, not the inward. I presume the regular orthodox fellow shouldn’t believe that prayer has anything to do with stomach secretions but it has just the same! I have gotten to pay little attention to theories, I am afraid. Facts count. Every year I read the Bible through, and every time I read it, I keep marveling at how true to life it is. So that I keep finding myself wondering how men can doubt it for a moment. I read other books, but do not find this convincing quality in them. The Bible doesn’t seem to make an effort to hit the point, but hits it — while all other books keep everlastingly trying to hit the point and miss it. They are not natural.
“I wish you could know the spirit of our work. We call it the ‘Taylor Memorial Spirit.’ But it is the old Christ Spirit, that He introduced into this world when He said ‘I am come not to be min¬ istered unto but to minister, and to give my life for you.’ Our group are bound together in this spirit and I have tried to impress upon them that the T. M. IT. is not so much brick and mortar, but is a part of Christ’s Church which has its beginnings here and goes on into eternity and our lives are bound into it as a part of it. This is a wonderful thought and a wonderful privilege to be a worker together with Him in that which lasts forever, so we are eternal workers with Him. This gives permanency to work and purpose.
“I would like very much to start a few more Hospitals like this one to the west in China.”
Chapter VI
A DAY AT PAOTINGFU
DR. LEWIS set down in his reminiscences the following account of one typical day :
“In the summer we rise at six o’clock, and in the winter at half-past six. We have breakfast at seven-thirty except on Sunday morning, when we have it at eight. We have morning prayers at the table always, and are at the hospital at eight for prayers there. The whole staff is put into a proper attitude of mind and heart for the service of the day. The devotions of the hour are so arranged as to bring out what we call the Taylor Memorial spirit — the spirit of ser¬ vice. Like the Master we serve, we have come not to be ministered to but to minister. This we keep prominent as the most important thing in the whole hospital. This does more for harmony and smooth running of the hospital than anything else connected with it, and is, therefore, of the greatest importance. The service is led by the evangelists, the doctors, the leading nurses, and also some of the workers. There is a regular schedule of leaders made out a couple of months ahead, arranged by the head evangelist. Anyone who visits the station and feels inclined, is also asked to lead. It is a service of Scripture, song and prayer. After this ser¬ vice is over, at eight-thirty, the members of the staff and others go to the various wards and private rooms and spend half an hour in conversation and Bible reading with the patients. It has been my part during the later years, to fake this service every morning in the second class ward of four beds. This has been the work I have enjoyed most.
79
8o Lu Taif u — Charles Lewis , M.D.
“At nine o’clock work in the operating room begins. We have two surgical teams which operate on alternate days. The days they do not operate they change dressings in the ward. The medical service, of course, study their cases and treat them. In the eye department Dr. Wang, who is in charge, does operating on eyes and work on special cases and those needing refraction. I generally operate from nine to twelve or one o’clock, according to the number of cases. The heads of the surgical work are Dr. Chao and myself. The operating team consists of either Dr. Chao or me, an interne, and a ‘clean’ nurse who keeps the table supplied with instruments, sutures and dressings. For the most diffi¬ cult cases the team consists of Dr. Chao, the interne and me. In such cases Dr. Chao assists me on my operating day, and vice versa. These would be difficult bone cases and ab¬ dominal cases. Simple cases, such as hernia, of which the hospital has from sixty to eighty cases a year, are all done under supervision of a chief and his assistant. We have a few dressers who can assist very much. The easiest cases are dressed by these men. There is a regular time to do dressings. Often there are dental cases to be attended to. We have a dental chair and engine and do ordinary filling in amalgam and cement, and repair old crowns. In my. student days I never had dental training, but I can do temporary fillings. An American Board missionary came back from furlough without having her dental work done, because she preferred to have us do it for her in Paotingfu ! After the operating, dressings, dental work, and other work have been done, I visit certain patients in the wards demanding special attention, before going home to my lunch.
“After prayers, and before operating, Dr. Chao and my¬ self spend probably fifteen minutes every day on the new X-ray plates.
A Day at Paotingfu
81
“I stop at the Women’s Hospital nearly every day on my way home before lunch, to see whether there are operations to 'be done in the afternoon, and to see new patients that have been left over for me. In the Women’s Hospital the out-patient clinic is held in the morning, and more difficult surgical patients are left for me to see and to decide whether or not an operation is needed. Every other afternoon, or at times every afternoon, I operate at the Womens Hospital.
“In the summer time for the last six or eight years I have usually taken an afternoon siesta of about half an hour. I go back to the Women’s Hospital about two-thirty and operate. There are anywhere from three to six patients for operation. When removing tonsils, the number of patients may run up to ten or twelve. In the morning we do from three to ten operations in the Men’s Hospital. I gen¬ erally finish at the Women’s Hospital by six o clock. After coming from the Women’s Hospital, I try to play enough tennis to get the ether worked out of my lungs, which has been absorbed during the day in the operating rooms. Some¬ times my partners are afraid of becoming etherized because the smell is so strong. This will be avoided, we hope, in the future, as we are now using spinal anaesthesia mostly.
“In a women’s clinic in China, one gets a number of im¬ mense abdominal tumors. In two cases I removed uterine fibroids that weighed fifty pounds each. These were solid tumors. In order to save the strength of the assistant, while home on furlough I secured a veterinary instrument used for delivering dead colts, which was like a big pair of ice tongs, for grasping the sides of the tumor. I have a ring in the ceiling over the operating table and a block and tackle, which we can sterilize so the dust will not shake off it, and with this a person at some distance from the table with this rope can gradually and carefuly hold up the tumor so
82 Lu Taifu — Charles Lezvis, M.D.
that it is possible to get under it and amputate it. Before this, my assistants had to hold the tumor up for me to operate and the tumor had to be rolled from one side to the other for amputation, which was not satisfactory. Later this instrument proved very satisfactory in removing solid tumors that could not be tapped. We seem to have an ex¬ ceptionally large number of cystic tumors. The reputation of the hospital is such that these cases come from over a large area, but conditions have not yet advanced to the stage of their coming early, so there are many cases with large accumulations inside the tumor. We probably have an aver¬ age of three or four very large tumors a year. Our largest tumor and its contents weighed 163 pounds. When the patient came, she weighed 265 pounds, and when she went away two weeks later, perfectly well, she weighed 102 pounds. The tumor thus weighed sixty-one pounds more than the patient herself. She could not walk when she came, had not walked for probably a month or two before she came. Balancing these tumors gives the patients a different pos¬ ture, and when the tumor is removed, they attempt to assume that same posture and then, naturally, fall back¬ ward. It is rather interesting to know that a 163 pound tumor can be removed through a six-inch hole and yet a thorough examination of the entire abdomen can be made. This is because the skin is so loose it can be moved around the entire part of the abdomen. This particular case was not a difficult operation, because of the lack of adhesions except where previous tapping had been done.
“In the earlier days I had a most interesting patient. The tumor and contents weighed sixty-seven pounds, but I suppose we were not as skillful then as later, and took probably a little more time. Now it does not take more than half or three-quarters of an hour. In this case, just as we finished
A Day at Paotingfu $3
the operation, the woman stopped breathing and became rigidly stiff. Ether was the anaesthetic. I did artificial respi¬ ration on her for at least half an hour. A nurse, Miss Maggi, gave her saline solution under the skin. My sister kneaded the heart. Because of the large size of the tumor which had been in the abdomen the skin was very loose and the dia¬ phragm had been pushed up. For these reasons it was pos¬ sible for my sister, with her hand outside the abdominal cavity, to knead the heart through the skin and diaphragm sufficiently to keep up rhythmical motion. Mrs. Lewis gave hypodermic injections and the head Chinese nurse put hot water bottles around her. After working for half an hour the patient, who had been absolutely rigid, gave the first breath.
I never felt so relieved as at that moment, — a death on the table would have almost wrecked the hospital work. This was about 1908. It was an ovarian cyst; the woman later gave birth to two living children. These two children are now school girls in Paotingfu. While in the hospital she became interested in Christianity, and because of this her home would not receive her back. Afterwards she was the laundress for the Grace Talcott Hospital in Shuntehfu for several years.
“Sometimes when not operating in the afternoons I have some dental cases to do, and up until the last three or four years I spent time in the afternoon every day in the out¬ patient clinic in the Men’s Hospital when not in the Women s Hospital.
“Our clinic is now divided into three departments — medicine, surgery, and eye. The Chinese divide the diseases into ‘nei-ko’ and ‘wai-ko’ which roughly correspond to in¬ ternal medicine and surgery. At present, Dr. Wang has charge of the eye, formerly I had charge. Dr. Wylie is the chief in the medical but at present Dr. Wang has charge
84 Lu Taifu — Charles Lewis , M.D.
during the former’s absence. All medical cases in the clinic receive a general physical examination and, of course, the surgical ones as much as is necessary, also, and if they are admitted to the hospital. In other words, all patients are thoroughly examined.
“The patients come from both the city and the surround¬ ing country. Many come from long distances. One man with gangrene of the foot came about 500 li on his hands and other foot, in a sitting position, and was pushing the gangrene foot ahead of him. He came the 500 li (about 160 miles) in that manner across the mountains.
“We have a number of patients who have come 200 miles. There is evidence that people in the city come to the hos¬ pital early, but those from the outlying districts come in advanced stages of disease, making it difficult to treat them.
“Near the hospital, a man runs an inn, which is called the ‘Hygienic Hotel’ (wei shengtien). Beside the inn is a mos¬ quito-breeding pond which we call the ‘Hygienic Pond.’ Many, as soon as they are able to leave the hospital, go there to live and come to the hospital for dressings. The inn can probably accommodate thirty patients. It is filled mainly with discharged patients from our hospital.
“The waiting room for the clinic is also the assembly room for all meetings of the hospital. It is a well-ventilated, well- heated room. From it the patients are received into the clinic according to the numbers of their tickets. There is one room where the surgical patients are dressed, another where they are examined and their histories taken. The medical ser¬ vice had its rooms nearby, and the new quarters for the X-ray department are also on the first floor.
“Another hall with a long window to the south is used for the tablet manufacturing department. We not only make
A Day at Paotingfu 85
tablets used in the hospital, but furnish other hospitals in North China.
“This finishes the work of the day, except for emergency cases which frequently come to us even when there is no fighting. The late afternoon is spent in half an hour’s tennis to keep physically fit. After supper, the necessary meetings of the mission station are attended, prayer meetings, and business or social meetings of the station. Some of our evenings are spent in letter writing, reading, and keeping up with our medical journals. Sometimes we do a little general reading. The following medical journals are received, all of them being given by friends in America: ‘Journal of the American Medical Association ,’ given by Dr. Woods of Baltimore; ...‘Surgery, Gynecology, and Obstetrics,’ given by Dr. Donahoo of Washington, Penna. ; the ‘Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery,’ given by Dr. Brackett (the edi¬ tor) ; the ‘Journal of the Science of Medicine,’ by Frederick Kellogg. From China we receive the ‘National Medical Journal’ and the ‘ China Medical Journal’ ; also the ‘Tsinan Medical Quarterly’ .”
Chapter VII
WORK WITH PNEUMONIC PLAGUE
LEWIS' contacts with the invariably fatal pneumonic plague may well be brought together in one chapter. The first dreadful outbreak was in 1910-1911. He writes:
“In 1910 the pneumonic plague broke out in Manchuria, probably coming first on the borders of Manchuli. It gradu¬ ally came east until great numbers of cases broke out at Harbin. It first appeared among the marmot hunters of Manchuria, men from Chihli and Shantung. Infection spread directly from one to another among the men who lived in the camps together. Some got septicsemic plague and died two or three hours from the time they cut themselves. These hunters became frightened ; many started home. It was Chinese New Year time and they wanted to go home. They came down on railroad trains, in many cases in open cars packed full. Many men died on the trains. Any man who spat blood in the course of a day or two died. People got germs from men coughing on the trains. One man could infect half a carload, though that person might be as far as ten feet away.
“I was in Paotingfu at the time. A case of the plague devel¬ oped twenty-five li (a li is a third of a mile) from us. The case was dealt with by the Catholic Fathers. They isolated the village and kept the people in the village so that it never spread from that village. A family of six died, but that was the end of it there. Chinese officials obtained 20,000 taels from Tientsin to wipe out plague in Paotingfu district. They asked me to take charge of the medical side of the work.
86
After a visit to a
Spraying house where
Dr. Lewis
all had succumbed
to the plague
8/
Work With Pneumonic Plague
In the district south of Paotingfu, about 120 li, it was raging and I went down there. I organized groups of sol¬ diers, one group to do the sealing of the houses, another to spray the houses, another to prepare stoves to put in them. For fumigation, we made a good fire in the Chinese stove, put a Chinese kettle of water to boil, another kettle to fit inside the outer kettle, and filled it with sulphur. We poured a lot of alcohol on the sulphur and had it already to set in. We sprayed the walls with carbolic acid. We used hundreds of bottles ; had a garden spray and sprayed all the walls and the k’ang (the brick bed). We covered cracks and sealed over with paper. I had to go in first. Chinese would not go in first. We had oilcloth overalls and were completely covered. We wore masks saturated with car¬ bolic acid so that no infection could get into us.
“A man talked with a friend in a rickshaw on the street, the man in the rickshaw was sick and the friend died five days after the conversation.
“Paotingfu closed its gates. The city had supplies inside. We in the mission compound would not let any one in, not even the mailman. He would hand the mail through a hole in the gate, then everything was fumigated before being distributed. It was thought that the whole population of North China would be wiped out. It was not known then how the disease was spread.
“When I left for this work I was away for a month, without seeing any English-speaking foreigners. I never ex¬ pected to come back. No one knew how to fight against the thing. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do, that is, to leave my family (wife and baby), under these circumstances, but if something was not done what was the use of staying there? The population would be wiped out.
“Dr. Young, pathologist of the Peking Union Medical
88 Lit Taifu — Charles Lewis , M.D.
College, sent us such information as he could get, as he obtained new data. We would stay in the village where there wasn’t any disease. The carts would stay outside of the infected village. We would go daily to the villages and then come back to where we lived ; here we burned sulphur all night in our room with our outside clothes hung up to be disinfected. The first house we went to we burned. The family were all dead. We fumigated a house where one man had died. The woman who had been with him told us that he had said to her, ‘If you see my face you will die.’ So he stayed in an inner room. He said that he would die in a few hours. The woman said she insisted on doing something for him. He said it was no use but that he would take a drink of water. She handed it to him but he turned his face. He was a hero. He stayed away from his family and they never got it. Villagers took his body out and ofifered to pay the beggars sixty tiao if they would bury it. So they wrapped him up in a piece of matting and buried him.
“In all the other places where some one was living, we couldn’t burn the property. So we fumigated. Some of the people were frightened and kept away. We made a quaran¬ tine hospital near the station. We examined the train people, but could not really tell whether or not they had it unless they were very sick. In the last place which we fumigated, eighty-five people of one family group had died.
“In one village I noticed a Chinese whose eyes were blood¬ shot ; the next morning I was told that he had the plague. Everyone was quarantined. He had already quarantined him¬ self. He lay on the k’ang ; his head was bound and he had two swords crossed over his breast to protect him from the spirits. I got him to expectorate. I made some smears for microscopic examination. I never saw anything so closely packed, almost a solid mass of germs.
89
Work With Pneumonic Plague
“When I came home to Paotingfu, I burned my clothes and lived in a place by myself for the duration of the in¬ cubation period. I did not shave or associate with any one for about three days. I had heard that it took about five days from the time one was exposed for symptoms to ap¬ pear. Striking evidence for this is the following. One man came through Paotingfu carrying the disease to one sec¬ tion. The man had hired a donkey and sat on the left side of the driver. The driver did not get the plague as the wind was blowing away from him. The victim of plague had not begun to expectorate blood until he got to his place. When he reached home all his friends came to see him. The next day he died. In five days others began to come down with it and die, one group after another.
“Having seen so many cases of plague, I was invited to attend the International Conference at Mukden and heard of experiments Dr. Strong and others had made. They had been in Mukden and seen and examined a number of cases. Dr. Strong’s assistant made very careful physical examin¬ ations and probably gave us better descriptions than any man at the conference. He had the nicest preparatives fiom autopsy cases; preparatives from tissue in the region of the trachea and tonsils, and along the trachea, and the finest preparations made of sections cut through the tin oat. He had made lots of experiments with Petri dishes of culture media held at different distances from patients coughing, breathing or talking,— information never before available.
“At this conference all the main countries of the world had representatives. Two American delegates had done es¬ pecially good experimental and clinical work. A German, who had been at Tsingtao, had a great deal of experience with the bubonic strain of plague. He had taken a rat, in¬ jected it with the bacilli and it died of bubonic plague. He
9° Lu 1 aifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
took its spleen, made an emulsion of it and sprayed it into a nostril of another rat. This one died without bubos several days quicker than the first. A third rat died a couple of days quicker than the second and a fourth rat quicker than the third, (showing enhancing virulence by passage). This continued more rapidly until the rats would die in about three days. He concluded that the bubonic plague and the pneumonic were the same thing, from the same organism. Septicaemic plague is direct infection through the blood. Its course is very much quicker than either of the other two, and invariably fatal, as is also pneumonic.
Twenty thousand taels were given for the suppression of plague in 1910-1911, for quarantine and disinfection. By the time we were through with the plague work, (we had plastered over all the graves, put lime in the graves and on top and then sealed with plaster), I think we had spent about 2,000 taels. This had come from the provincial government of Tientsin. Eighteen thousand taels were still on hand. The thing to do now/ I said ‘is to send this remainder to Tientsin, where it came from/ But here in Paotingfu were all the officials waiting for a job and this was a good opportunity for them. So the local officials re¬ fused to return the 18,000, but organized a branch of the Red Cross which eventually used up the money in not verv \ aluable wrays. I was made an honorary member of the Chinese National Red Cross, and was given a gold medal.
There was an old-style Chinese doctor at the Plague Conference in Mukden who had been sticking needles into patients according to the old practice of acupuncture. He had cured pneumonic plague, he said. After he went out of the room, Dr. Wu said that he had not seen a more peculiar thing. The old man had gone among the patients in the plague hospital, didn’t wear a mask, yet never got the plague.
9i
Work With Pneumonic Plague
“A Russian doctor, Dr. Zablotny, everyone liked and they did not want to make him feel that this disease had come from Russia, but if the Russians had looked after it care¬ fully it would not have spread. Dr. Gray, an English doc¬ tor, had secured the facts of the plague. In the district of Irkutsk in July and August on the Russian side, there were many pneumonic cases, all working down toward Manchuria, and reaching Manchuria just in time for the Chinese mar¬ mot hunters to be on the spot. On a social evening at Dr. Christie’s house, Dr. Zablotny was asked to say something. He said, ‘I know nothing but plague things.’
“When I was home on furlough in the spring of 1916 I was at the Medical Faculty of Baltimore. Mary Stone made a speech on Women’s Medical Work. I spoke on the Pneumonic Plague in North China. Dr. Welch, whom I had met before, introduced us and said something of his experiences in China.”
In letters to Mrs. Lewis in Paotingfu, Charles wrote more fully of this Conference at Mukden :
“Mukden, April 7, 1911.
“I was met here by Mr. Hsu, who is the head of the foreign office. I met Dr. Ashland when I went to the dining room ; he introduced me to Drs. Farrar and Strong and a lot of others. After dinner I met the Netherlands Doctor and Dr. Wu Lien Teh, and Alfred Sze who had just returned from dinner at the French Consulate. Dr. Wu said that he was sorry I had not been here at the opening of the conference. It is being housed at the Industrial Institute. The large dining room, lounging, and meeting room are all beautifully decorated. I have a nice room all to myself with a stove and electric light and a lot of potted plants filling the room with their fragrance. Everyone tells me that the sessions have been very interesting and will finish within two weeks. I hope Chiu Teh got home from his plague work in time to go up to his graduation.”
“April 8.
“One day gone and very little learned ; this forenoon I spent going over the minutes of the preceding four days ; then this
92
Lit Taifu — Charles Lewis, M.D.
afternoon I went to the Imperial Palace to see the beauties there. When an emperor dies all his things are brought here for safe keep¬ ing. The porcelain collections are simply grand, the paintings of Ch’ien Lung are fine ; there are two stuffed bear skins which are said to have been killed by Ch’ien Lung ; you know, he was a great hunter. After returning from the palace I went over to see Dr. Christie’s hospital. I have met a Dr. Wang who is head of the Red Cross Society in Shanghai and is representing it here at the conference ; he seems like a very nice man. Dr. Ch’uan of Tientsin :s a fine fellow ; he says that the plague work that the missionaries have done is sure to place missions in a much better light before the officials of China. There are a good many young Chinese doctors here attending the meetings. Dr. Aspland is the secretary, and Dr. Gray of the British Legation is here ; there are no others attending whom I know. Dr. Strong, the American representative, seems to have quite a prominent part in the discussions. All seem to concede that the Japanese are the best prepared having had more doctors to do the work.”
“April 9
“I went to a Chinese Church this morning and heard the Chinese pastor preach. It was the first church service they had had since the plague and he preached on the subject: ‘We shall have fiery trials, but He will make a way of escape.’ They have between six and seven hundred members and generally have an attendance of about seven hundred. This is the Scotch Presbyterian Church; the Irish Church is on the other side of the city, and they have about four hundred members. I went home with Dr. Muir for dinner and he took me to English service this afternoon at the single ladies’ house where I met a number of old friends. I certainly enjoy being here. In the con¬ ference they are first taking up the bacteriology and pathology of the diseases and then will take up the epidermiology, which will prob¬ ably be the most interesting part to me. I must get a speech ready, for I feel quite sure that I shall have to make one and I want to do my country proud before so many nationalities. Dr. Strong has done twenty-five post mortems on plague cases since he came ; he is one of the strong men of the conference.”
“April 11.
“I have written Dr. Ts’ui that I would not accept a position out¬ side of the mission ; should I accept anything, this one would appeal to me as having a good opportunity, among the students, but at
Work With Pneumonic Plague 93
present I was sure I could do more good for China in the Hospital in Paotingfu than in any other place.
“I am proud of our American delegates here; both Strong and Tagoe are hard workers. The Russian, Zablotny is next, if not better ; the German, Martini, is good. I am to sit on some sort of commission tomorrow at three o’clock at the request of Alfred Sze.
“Dairen, April 16, 1911.
“We had a comfortable ride from Mukden on the American Pull¬ man’ train all night. There were twenty-seven in our party, I had a lower berth but as Dr. Aspland was somewhat crowded in a com¬ partment car I offered him my lower berth and slept above him ; we had a very comfortable night. One car has chairs and lounges where we sang songs and had a good time chatting last evening ; I talked quite a long time with Dr. Ch’uan about Tibet, he had been there about thirty months and had written back to some of his friends wanting them to go there as missionaries ; he says they are badly in need of them. The Japanese have invited us and furnish everything.