In April 1841, medical missionary Reverend Peter Parker,
M.D., addressed an enthusiastic audience gathered at a
special meeting of the Boston Medical Association. His
subject was “the condition and prospects of the hospitals
of China.” He described his own work at the hospital he
had established in the foreign factory district outside the
city walls of Canton where he offered free treatment for
both rich and poor. At P’u Ai I Yuan (Hospital of Universal
Love, as it was known in Chinese) Parker and his colleagues
used western surgical techniques as a means to facilitate
religious conversion. Medicine, Parker believed, could be
the “handmaid of religious truth,” and he held regular
religious services for his patients.
While he had, at best, modest success attracting converts
to Christianity, the hospital had fostered tremendous
goodwill among the Chinese. It was a bright spot amid
the gloomy period of Western-Chinese tension that led to
the outbreak of the Opium Wars between Great Britain
and China. Forced to flee Canton because of these rising
hostilities, Parker returned to the United States to raise
money and interest in his operations. In the spring of 1841,
he spoke to many religious societies, a few medical bodies,
and even the United States Congress, where he preached
to members of the House and Senate and lobbied
legislators on the need for diplomatic relations with China.
In his talks, Parker described the state of medical and
surgical knowledge—or, rather, scientific ignorance—in
China. Despite the surgical feats of legendary ancient
doctors such as Hua T’o of the third century A.D., surgery
did not develop to any great extent in China. Some accounts
attribute this to Confucian precepts about the integrity of
the body and proscriptions against any form of mutilation
or dismemberment; others emphasize the
pharmacological tendencies within traditional Chinese
medicine and a preference for moxas and other caustic
plasters.
Whatever the cause, it was undoubtedly the case that
Parker’s surgical practice tapped into a huge unmet need.
Almost as soon as he opened his Ophthalmic Hospital in
Canton, as it was known in English, he acquired a
reputation as a surgeon of such skill that the hospital
quickly became a general hospital. Parker and his small
staff handled thousands of cases each year, treating more
than fifty thousand cases by the 1850s. His hospital became
the model for other medical missions, and Parker and his
British colleagues formed the Medical Missionary Society
of China to coordinate the efforts of all the western
hospitals springing up in the trading ports of Asia. Parker
earned his reputation performing operations to remove
tumors and cataracts—forms of surgery with relatively
good odds of success and ones that could be accomplished
quickly, important in an era without anesthetics. Because
of the absence of surgery in China, a large number of
patients were afflicted with mature tumors (typically five
to thirty-five years old) of a size seldom seen in Europe
or the United States. Parker was able to help these patients
in ways previously thought impossible in China. He has
thus been credited with bringing Western medicine to the
most populous country on Earth.

1. The author mentions Hua T’o in the third paragraph
most probably in order to
< underscore the need for modernization of nineteenth
century Chinese medicine
< trace the history of important figures in Chinese
medicine
< call attention to the lack of leading physicians in
nineteenth century China
< celebrate the historical achievements of Chinese
physicians
< defend Chinese medicine against unfair criticism

3. The primary purpose of the passage is to
< discuss the status of the medical profession in China
before the arrival of Peter Parker
< argue that China could not have gained modern
medical knowledge without the influence of Peter
Parker
< demonstrate the need in China before the nineteenth
century for outside medical knowledge
< challenge the predominant view of nineteenth century
Chinese medicine
< examine the circumstances of the introduction of
Western medicine to nineteenth century China

good RC

Kudos kapil..