Dr. Cole continued that looking over the recorde of cases seen, the class dealing with bullets and' the like was prominent. The Chinese have a natural tendency and liking for sport, as those who had wandered over their fields in search of pheasants could testify, nor could they forget their almost invariable delight in leading one to likely spots. But their ideas of sport were many and curious: they included sitting with a blunderbuss loaded with small stones, old iron, ete., until the pheasant or other bird was within a dozen yards, and thus they aimed at economy, even if only bits were left for the pot. Those who had seen their guns would unde: stand why the custom existed i some places of requiring the gun-h to fire the first shot by way of experiment!
Year after year they had children and adults brought to them, having swallowed all sorts of article: the children it was either large cash or ten cash pieces,¢which had some difficulty in entering the sardine end of the stomach; these coins could easily be seen by the relatives, even by the very stupid. The coin catcher was usually sufficient to bring it up, which was very pleasing to the doctor and the audience, or to push it down into the stomach which meant an exercise of patience, Women occasionally tried to commit suicide by swallowing gold rings; no ill effects usually followed in his experience. One man tried to kill himself by swallowing a Mexican dollar, having lost all but this one coin by his gambling fever. The stomach was to have been opened, as the man assured them that he could feel pain there, and he was not now so keen on death.
However, he was screened and the dollar was seen not in the stomach but in the oesophagus, not causing him the slightest pi that position: The erin was then removed ligatures, under chloroform.
Other interesting cases were mentioned by Dr. Cole, and he concluded by repeating the statement "that no hospital is complete without an X-ray apparatus constantly available for use, and I hope that the financial difficulty (which is not as great as some imagine) will be done away with by some fairy godmother coming to the rescue of each member of the China Medical Missionary Association who is convinced he would do his work the better for its aid."
Uses of Advertisement.
Speaking on X-rays, Dr. Butchart said it was most important that every hospital should he equipped with ay apparatus. Among other things, it was most valuable for advertising the work done in the hospitals. The doctors could call the Chinese officials in and demonstrate to them, and for this purpose alone he considered that the money was well spent. The medical missionaries in China had to contend against keen competition, keener than some of them realized, and as business men it behaved them to meet it and to show the Chinese the superiority of Western methods.
The President (Dr. Duncan Main) emphasized the absolute necessity of every hospital being equipped with X-rays, and of every doctor knowing how to work the apparatus. In answering questions regarding the cost, the President advocated the purchase, not of a gasoline engine, but a kerosene oil engine It was easy to obtain kerosene in any part of China, and he advised those who were thinking of getting X-rays, to purchase an ordinary Crossley's oil engine. Some of them lived in places where there was no electric installation, and for £200 a complete outfit could be purchased, engine included.
One of the delegates said that in America a whole outfit could be bought for G $250.
The President: There you are, gentlemen, competition is the life of trade (laughter).
Obstetrics and Nursing, Dr. M. C. Poulter contributed an interesting and helpful paper on obstetrical experiences in Futsing city, which was followed by one on "Nursing requirements in our mie-sion hospitals "by Miss E. Hope Bell, of Hankow.. The nursing equipment of the hospitals, she said, must depend upon what standard of nursing they meant to aim but in every hospital, whether in inconvenient quarters or in up-to-date buildings, if there was to be any efficient nursing of the patienta, and any real teaching of the principles and art of nursing, there must be a fully trained nurse as matron. Nurses can only be taught by nurses." The points touched upon included: the superintendent of Original fr
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.