On the book cover is an excellent likeness of Dr. Main, and within the Book are sixteen filustrations, The life of Dr, Main has been well written and should be of special Interest to all who knew him though to those who had this privilege, it would seem as if the account had hardly "done him justice. To all others this book will present a vivid Dleture of the life of two pioneers who. in their early days experienced hardships which are little known to many in our port cities and in places that have become more modern in their ways.
There are many men who are merged into the general average and who make no distinct impression on their fellow men. But those who met Dr, Main will never forget him. His humour was irrepressible. could tell an old joke for the Afth or sixth time with such relish that fo his hearers the old joke never became stale.
Dr. Main was brought up as 0 Scottish Presbyterian and on his retirement, in Edinburgh, he became an elder of St George's West Congregation of the Church of Scotland, of which Dr, James Black was then {ts "noted pastor. The funeral ser~ vice to Dr, Main was also held in this Church but the service at the grave was held in the Dean Cemetery end was that of the Church of England, Dr. Main's fe work was conducted under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society.
He was a man of great administrative ability, without which he could never have built up such a remark able work and equipment. In ad-ition to his Hospital. of "Universal Benevolence, with its extensive staff of physicians and nurses, he founded fu opium refuge, a leper asylum, a convalescent home and medical college. Many of his former stude fare mow engaged in medical practice in various parts of China,: Thi entire medical work of the C.NMLS. Ig now carried on under the direction of Dr. 8, D. Sturton who has most ably continued the work of his predecessor.
Tu 1931 it was my privilege with wife to accompany Dr. and Mrs. Main and be their guest at lunch a wayside inn." Suddenly the doctor made enquiry as to whether there was any record of himself and his wife having visited this place and dining there, on their honeymoon, fifty years' ego. To his disappointment, the record did not go back for more than about twenty years.
He was a hard worker, he was careful of the pennies that he might make them go far, but I have seen him os tender-hearted as a woman in the presence of real distress and 'a5 generous as the tender-hearted are. He loved Scotland and the loved the Chinese. There are many who loved him and Mrs. Main.
In the biography, as written by Alexander Gammie, there is much, in the picture of former days, inspire those who live to-day under conditions quite different, yet rooted most intimately in the past—nr.r.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.