in Soochow. Intending to stay for only a year or two she stayed forty, Aghting a dramatic battle against ignorance, superstition. ith and disease, When she first arrived in the country sanitation was unknown and she became appalled as she saw the condition of the masses. Chinese doctors, she has stated in "her life story, "My Days of Strength," were rot allowed to examine their' women patients; frequently not even permitted to. see them. Women" in childbirth were left to the ungentle ministrations of ignorant midwives and the fear of the "foreign devil doctor" was so great, that often Dr. Fearn was summoned to attend a patient when it was too tate.
Ten Years In Soochow For ten years she stayed in Soochow, where her whirlwind energy won her the nickname of "the Small Typhoon." Faced with any deplorable condition her instant" reaction was "something must be done about "And always, something was. Baby cases formed a large part of her practice and she once Femarked to a friend that she had trained in surgery and had degenerated into obstetrics.
During her forty years of active practice she delivered into the world 6,017 babies; once as many as nine a' day. After marrying Dr. John Burrus Fearn, who had come from America to take charge of the Men's Hospital which was conducted by the missionary society for whom she worked, she came to, Shanghai. a children's wing having been built by her on the Soochow Hospital and' a vocational school for waifs and strays" having been instituted shortly before her departure, She also established the first ce-educational medical school in China through which much was done to overcome the Chinese distrust of the foreigner.
In Shanghai she not only donated her services to the Margaret Williamson Clinic but quickly became known as the city's leading hostess. Eventually she opened her own, hospital the unique Fearn Sanatonum, which although one of the smallest hospitals in the world, was also one of the most perfectly: appointed and run on extravagant lines, the patients eating from sterling silver trays while their callers were served with cocktails.
'Through all her years in China Dr. Fearn worked close to the Chinese against a background of ever-changing conditions. She came Into contact' with all" classes of society, social leaders, diplomats, bandits, business men, coolies and high officials, all of whom became her friends. "She mingled with them indiscriminately "and successfully. She witnessed the revolution of 1011, lived through the anxious days of the rebellion in 1913, and watched the White Russian invasion after the war as well as seeing at first hand the fighting in 1927 and the Sino-Japanese hostilities of 1932,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.