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tion to your remarks, and their attendance upon the established ordinances of religion.

"Of the hundreds of physicians who take their diplomas every year, are there none with the vows of God upon them? None who will unite in a work so glorious, and where their services are so much needed? In many stations they can accomplish more than ordained missionaries. They have the best passports to the dwellings, and hearts of the heathen-they possess a magnet, whose attraction gathers crowds, and reaches to places where we can never penetrate. While they can accomplish the most important part of a missionary's duties, they can do it under much greater advantage than those who have not their knowledge. Patients feel themselves under obligations, and are disposed to comply with any methods which may be devised for their spiritual benefit. Congregations have been thus formed, books widely distributed, instrumentality increased, and souls saved; besides, the perishing have been rescued from death, the suffering relieved, and the hearts of those who would have been widowed and fatherless made to sing for joy. The writer had an application for medical aid from the second. king in Siam. He was absent at the time, and did not return until after the death of the king. How readily mighta single effort in such instances lead to the most desirableresults."

From Sutton's History of the Orissa Mission. Speaking of a pilgrimage that came under his notice, that missionary remarks: "In the year 1825, the writer of this article attended, and witnessed such scenes of cruelty and misery, as no time can ever obliterate from his memory.

In one small space of ground (about an acre) he counted upwards of one hundred and forty dead bodies, and in another place ninety; the latter especially were exposed close by the highway, on each side of it, naked, swollen, and putrefying in the open face of day, while the numbers which might be seen in other places, and on the road-side far from Pooree (the place whither the pilgrims were bound) defied calculation. Were I to detail facts which came under my observation, of husbands losing their wives, wives their husbands, parents their children, children their parents, I could almost fill a volume. Let it suffice to quote the concluding language of a journal written on that occasion- We have relieved many a child of misery by administering medicine to the sick,

etc.""

The pilgrimages which are annually made in India to places sacred in the religion of the heathen, are occasions of the most appalling suffering. Poverty, heat, fatigue, anxiety, added to the gnawings of a guilty conscience, which leads them to undertake these works of penance; combine to produce this misery. How priceless are such opportunities for the itinerant missionary physician to join the pilgrim band, and while administering to the corporeal maladies of the sick among them, point the laden soul to Jesus! It is difficult to restrain the emotions of enthusiasm while fancying the night-fall closing around the encampment of such a multitude; and the weary missionary going from group to group to heal the sick, and to tell of a Saviour " mighty to save.' Such a scene would indeed be like those which were wont to be witnessed in apostolic days.

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From Reynolds's Voyage round the World in the U. S. Ship Potomac,—a work of high merit,—the accompanying evidence is furnished as to the great desire on the part of the natives of Sumatra for European medical aid. "Some of these unfortunate wretches," says he in speaking of the Achenese, "are afflicted with elephantiasis, a dreadful disease in which the skin comes off in flakes, and the flesh falls from the bones. This disease being deemed highly infectious, the hopeless sufferer is driven from society into the woods, where food is conveyed to him by his relations, until death puts a termination to his misery. They (the Achenese) are almost totally ignorant of the science of medicine or surgery, and are frequently annoying in their solicitations for remedies and medical advice; so that visitors frequently resort to quackery to get rid of their importunities." pp. 189,

190.

In his observations about the early inhabitants of the opposite Island-Java-he adds: "But whatever might have been the origin of the inhabitants, it is prettly generally conceded, that they were all idolaters until about the year 1370, when the Arab missionaries came among them, and commenced the work of conversion with their usual zeal, but with less violence than had heretofore marked the spread of the Mohammedan faith. Theyp ossessed a knowledge of medicine, which enabled them to effect several cures of persons of high rank, as well as many of the common people, of dangerous and what were then considered fatal disorders. This gained them a reputation for superior and supernatural attainments, which furthered their missionary projects to the extent of their wishes.” pp. 266, 267.

From Ellis's Polynesian Researches. After speaking at length of the low state of medical matters in the Society Islands, he says: "However great the influence of these persons (uatives) who administered medicine, or practised surgery, might formerly have been, it has entirely ceased since the people have been made acquainted with the more certain and efficacious application of English remedies. Like the priests in their temple formerly, the minister of their religion, at every station, is now sought in all cases of sickness as their physician, and no small portion of our time was occupied in administering medicine, so far as our scanty means would admit. This is a task necessarily devolving upon the missionaries, as the only Europeans residing among them either possessing medicine, or knowing how to use it; and it is a claim which we never desired to refuse. It is perfectly compatible with the higher duties of our station-the cure of their spiritual maladies. We have only to regret that we have not possessed better qualifications and more ample means for its efficient discharge. So long as our family medicine has lasted, we have been ready to share it with those who were in need, and have often been thankful, (when afflicted ourselves and destitute) to receive the simple remedies they were able to supply. The Missionary Society has readily furnished us with medical books and instruments; and for our own use a liberal supply of medicines, but it has generally been inadequate to the wants of the people. Medicine is expensive, and perhaps it would not be considered a just appropriation of the Society's funds to expend them in providing medicine for those among whom its agents labor; yet it is one of

the most affecting sights a missionary can witness, when visiting his people, to behold them enduring the most painful suffering, pining under the influence of disease, and perhaps sinking into a premature grave, and to know that, if he had the means within his reach, he could at least relieve them. . . . . . . The occurrences are not unfrequent wherein an anxious mother brings a poor sickly child to his house, with which she is obliged to return unrelieved; not because the disease is remediless, but because the missionary has not, it may be, a cheap and simple remedy to bestow. The natives would cheerfully purchase so valuable an article as medicine, by bartering in the islands the produce of their labor; but they have no means of so doing. If they send it to England, the return is distant and uncertain; and mistakes, embarrassing to them, are likely to occur. It is to be hoped, however, that as the means of inter-communication become more frequent and regular, these difficulties will be removed. Several generous individuals have laid the people of some of the islands under great obligations, of which they are duly sensible, by sending them out, gratuitously, some of the most useful medicines. It may not be necessary for a missionary in a civilized nation, where the healing art is cultivated, or going to a country where European Colonies are settled, or commercial establishments are formed, to be acquainted with the practice of physic. It is, however, important, and ought to be borne in mind by those who are looking forward to missionary work, and by those who patronize them, that it would be of the highest advantage for one going to an uncivilized people, to be acquainted with the qualities and use of

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