In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

4 The Alice Memorial Hospital and the Vision of a Medical School IT SHOULD now be clear that the idea of introducing Western medical education into China had been in the minds of many for some time. But it is never easy to pinpoint always either the first serious effort to introduce such things or the identity of the person who did so. So it was in Hong Kong. Endacott {in The University ofHong Kong-The First Fifty Years at p.23) states that Rev A.B. Hutchison of the Church Missionary Society and, he says, no doubt others of whom no record exists, appears to have been the first, in 1872, to suggest that Hong Kong should have a university but that idea was, in the Hong Kong of those days, ahead of its time and the idea was not pursued. But so far as the idea of a medical school is concerned, the first proponent appears to have been that mercurial and controversial Governor of Hong Kong, Sir John Pope-Hennessy, who, having learnt of the existence of a Western-trained Chinese doctor, proposed at a speech day at Hong Kong's Central School in 1878 that a course of medical training be devised. He suggested that the pre-clinical work should be undertaken at the Central School and that the clinical training should take place at the Tung Wah Hospital. He directed the headmaster of the Central School, Frederick Stewart, later Colonial Secretary and involved in the establishment of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese in 1887, to draw up a scheme but there the matter appears to have rested at that time. Pope-Hennessy was a man who threw out controversial ideas which frequently did not much commend themselves to the influential European population but very shortly there were other forces at work. A wealthy merchant, Emmanuel Raphael Belilios (who once offered to erect a statue of Disraeli, an offer politely declined by the great man - Belilios put up the Beaconsfield Arcade instead) offered to fund two Chinese students' medical education abroad and also offered to contribute towards the erection of a hospital. Then the London Missionary Society backed in 1881 the establishment in its premises in Taipingshan of a clinic run by Dr William Young which would offer Western medical treatment for Chinese patients. Finally, a group of doctors in private practice emerged who were willing to participate in the establishment of a hospital. All of these strands, perhaps, came together at the right 28 Constancy ofPurpose time in the right place. Stories such as this rarely have a clearly defined beginning. Perhaps Pope-Hennessy had after all sown some sort of seed which did not go wholly forgotten. It is perhaps appropriate to introduce a new actor in this particular drama - Ho Kai, the son of a pastor in the service of the London Missionary Society in Hong Kong from the earliest days, was certainly a visionary who played an extremely important part in the establishment of the hospital which was eventually to become the first home for the Hong Kong College of Medicine on its establishment in 1887. Ho Kai was born in Hong Kong, received his medical training at the Scottish University of Aberdeen and was called to the English Bar as a member of Lincoln's Inn of London. This education marked him out in his time and he epitomized a newly emerging class of Hong Kong Chinese - those with the benefit of a Western education. He was remarkable also for his time in that he married whilst in England an English woman, Alice Walkden, who accompanied him on his return to Hong Kong in 1881 but tragically died shortly only a few years later. When Ho Kai returned from his studies in Britain in 1882, he set up in practice as a doctor but his practice did not flourish - Europeans would not go to be treated by a Chinese and Chinese would not go to be treated by a Western-style doctor. Ho Kai turned to the practice of law. After his wife's death, Ho Kai's offer to finance the building of a hospital in her memory and this together with the willingness of some public spirited doctors, including Patrick Manson, a Scot with many years experience of the practice and indeed the teaching of medicine in China, to contribute their services, the willingness of the same Mr Belilios to support a hospital and the eagerness...

Share