ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the origin, development, and expansion of the Canton Hospital and its dispensaries from 1835 when Dr. Peter Parker opened China's first Western hospital in Canton, until 1935. It shows how American doctors in Canton made contributions to the introduction of Western medicine into China and analyzes Western medicine's impact on the Qing officials, Lin Zexu and Qiying, who received medical treatments from American doctors. American medical missionaries created the Canton Hospital and initiated the dispensary movement to provide medical services to the sick, which helped promote modern medical work in south China. American medical missionaries also founded the Medical Missionary Society, the first of its kind in the world, which played a part in the founding of a national medical association in China. The chapter also examines the relationship between Western medicine and the progressive Cantonese reformers, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and Zheng Guanying, whose illnesses were cured with Western medicine.
