Catalogue of Chinese books and manuscripts in the Library of The Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine / Hartmut Walravens ; introduction by Nigel Allan.

  • Walravens, Hartmut.
Date:
1994
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Catalogue of Chinese books and manuscripts in the Library of The Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine / Hartmut Walravens ; introduction by Nigel Allan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/200 (page XI)
    62 See British Medical Journal, Ê 1960, p.429f., and Lancet, I, 1960, p.34l. 63 In 1910 he was sent by the Manchu Imperial Government to Harbin in northern Manchuria where he organised plague hospitals and a plague service without any resources except his own ability as a scientist and administrator. Wu graphically described in his autobiography, Plague fighter. The autobiography of a modern Chinese physician, Cambridge, 1959, p.5ff., the devastation and suffering of the populace, and the bravery of the medical practitioners and their assistants with regard to possible infection. 64 Plague hospitals were established and a plague service came into being at the government's expense. 65 He retired to Ipoh where he continued to practise. He published extensively on plague and related subjects, his Treatise on Pneumonic Plague published in Geneva in 1926 being regarded as a classic work on the subject. 66 Letter from Wu to Thompson dated 2nd August 1913 and reply of 5 th August 1913 (Wellcome Institute Archives, uncatalogued). physician to contribute to Wellcome's collection of Chinese artefacts and books. Born in Penang, he had a distinguished career at Cambridge continuing his studies at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the Pasteur Institute in Paris, Halle University and at the Selangor Institute in Kuala Lumpur. 62 It was as director of the Manchurian Plague Prevention Service that he made a significant contribution to the suppression of a virulent epidemic of pneumonic plague which at the time claimed a hundred victims a day.63 Within three months he contained the outbreak and reported to the International Congress on Plague over which he presided at Mukden in 1911 that the source of the infection could be traced to marmot hunters who contracted the infection from the pelts of the giant marmot or tarbagon which hung in their huts. From his work, the marmot and related species were recognised as a source of plague in the Steppes and wastes of Manchuria and Siberia. The Manchurian Plague Prevention Service was established in 1912 with Wu as its first director 64 and in 1930 the Chinese National Quarantine Service was set up with stations at all important ports along the Chinese coast; again Wu was appointed director, a post he continued to hold until retirement in 1937. 65 Wu visited the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum early in August 1913. There he saw a stuffed marmot which interested him and he asked permission to borrow it to illustrate a lecture he was to give in the Albert Hall on the relationship of the tarbagan to plague. His paper, which he delivered on 7th August, comprised part of the tropical section of the 17th International Congress of Medicine attended by eight thousand delegates. 66 It appears from a letter of C.J.S. Thompson (1852-1943), Curator of the Wellcome Historical Medical 67 Wellcome Institute Archives, uncatalogued. 68 Further uncatalogued correspondence of 1920 between Wu and Thompson preserved in the Wellcome Archives concerns items illustrated in three articles, written by Wu about temple medicine in Peking and Chinese mummies. Thompson was trying to procure models of these items for the collection through Wu. 69 An unpublished list of this collection was made by C.J.W. Peck and submitted as a project for the MA degree in Library and Information Studies at University College London in 1990 - List of correspondence and papers in the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine relating to Dr B Hobson, Revd. Dr R Morrison and their families. With regard to correspondence concerning the donation, see items 20-23 of the list and uncatalogued xerox copies of relevant correspondence. 70 A dictionary of the Chinese language in three parts. The first part contains Chinese and English arranged according to radicals [keys]; the second part, Chinese and English arranged alphabetically and the third part, English and Chinese. 3 parts in 6 vols., published in Macao by P.P. Thorns from 1815 to 1823. 71 By the Mission Press. Museum, dated 12th January 1920, 67 that Wu had earlier presented the Museum with Chinese exhibits including Chinese block-printed books which are recorded in the Library's list of accessions for November 1913 and May 1914. These were possibly given as a result of his visit in August 1913 and includes a copy of an issue of the first daily newspaper in the world exclusively concerned with the progress of the plague in Manchuria and distributed free of charge to encourage sanitary measures as prevention against the plague. 68 The most recent major benefaction of Chinese material to the Institute Library was made between 1962 and 1965 by Captain Archibald Hobson. It consists of papers, letters, printed material, photographs and Chinese block-printed books belonging to Dr Benjamin Hobson (1816-1873), the donor's grandfather. Papers pertaining to the Revd Robert Morrison (1782-1834), Hobson's father- in-law and Morrison's son, John Robert Morrison (1814-1843) are also included in this collection. 65 Although a missionary, Robert Morrison is best remembered for his work as a translator and it was in this capacity that he laid down the foundations for the translation of western medical texts into Chinese. His three major works were: A Dictionary of the Chinese Language in three parts completed in 1823, 70 Grammar of the Chinese language, published in Serampore 71 in 1815 and, with the collaboration of the Revd. William Milne, a Translation of the Old and New Testaments in twenty-one volumes published in 1823. The first two of these publications are held in the Wellcome Institute Library and are described in this catalogue. On Morrison's death in 1843, the London Missionary Society was anxious