The medical certificate of Dr Wah Hing / by Albert Dressler.

  • Albert Dressler
Date:
1930
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The medical certificate of Dr Wah Hing / by Albert Dressler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    worked on up to quittin time. Then I saddled a boss and rode oyer toward town. My big idea wasi to find somebody who would Rmd me a plug of tobacco, but I also mad the curious idee that I might safe something un¬ usual. And, strangey, by gum, I did . As a sight for sensation-seekers, it beat anything I miMit have imagin¬ ed ; as for; picturing it out m all the detals—well, I reckon it can’t be done! / The road from the factory to the oil wells was /about two miles from town at the nearest point. As you come to the /turn, the road branched off on the nigh side of a wooden bridge and run down along the bank of a dry river bed. Just at the turn was a plaie where the rains had washed thje sand and dirt down into the river,/ leavin’ the rocky roadbed bare anM unprotected. Four purty good sized trees growed beside the road, sproutin’ in the cracks of the rocks and pushin’ up between the solid stones. The dirt had been wash¬ ed away from the trees, too, and some of the biggest roots was laid bare. /Altogether, it was a purty bad spot In the road—especially for a felle/haulin’ fifty gallons of nitro. Nobody knowed exactly what hap- Contmued on page 23 THE MEDICAL CERTIFICATE OF DR. WAH HING Continued from page 7 lations on the Doctor’s name by in¬ serting the letter “s” right after the name Wah. The newspapers, hun¬ gry for something new, seized upon the unique situation and played it up to the limit. Soon the. press of . other cities reprinted the article and it was only a few days until the entire na¬ tion was giggling at the discomfiture of the medical trio of Virginia City. Interpreters from nearby were called in, vegetable hucksters, wash¬ er men, cooks, wheeloarrow experts, and coolies from the labor ranks. One and all, when the acute situation was explained, let a broad smile play over his visage, and then, as though, struck by the evident humor of the predica¬ ment, professed total ignorance of the printed Chinese language, past, pres¬ ent and future. Finally an interpreter was secured from the Consulate, the hen tracks were deciphered and decoded into understandable English and the re¬ sult placed before the agitated group of doctors and authorities.. So just as the sun was dipping over the Western ranges, and while twi¬ light gently descended upon the iar- famed town of Virginia City, three sadder, but wiser, disappointed expo¬ nents of the medical fraternity slowly wended their ways to their respective domiciles, for the strange looking documents were nothing, more or less than a first-class medical diploma and graduate physician’s certificate from an accredited Chinese Univer¬ sity. Dr. Wah Hing was vindicated. Wah Hing, being duly sworn de¬ poses and says he is the person who is mentioned as a physician, who is now present, in the Diploma a cop;y of which he hereby files with the County Recorder, exhibiting the ori¬ ginal at the same time. That it was regularly granted to him as evidence of his skill and ability as a physician and surgeon at Hongkong in 1868, entitling his to alii the rights, and pri¬ vileges therein mentioned. TTT A TT TTT\Tn Filed and Recorded this 24 day of September A. D. 1886 at 4 o’clock P. M. John Ross, County Recorder. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 31st day of Sept., 1886. H. M. Huffaken, Notary Public.