prohibitory interdicts, first obtained by the French minister
Lagrene, invited the efforts of missionary societies in all lands.
In this connection it is only fair to say that, in 1860, when the
Peking expedition removed the remaining barriers, it was again
to the French that our missionaries were indebted for access to
the interior.

MEDICAL WORK

From the earliest dawn of our mission work it may be affirmed that
no sooner did a chapel open its doors than a hospital was opened
by its side for the relief of bodily ailments with which the rude
quackery of the Chinese was incompetent to deal. Nor is there at
this day a mission station in any part of China that does not in
this way set forth the practical charity of the Good Samaritan.
This glorious crusade against disease and death began, so far as
Protestants are concerned, with the Ophthalmic Hospital opened
by Dr. Peter Parker at Canton in 1834.

MEDICAL TEACHING

The training of native physicians began at the same date; and those
who have gone forth to bless their
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people by their newly acquired medical skill may now be counted
by hundreds. In strong contrast with the occult methods of native
practitioners, neither they nor their foreign teachers have hidden
their light under a bushel. Witness the Union Medical College, a
noble institution recently opened in Peking under the sanction
and patronage of the Imperial Government. A formal despatch of the
Board of Education (in July, 1906) grants the power of conferring
degrees, and guarantees their recognition by the state. For many
years to come this great school is likely to be the leading source
of a new faculty.

THE SEEDS OF A NEW EDUCATION

Not less imperative, though not so early, was the establishment of
Christian schools. Those for girls have the merit of being the first
to shed light on the shaded hemisphere of Chinese society. Those for
boys were intended to reach all grades of life; but their prime
object was to raise up a native ministry, not merely to cooeperate
with foreign missions, but eventually to take the place of the
foreign missionary.

THE EARLIEST UNION COLLEGE

One of the earliest and most successful of these lighthouses was
the Tengchow College founded by Dr. C. W. Mateer. It was there
that young Chinese were most thoroughly instructed in mathematics,
physics, and chemistry. So conspicuous was the success of that
institution that when the Government opened a univer