While there is still an evident tendency on the part of graduates of this school to feel that they know enough, and to desire to get to making money without delay, we are nevertheless managing to attract an increasingly large number of the more competent to the intern service of the Philippine General Hospital, where as the result of additional years of practical experience they become exceptionally proficient.
This institution, with its great free clinic, offers very exceptional facilities for practical instruction, and we have already trained some extremely competent Filipino physicians and surgeons.
As funds permit, hospital work is being extended to the provinces. At Cebú a thoroughly up-to-date sixty-bed institution is now open. A smaller one was established years ago at Baguio, where surgical work may be performed with great advantage on account of the rapidity with which convalescence occurs in the cool, pure mountain air, which also expedites the recovery of persons recuperating from wasting diseases.
A little more than a year ago a hospital was opened at Bontoc, the demand for accommodations being so great from the start that we did not even await the arrival of beds. Sick Igorots were only too glad to lie on the floor if their needs could be ministered to.
It had previously been the custom of the wild men to kill chickens, pigs or carabaos in case of illness, in order to propitiate evil spirits, the kind and number of animals killed being of course determined by the wealth of the patients. They have now satisfied themselves that quinine for malaria, salvarsan for yaws, and other effective remedies for common ailments are more useful and more readily obtained than was the helpful intervention of the anítos, or spirits of the dead, while the methods and results of modern surgery are a source of unending amazement and satisfaction to them.
The first surgeon to anesthetize a Kalinga became promptly and widely known as “the man who kills people and brings them to life again,” and the individual on whom he operated successfully, who chanced to be the most influential chief of the tribe, became his friend for life. Indeed, the results of medical and surgical work for the wild men have been an important factor in bringing about and maintaining friendly relations with them.
Their gratitude is at times very touching. At Atok, in Benguet, there lives an Igorot chief named Palasi. When he was already old a son was born to him. This boy, who was the delight of his declining years, became deathly ill with confluent smallpox, and the Igorots considered him as good as dead. At this time Sanitary Inspector Baron appeared on the scene. He promptly turned every one else out of the house and himself nursed the boy, saving his life. Palasi wished to pay him for his services, but was informed by Mr. Baron that the government paid him, and he could not accept additional compensation. Palasi promptly made the long journey to Baguio to ascertain whether Baron had told him the truth, and was informed by Governor Pack that this was the case. The old man retired to Atok, quite disgusted with the strange ways of Americans.
Six months later he again appeared at Baguio to ask the governor about a fiesta which he had just heard it was customary to celebrate on the 25th of December. He had been told that Americans were in the habit of giving presents to each other at this time, and asked if this was the ease. Governor Pack said yes. Palasi then inquired if the feast was a good feast, and the custom a good custom, and was assured that both of these things were true. He next asked if it would be a good feast for Igorots as well as for Americans, and receiving an affirmative reply from the unsuspecting governor, triumphantly declared that he was going to give Baron his best horse. Under the circumstances the governor allowed him to do so.
In connection with the Bontoc Hospital we use two men, one of whom travels from settlement to settlement, relieving minor ailments on the spot and sending to the hospital only those patients who need to go there, while the other stays at home and receives them. From time to time these two doctors “change works.” Pages from their daily journals, written in the field, often read like romance.
Were I a young man, and possessed of adequate knowledge of medicine and surgery, I would ask nothing better than to minister to the wants of these people. One might not, and indeed would not, acquire great wealth, but he would be rich in friends. Here lies a great field for practical missionary work.