Daybreak in Turkey / Second Edition

by James L. Barton

“In all our efforts to extend American commerce, in the hard struggle to establish and maintain direct steam communication with New York, the opening of American expositions and agencies, and the introduction of new articles of manufacture, many of the missionaries have been willing pioneers, blazing the way for American exporters, and doing valuable introductory work through their knowledge of the local languages and their influence with the people. From every standpoint, therefore, I do not see how the American missions in Turkey, as they are at present conducted, can fail to be of distinct advantage to the commerce and influence of the United States.”

—James S. Dennis,
in “Christian Missions and Social Progress.”

There was no purpose or plan at the beginning of missionary work in Turkey to make special use of the physician. Whenever a man was appointed as missionary who had taken a full course of medicine he was not sent out especially as a medical missionary, but went as did the others, with the understanding that he was an evangelistic missionary and was to use his medical skill as an auxiliary force. The outfit of the early medical missionaries, like Dr. Grant and Dr. Asa Dodge of Syria, was exceedingly circumscribed, consisting of a few standard remedies and simple instruments and appliances. There was no suggestion of a hospital or even a public dispensary. The medical missionary was able to transport the major part of his equipment upon a horse and apply his art at any point along the way. After the days of pioneering were passed and the various mission stations were well established, the medical missionaries began to prepare for a broader and more thorough work.

The country had no modern physicians when the Board began work there and no schools for medicine. The people submitted to the most loathsome and cruel methods of treatment at the hands of heartless old women and unskilled men who traded upon their sufferings. From the beginning the fullest confidence was placed in the American physician. He was deemed by the ignorant and needy masses as little less than a worker of miracles. His reputation gave not only himself but his missionary associates standing among all classes in the country. His presence often proved in times of stress to be a large element of safety for all members of the station. The Turkish officer and persecuting ecclesiast did not care to injure the man into whose hands their lives might soon be placed by disease or accident. They thought it good policy to keep on fairly good terms with the doctor.

Medical work in the empire took its earliest and strongest hold upon Beirut and Aintab. In the former place a hospital was erected and a medical school was in operation in the ’70’s. Aintab took the same step ten years later, but finally, for want of funds, gave up the medical school but continued the hospital. The next mission hospital to be erected was at Mardin. Until the last decade these constituted the main mission hospitals in the empire. Hospitals have followed at Cæsarea, Marsovan, and Van, while others are contemplated at Harpoot, Sivas, Erzerum, Adana, Constantinople, and elsewhere.

Many Greeks and Armenians have qualified themselves for medical practise in Turkey by taking a course of training either in the medical department of the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut or the medical schools in Europe or the United States. The laws of Turkey are so stringent in regard to the practise of medicine, or rather so oppressive, that it is almost impossible for a subject of Turkey to win great success in it. The law permits the arrest and imprisonment of a physician upon the complaint of any one that he did not correctly treat a case which ended fatally. When once he has been imprisoned it costs a round sum to secure release. This process repeated destroys practise and eats up profits. Many a well-trained Armenian doctor has been compelled to give up the effort and return to the United States. There are several Armenian physicians enjoying a good and honorable practise in this country. The foreign physician enjoys the extra territorial privileges of his country and, although often annoyed, is not seriously disturbed by restrictive measures. He practises under a license granted by an official medical board at Constantinople.

Medical missions in Turkey have opened the eyes of all classes to the value of scientific medical practise. Were it not for the restrictive measures of local officials, every town of considerable size in the country might now have its native physicians, the most of whom were trained in Christian schools. Until that time arrives the American missionary physician will have large place in the life of the country. His importance there is due to this fact, and also because of the confidence reposed in him by the higher Turkish officials. They regard the work of the medical missionary as supremely Christian. It commands their admiration. Not a little of the hold which the missionaries now have upon the country is due to his presence and work. In imitation of the missionaries, the Turks themselves have attempted, at different places, to maintain hospitals of their own for the care of soldiers and officers, but these have usually been of little value unless the physician in charge was a European or a man trained by the missions.

Medical work in Turkey is probably nearer self-support than that of any other missionary country except Japan. The people are willing so far as able to pay for medicines received and for services rendered. Wealthy officials often make a handsome present to the missionary physician treating them, thus making it possible to treat many poor without pay. The hospital at Mardin, for instance, receives in fees and in payment for medicines enough to meet all expenses except the salary of the American physician in charge. The hospital of Aintab receives little money from the Board.

Medical missions in Turkey are less hampered by officialism and hindered by opposition than any other form of missionary work. Physicians are more generally welcomed and their benefits more widely appreciated than anything else the missionaries do. While the other departments cannot be and ought not to be curtailed, much less abandoned, in view of all the conditions that prevail there with the constant scourges of pestilential diseases and the recurrence of violence and massacre in different parts of the country, there is an unlimited field for the operations of the Christian missionary physician who commends the gospel which he preaches to all with whom he comes in contact. At the same time, this work, compared with the extent of its influence, costs perhaps less than any other form of purely missionary service.