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A Pioneering British Eye Surgeon in China

James G. Ravin, MD

Arch Ophthalmol. 2001;119:1530-1532.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Popular opinion of medical missionaries has undergone wide swings during the last 2 centuries. Individuals who traveled far from home, often into dangerous territory to spread their religious faith in conjunction with medical care, have been both praised enthusiastically for their benevolent work, and castigated as pompous, presumptuous, and overly pious.¹(vii) Considering the enormous effect these Europeans and Americans had in Asia, Africa, and South America, they are little remembered today.

One of the first Western-trained physicians to go to China was an Englishman, Thomas Richardson Colledge, MD (1796-1879).² After completing his medical education at St Thomas's Hospital in London, Colledge entered the service of the East India Company, the powerful mercantile firm. He practiced medicine in China, at Macao and Canton. He was employed initially by the East India Company, and later by the British government as a surgeon to the consulate at Canton. . . . [Full Text of this Article]

From the Division of Ophthalmology, Department of Surgery, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo.