In the Turkish empire a remarkable impetus has been given to the material development of Asia Minor and Syria, which may be largely traced to the quickening influences of American missions. Mission converts are proverbially men of affairs, alert and progressive, and in full sympathy with modern ideals of progress. The change in their personal environment, and in the temper and spirit of their lives, testifies to new impulses, higher ambitions, and an enlarged and increasing sympathy with modern progress. As long ago as 1881, an incident of commercial significance was reported in The Missionary Herald. It was announced that through missionaries at Harpoot nearly five hundred sets of irons for fanning-mills had been ordered from the United States, native carpenters having been taught to make the necessary woodwork which would render them available. Since then the introduction of American agricultural machines has increased, in spite of the difficulties and heavy cost of transportation. The German government has interested itself in securing concessions for a railway through Asia Minor to Bagdad and Busrah, with the evident expectation that German trade will find in those regions a profitable field of exploitation. If it should prove true that Mesopotamia may become a source of supply for the grain which Europe needs, there is good reason to expect that American agricultural implements will find a new market in Asiatic Turkey. Owing to the large emigration of Armenians to the United States, and the long residence of American missionaries in Turkey, no foreign country is better known or more admiringly regarded by the entire Christian element of Armenia than the United States. Mr. Charles M. Dickinson, Consul-General of the United States at Constantinople, regards even the material returns of American mission work in Turkey as justifying in large measure the outlay. His opinion is expressed in the following paragraph:

“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.”

[Pg 207]

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 [Pg 208] 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 c............