Read Ebook: Samuel Reynolds House of Siam pioneer medical missionary 1847-1876 by Feltus George Haws

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seemed to predominate. One class was the ulcers and running sores--many of them most aggravated. These usually were the result of long-neglected wounds. He writes of extracting bamboo splinters great and small that had become imbedded in the flesh and remained there to produce serious inflammation and infection. In such cases an ignorance too dense for intelligence to comprehend was the contributory cause of untold suffering. A second class of cases frequently appearing was that of fresh wounds resulting from drunken brawls, street fights, treachery and revenge, or self-mutilation. Scarcely a week passed but a patient was brought in with head cut open, face gashed, back lashed, or some other gaping cut. But most loathsome of all were the diseases which the doctor characterised as the result of vices--diseases which found victims among all sorts and conditions of men who "working that which is unseemly" received "in themselves that recompense of their errors which was meet."

A cursory review of one day's succession of patients will be suggestive. Here returns a man with a tumor on his ear, having the previous day been advised to come for an operation:

"With good courage and I believe without a trembling hand, I sat down to this, my first operation not only in the Kingdom of Siam, but the first operation I think I ever undertook. It was a simple one, and oh, I cannot but catch such a glimpse of my Father's loving-kindness in thus gently leading his poor ignorant by such simpler cases into the confidence in myself necessary to do the more serious cases which will doubtless fall to my lot.... Believing that without His blessing the simplest operation would fail and with it the most doubtful one might prosper, I lifted up my heart a moment to Him in whose name I had ventured to come among this people to try to do them good."

While attending him, a boat came up with two women, one a loathsome object full of sores and scabs--face, hands and limbs--the scars of former ulcers. A Chinaman with a scrofulous neck--a lad with gastric derangement--a boy whose leg was transfixed with a sharp piece of bamboo--so moves the procession. As he returns late for dinner he observes:

"This morning was fully occupied till dinner at 2 p. m., trying to do the works of mercy--how could I send any away empty! And oh, how happy I should have been in such Christ-like works had I but knowledge of the diseases, and judgment and skill. As it is now, the deciding what is to be done with each case is an act of the mind positively painful, because I am constantly fearing that I may not follow the best possible plan."

On another day thus reads the entry:

"On going down to the floating house at 9 a. m., found several new patients. A Chinaman of fifty, with caries of the lower jaw, skin of cheek adhering, pus has discharged from a large cavity within the mouth. Another Chinaman with syphilitic destruction of the bones of the nose--a hole left in the flattened face where pus was discharging.... He seemed to be in great torment--eaten of worms literally. Now a mother brings a naked child of five, having large ulcers and a lump on the thigh, the sequel of the smallpox had two or three months ago. A Chinaman brings the child of a friend; poor lad, the smallpox had destroyed one eye and blinded the other--so no hope, no remedy."

BUSY DAYS AND A BURDENED HEART

"When I awaked in the morning found two sets of servants waiting for me--one from Prince Chao Fah Noi, who had sent his boat for me to go up to his palace just as soon as I could finish my breakfast; another from Chao Arim, the King's brother, wishing me to come over and see some one in his palace very sick. My first duty of course was to attend to little George, whom I found still living, though much the same. This occupied the time before breakfast. After a hasty meal, stepped into the sampan sent for me --having dismissed the Prince's servants with a note requesting to be excused. On the other shore entered gates of the city wall.... While I was waiting for the Prince to be notified of my arrival, servants gathered around; examined my clothing, one wished me to take off my hat to see if my head was shaved, another admired my watch--the ticking pleased the children mightily. Some strong ammonia I had pleased them very much. A young man with a flaming long jacket of red silk came out; all servants squatted on the ground. This young Prince conducted me up a rude ladder to the bamboo dwelling of the sick man.

"Returning, invited to see the great man himself. The audience halls of these great men are after all rather well-adapted to the climate; immense rooms, lofty ceilings, furniture of matting, etc. Returning to my place, found a boatman from the Moorish Madras merchant's awaiting me. Accompanied the Hindoo, who had been sent for me, in his open boat with umbrella over my head; the sun, however, very hot, though this is our cold season. Some distance down the river landed at the Nackodah's commercial establishment, and found myself in the midst of quite a number of intelligent looking and polite Mahommedan Hindoo merchants and clerks, with their picturesque costume; the turban of twisted shawl and robes of thin white muslin, and sandals. Was received very courteously, conducted to a bamboo house nearby. The patient, a fine looking man, swarthy, with aquiline nose and mustache, lay on a mat bed behind a screen.... And now the voice of Dit, a servant of Chao Fah Noi, was heard; he had followed on after me, not finding me at home--the Prince being very desirous of seeing me. So I stepped into the handsome boat he had sent, and was soon at the palace. Here received with a smile of welcome.... Wished me to shew him how to make chlorine gas. Succeeded well. Gave him a piece of fluorspar and directions for etching glass. Left several jars of chlorine. His boat in readiness to take me back.... In the evening a call from Prince Ammaruk, in his priestly yellow robes, several priests with him."

All these interesting scenes and varieties of experience, however, did not lighten the burden of the heart. When a patient suffered pain and inflammation after an operation, he cries out:

"How can I go forward in a profession where I may inflict suffering. If it was only injury to property and not to life and health and senses! Alas, how hard a destiny, how could I choose this profession!"

On a Saturday night he sighs:

"And so ends another week during which mercies have been ever changing, ever new. It has been a week of labors for Christ ... and yet, though my poor head is ready to ache with the task of deciding, judging, prescribing, I find a sweet kind of weariness that comes from serving Jesus Christ."

Such a tender heart and sympathetic nature suffered most where it could help the least. The obstetrical customs of the country in particular caused the doctor both distress and irritation on account of the lamentable ignorance displayed and of the needless sufferings caused.

CHEER FROM GRATEFUL PATIENTS

The experiences of his professional practise were not all depressing. Operations were successful in spite of his fears, and when least expected. Most cheering was the gratitude of the patients, many of whom acknowledged their lives reclaimed from death by his hands. The marks of appreciation on the part of some of these were most touching.

"Have been permitted by a gracious providence this week to have the happiness of saving the life of a fellow-creature, which the venom of a poisonous snake was appearing fast to be destroying. Poor fellow, he was thankful enough. The first symptom of returning consciousness before he regained his lost power of speech was his attempt to put his feeble hands together and raise them to his forehead in token of his gratitude to his doctor. When three days after, sound in health and limb, he came to see me. 'Doctor, you are very, very good,' was his very emphatic expression of what filled his heart. And then he grasped my hand--a liberty men of his condition in life seldom take--in both his and repeated, 'You are very, very good.'"

Dr. House had adopted the policy of gratuitous service. His motive was to exemplify the Christian spirit by rendering these inestimable benefits without charge. Perhaps at the time he did not know the philosophy of the Siamese in the matter of good deeds.

The theory of the Buddhist religion is that a good deed gains merit for the doer. As a sequence, to be the recipient of a favour is to assist the other person to earn merit; and since the merit is ample reward for the good deed it is not necessary to make any personal return for the favour received. When Dr. House later came to understand this philosophy he perceived why it was that "of ten healed only one returned to give thanks." Yet there were not a few whose natural sense of gladness was not wholly suppressed by their religious theories. One day, three or four years after he had been in Siam, he went out along one of the canals into the country to a limekiln to get some lime for the new house under construction at the mission. An old woman came out to wait upon him, and to his surprise she refused to take pay; and explained that some time previously the doctor had healed her little girl.

The set policy not to accept fees was not so easily understood by the Chinese to whom he ministered. Frequently, to avoid offense, the Doctor found it necessary to compromise by accepting gifts in lieu of money; and then he would be the recipient of generous presents of fruit, quantities of rice, numerous cakes of sugar and small chests of fine tea--gifts in such abundance that he had to share them with his friends to dispose of all.

But not least of the rewards for professional service did he esteem the acquaintance and friendships among the patients. These people came from many parts of the country and there were numerous representatives from other countries. Sailors from European ports sought him out for medical treatment, Chinese tradesmen and junk captains, Malays, Burmese, Peguans, Cambodians, Lao, and the foreign merchants from India. Then, too, Bangkok the capital of Siam was visited periodically by officials from the distant provinces, many of whom came for professional advice to the foreign physician. The contact established with these various peoples, and especially with the provincial governors, served to excellent advantage in after years when the doctor made tours into the far regions. In particular, the under-Governor of Petchaburi who came for professional advice, invited the doctor to visit his provincial capital, and in later years when he had been promoted in office and rank in Bangkok he remained the steadfast friend of Doctor House.

WITH THE PATIENTS

There were bits of humour now and then amidst the procession of human tragedies.

"While feeling the pulse of the patient and holding my watch to count its beat, another man sitting by begged me to feel his, and after I had counted it he gravely asked me 'in just how many years after this he would die.'"

Some of the humour was grim humour indeed; for one day he was hastily summoned only to find that the supposed patient was a corpse. Humourous from one point of view but quite perturbing for a physician was the innocent disregard for the directions left with medicines; indeed the doctor could never tell whether the failure of a prescription was due to the ineffectiveness of the drugs or to the failure of the patient to take the medicine as prescribed, for he found that the patient was liable to take the whole potion at once or just as liable to have another member of the family take the remedy vicariously.

Quite frequently, when the callers from a distance came to see him, they made the parting request for medicine to take home with them, and thought it altogether needless for the doctor to know what disease they expected to use it for. Pathetic was the case of the cholera patient consumed with fever who begged the doctor to give "medicine to cure the desire for drinking water." Even more simple-minded was the old man who came to inquire if he could be healed if he "wyed" to Jesus,--that is to make the reverential bow of worship customarily accorded to the image of Buddha. Then there was the deaf man who came back to report that he had read "the Christian book of magic" and that it had failed to cure him.

Not the least perplexing of these absurd situations was the difficulty of securing necessary permission to administer the medicines even after the doctor had been especially summoned:

"The poor woman who lay on a mattress bolstered up was in great distress evidently--and I soon found that no time was to be lost. I shall never forget how piteously she turned her anxious eyes towards me as she faintly said, 'Can you heal me?' I recommend certain treatment. Nothing could be done, however, till the matter had been submitted to the Praklang. So a messenger was despatched, His Excellency again aroused from his nap;--and what a message brought back: The application of hot cloths would be permitted, but the more effective treatment proposed was something new--he did not know--he could not consent to it. Thinking then of another mode of treating the case and not dreaming but that this I might venture to give--but no; this prescription must be reported to headquarters before it could be administered. Again a messenger was despatched. The answer came back: we must wait to see what a hot fomentation would do; if this did any good then the prescription might be tried."

"THE MAN WITH THE GENTLE HEART"

"This day thirteen years ago, while a just-arrived student at Dartmouth College, it pleased my sovereign Maker to manifest His everlasting love to me by inclining my heart to choose Him as my portion, and His service as my reward."

Such is his salutatory in the service of God, as recorded by Samuel R. House, in his journal under date of Feb. 22, 1848. He had been in Siam less than a year; long enough however for the novelty of his situation to abate a little so that he had time to reflect. Reflecting, he sees how that youthful dedication was--so far as he was consciously concerned--the beginning of the lines of life that led him to Siam.

Four years later, on the anniversary of his arrival in Siam, contemplating the fruitlessness of those years and ready to incriminate himself for "a culpable ignorance of the language," he again writes:

"How different doubtless am I regarded at home by over-esteeming friends. How false a biography would that be, some of them would write.... Let no one eulogise such a character, such a worthless, unworthy life as mine. If a Christian hope be the joy of my life, by the grace of God I am what I am; but my waywardness, my inefficiency is all my own."

The cause of this despondency was not within himself. It was the miasma arising from the spiritual decay around him. But as none liveth unto himself, so none dieth to himself. The example of such persistent faith belongs to the church; and it has too great a value for the living to allow the judgment of a passing despondency to prevail.

At length comes the valedictory. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of permanent work in Siam by the Presbyterian Church in 1897, Dr. House wrote to a friend:

"And now in my eightieth year, sole survivor of that little band, I feel it a privilege indeed to look back and see what God hath wrought since that day of small beginnings. Verily the little one has become a thousand--yes thousands. I am sure you, my friend, will congratulate me on being yet alive this blessed day of an abundant ingathering from that long barren mission field. How the loved ones that have entered into rest would rejoice if they could see how their patience of hope and labour and love have not been in vain in the Lord. There are many in heaven to raise the song of jubilee with them, even there."

From that early dedication of self to God while in college, through the years "cast down but not destroyed," to the golden jubilee--what a strain of human effort, what a magnificent persistence of faith, what a glory of hope realized!

HIS CHARACTER

The man who had this notable experience would not have been singled out, even by those who knew him intimately in early manhood, as the one most likely to achieve the results which we are to review. The qualities casually observed by acquaintances were in his case those which men do not ordinarily associate with success. A study of his private journal and letters manifests traits which are corroborated by many who knew him personally. He was a man of deep piety. He was scrupulous regarding the outward appearance of religion, yet more so concerning his inner life. He was verily a man of God. His mental nature had a strong inclination to introspection, which led to self-depreciation and self-distrust. He recoiled from a new venture until he became convinced that it was the will of God; then, though still distrusting his own ability, he laid hold of the task with a simplicity of faith and a devotion to duty which made him invincible. It is an example of how the Holy Spirit, when fully occupying a man's heart, enlarges and fortifies his native capacity until the one who is small in his own esteem becomes a giant.

That habit of introspection may have been due in part to the austere idea of religion which prevailed at the time; at any rate it gave him a somber demeanor. The solemn side of life seems mostly before him, although his associates found a playfulness and jocularity about him that offset his soberness. Only thirty years of age when he left home, yet from the first his letters to his father read more like the letters of a father to a son. But deeper and stronger than either of these traits was his tender sympathy. It was more than a sympathy of sentiment; it was a sympathy that caused him to share the sufferings of others. Concerning his medical work he said: "When I cannot relieve, I suffer." This eagerness to relieve pain led him to a forgetfulness of his own interests which his physique marvellously endured.

HIS PARENTAGE

Samuel Reynolds House was born in Waterford, New York, Oct. 16, 1817, being the second child of John and Abby Platt House. His parents both united with the Presbyterian Church of that village upon profession of faith, in 1810. At that time the Waterford congregation was in collegiate relation with the congregation of Lansingburgh, located eastward across the Hudson River, under the pastorate of Rev. Samuel Blatchford, D.D. In the next year John House was elected an elder in the collegiate church; and when the Waterford congregation became a separate organisation, in 1820, Mr. and Mrs. House became charter members of the new organisation, and Mr. House was continued as an elder--an office which he held till his death, April 27, 1862.

The active interest of Mr. House in the spiritual work of the church is indicated by the fact that he conducted a Sunday school for coloured children in a room in a carpenter shop, and when the young church erected a house of worship, in 1826, this Sunday school was transferred to the gallery of the church. He is also recorded as having been the superintendent of the regular Sunday school of the church after it was established. His interest in the church continued active up to the close of his life. In his later years, when the congregation was considering the construction of a new "session house" for the use of the Sunday school and prayer meeting, John House sought the privilege of erecting the building at his own expense; and that fine building, erected in 1859, remains today as a memorial to his love and zeal for the church.

Abby House was one of the original members of the "Female Cent Society" of the Waterford church, organised in 1817. The object of this society was to "afford assistance to poor and pious young men pursuing their studies in the theological seminary at Princeton." The quaint name of this society was double with meaning. Each member was pledged to contribute one cent a week to the fund, which was then placed in the hands of the moderator of Presbytery to dispense. Later the society co-operated with the American Education Society until the General Assembly forbade that organisation to operate within the denomination in competition with the new Board of Ministerial Education. The word "female" suggests that the sex was about that period emerging into the self-consciousness of a separate work for religion and was not content to keep its labours hidden behind the mask of the male portion of the families.

If we were to seek for the motives that led young Samuel to dedicate himself to foreign missions we would not be surprised to find that the mother had some of the credit. He says that he was prompted to become a missionary because his mother dedicated him to God for foreign missions from his infancy. Out of that maternal inspiration came also the prayer of his youth:

"Make me a good boy And a blessing to my parents And a blessing to all the world."

The ambition thus early implanted was nurtured during the boyhood years by stories of missions. When in later years he visited the Hawaiian Islands on his way to Siam he recalls those stories:

"How little did I dream I was ever to see them, when that dear mother of mine used to tell me such interesting stories about the missionaries there and show me, out of her treasures kept in that always-locked drawer of her bureau, the precious bit she had of native cloth made of the bark of a tree. And when she took me to the 'Monthly Concert,' as she always did, how much I used to be interested in news from those far away isles."

RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS

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