FOLLOWING THE GREAT PHYSICIAN I Hospital for Women and Children Nellore, South India Hospital for Women and Children Nellore, .South India Physicians Dr. Lena Benjamin, pirst sailing to field, 1902. Birth- day, October 17. Church membership, First, Brad- ford, Pa. Dr. Lena M. Enclish. First sailing to field, 1925. Birthday, January 4. Church membership, First, Erie, Pa. Indian Doctors Dr. Nandama (Part of the year. Now Mrs. Henry Moses). Dr. Kanthama continues her faithful service. Nurses Miss Annie S. Macilton (R.N.). First sailing to field, 1904. Birthday, December 3. Church membership, Second, Germantown, Pa. Miss Gladys A. Dorrie (R.N.). First sailing to field, 1920. Birthday, November 16. Church membership, West Somerville, Mass. Miss Harriet Barrington (R.N.). First sailing to field, 1921. Birthday, November 23. Church mem- bership, Granville, Ohio. Miss Helen Benjamin (R.N.). First sailing to field, 1926. Birthday, September 13. Church membership, Garfield Baptist, Chicago, 111. Interne Miss Rachel Mathews. Graduate Vellore Medical School. “Through the medical work in such countries as India we have come to understand better than ever before something of the depths of the darkness in which the people live, for there is a battle field that takes a heavier toll of life each year than that recorded by the white crosses of Flanders and of France.” In the 2 Village Dispensary held in church building at Edugali. Some of the patients. Dr. Benjamin and Miss Barrington third decade of the woman’s work for women and children in the Orient it became evident that one of the greatest needs of our Telugu Mission was a cen- trally located and well equipped hospital. In 1894 N'ellore was chosen as the most desirable station, and the hospital building was completed and formally opened in 1897. The original buildings at Nellore were soon out- grown. They have been added to and replaced until now there is a fine group of buildings, including the hospital, dispensary, bungalow where missionary doctors and nurses live, and the maternity ward and nurses’ home. A picture just received from the field shows Mrs. Goodman opening the door of the beautiful new Paige Dispensary for Dr. Lena Benjamin. During the year of 1925, when Dr. Benjamin was at home on furlough, the New England District voted to make this Hospital for Women and Children in Nellore their Jubilee Hospital. The choice of Nellore has justified the faith and courage of our pioneers who followed the Great Physician into Telugu land. The station is a strategic center in an important field, and the impact of woman’s medical work upon the whole community is immeasur- able. The hospital with its varied ministry has de- veloped and now commands the respect of the govern- ment and the confidence of the caste people who are found in ever increasing numbers in the work. God’s 3 providential leading in medical work among women has been very manifest through the years in Nellore, for to women who are secluded as in India, and pre- vented from receiving aid from men physicians, this hospital has been the very gateway into truth, and has taught the sacredness of life. In India the amount of unnecessary suffering on the part of mothers and the high death rate of mothers and babies is terrific. In a land where the most elementary rules of sanita- tion are disregarded because unknown, the hospital helps to fight the plague and to teach the people them- selves how to fight it. The Christian hospitals of India, we are told, have been so successful in this that an appreciable effect has been made on the health of the Christian community. Since Dr. Benjamin began her work in 1904, she has ever maintained that medical work is a kingdom enterprise. She has based her conviction upon scriptu- ral authority, for she cites the example of Christ, who called the twelve together and sent them forth to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. In the Hospital for Women and Children in Nellore, the twin ministries of preaching and healing have ever gone hand in hand. The in-patients have been found responsive, for so many times the question, "Can I be healed?” has given way to the joyous testimony, “I have been healed.” In evangelistic work with patients in the hospital the aim is to deal personally with each patient every day. The early morning song and prayer service begins the day and is attended by nurses and helpers in the institution and all patients who are able to be up. There are three Bible women connected with the hospital. They work in the hospital and dispensary. One always goes out with the car to the village dis- pensaries and they do much calling on former patients both in Nellore town and in the villages. They are trained, consecrated Christian women and are accept- able and popular with the caste patients. The touring into the interior offers unique evangelistic opportunity. Let Dr. Benjamin herself tell of the new dispensary connected with the hospital. Dispensaries “The village dispensary in Mulamudi, opened last year, has been kept open throughout the year and has been a blessing to the people on that side of the field. 4 Mrs. Goodman opening the doors of the new Paige Dispensary in Nellore. February 19, 1927. Dr. Lena Benjamin at her right. In August this year we started another experiment along the same line. Once a week we go to Edugali, a village about twenty miles away in the southeast corner of the Nellore field. There we spend the morn- ing and then we come back to another village, Iskapalem, about twelve miles from Nellore and one and one-half miles from the main road, and there we spend the afternoon. We leave Nellore at about 7 :30 A.M. and get back at about 7:00 P.M., after having treated from 140 to 240 patients in the two places. A doctor, a nurse, a dispenser, a Bible woman and a preacher go on each trip. In each place the dispensary is held in our church-schoolhouse and in addition to our force from Nellore the pastor and his family are present and help. We begin with a meeting, and afterwards there is a continual service going on while the medical members of our party are treating the sick, who come to us in crowds. We believe that it is true evangelistic work. I began by calling it an ex- periment — the experimental part of it consists in seeing whether we can stretch our finances over it. We are using our best endeavors to make the work in Nellore self-supporting as rapidly and as completely as possible. “The new dispensary, a part of the New England Jubilee gift, is nearing completion, and materials are being gathered together for other buildings.” 5 The Nurses’ Training School “We feel,” writes Dr. Benjamin, “that the nurses’ training school has made progress this year, in that we have no undergraduate who has not read through the eighth standard or third form of a recognized school. The last year’s results were pleasing, too, in that we had but one failure in the entire school and the junior class stood high in their examinations, two getting dis- tinction. The nurses and compounders are as inter- ested as we are in going out to the village dispensaries, even though it means a long, busy day,” A new plan is being tried at the hospital this year, as Miss Rachel Mathews, a graduate of the Vellore Medical School, is an interne. It is hoped by the staff that this will become a permanent feature of the work for it gives the graduate an opportunity to gain experi- ence before going into a regular position. The hospital rejoices in the reinforcements from the homeland. Dr. Lena English and Miss Helen Benjamin are the new recruits. They are busy with their language study, and spend many of their leisure hours mingling with the people and becoming familiar with manners and customs. Dr. English writes, “During the short time that I have been in India, I have been endeavoring to get a reading and speaking knowledge of the Telugu langu- age and at the same time become acquainted with a number of our patients and learn something of Indian customs. To do this I have been pursuing various methods. “Now and then we are invited by caste people and by Christians to take meals in their homes. This is one of the treats which comes to medical missionaries and affords an opportunity for greater friendship with the people. It is hard to convey the thrills of visits in Indian caste homes and the thrills of realization that I am able to enter into these dear people’s lives a little more each month as my knowledge of the language increases.” No record of the hospital in Nellore would be com- plete without mention of the two Indian doctors who have done such faithful, efficient work, Doctors Nandama and Kanthama. Nandama was the first Telugu Baptist woman to graduate from a medical college. Her grandparents were baptized by Dr. Clough on the memorable day when 2,222 went down 6 into the water. Her parents are Christians and active in Kanigiri. For some months during the furlough of Dr. Benjamin, Dr. Nandama was the only woman physician in charge. She is now married and, as Mrs. Henry Moses, has gone with her husband to another field. She will be greatly missed, but Dr. Kanthama remains and the staff depend very much upon her. With the present interest in medical work, it is diffi- cult to realize that in the early days of our work for women and children, people repeatedly asked the ques- tion, “What are medical missions and how are they justified?” When one of our first doctors returned from the field with a burning message of the needs in the far off lands, it is recorded that interest was so feeble that when it was announced that a medical missionary would speak, only two were present at the meeting besides the speaker. Gradually missionary- minded people have come to realize that, as medical evangelism was a part of early Christianity, so this twofold ministry challenges today. Statistics of Nellore for the Year 1926. In-patients 1,636 Out-patients (Nellore) 6,446 Out-patients (village dispensaries) 4,101 Indian trained nurses 5 Nurses in training 24 In the leaflet, Our Medical Work in the Orient , will be found valuable information relative to medical work in India. Epistle Two of The Baptist Family in For- eign Mission Fields gives an interesting letter from Nellore descriptive of the work and buildings. MARY LATHROP BISHOP, Editor of Hospital Series. 7 Published for the Woman's American Baptist Foreign Mission Society by The Board of Missionary Cooperation of the Northern Baptist Convention 276 Fifth Avenue, New York City 3.90fi-I-5M-May,1927-Free