Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/529



Since the establishment of the Cheung Mai mission in 1867 the missionaries have made the care of the sick a part of their regular work. Dr. Vrooman was the first missionary physician sent to Cheung Mai; he was compelled, on account of his health, to leave there in 1873, having remained only about two years. Dr. Vrooman's successor arrived in Cheung Mai in the spring of 1875. During the six months ending Sept. 30, 1875, about six hundred patients received treatment of the foreign doctor. The work has increased steadily since that time; in the year ending Sept. 30, 1882, thirteen thousand persons received treatment. This increase in seven years from about one thousand to thirteen thousand a year indicates that the work of the medical missionary supplies a demand.

Because of having no hospital accommodations, the work has been chiefly dispensary work, while as many as could be personally attended have been visited at their homes. Notwithstanding this large increase in the number of patients treated, the results of the medical work have not been very gratifying. The difficulties with which one has to struggle in dispensary work or house visitation are so great as to render any effort almost devoid of satisfactory results from