A medical vocabulary in English and Chinese

Description

Shanghae: Shanghae Mission Press, 1858. — 74 p.醫學英華字釋.全體部位功用.全體之骨頭.Vocabulary of terms used in anatomy, medicine, materia medica, and natural philosophy. Anatomy and physiology. The osseous system.Benjamin Hobson was a British missionary and physician who lived in China for twenty years. He founded multiple hospitals in Southern China and used his knowledge of Western medicine to educate Chinese doctors. He wrote several medical textbooks in Chinese of which the first was the A New Theory of the Body (1851). The illustrations from his book were renditions and originals from William Cheselden's Anatomical Tables (1730) and Osteographia (1733). The Japanese version of Hobson's work appeared in Japan during the bakumatsu period (1853-1867), when Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy and began opening itself to the West. During this time, many books from Europe were translated into Chinese to then find their way into Japan. The Chinese anatomy textbook by Hobson (Quanti Xinlun) was instrumental in introducing Western anatomic knowledge to the Chinese and thereby catalyzing a significant change in the practice of medicine in China. A Japanese translation (Zen Tai Shin Ron) of this text published in the 19th century is reviewed.