M. I. Ting M. D.
Peiyang Women's Hospital
Tientsin.Dear Miss Turner;
Your letter dated March the second came a month ago. Your gift of a book on Industrial Diseases reached me safely. I got those pamphlets about resuscitation. I thank you for all. So far as Tientsin is concernd [sic] everything is very quiet here. We hear rumors of this kind and that kind. They are more or less annoying. In order to keep myself in perfect condition for work I am giving more time for study than reading papers of any kind. I have read half of your book. I feel it would be selfish of me to keep such valuable book in myown [sic] library. Before reading this book I had no idea of how many varieties of Industrial Diseases. If you do not mind I would like to put this book at Nankai University Library. The latter is only fifteen minutes ride from our hospital. I can always get it as a reference. There are two other doctors here and I am going to let them read first. We have a great many cases of carbon monoxide poisoning in winter as here in North people use coal dust balls for heating. Stoves for our poor people have no chimneys. The heated room smells like a room filled with gas. Twice I fainted last winter visiting two patients in poor homes.
One thing is very hopeful that is our people are awakening to the fact that education is the most important reform in comparison to other reforms. Parties are divided but we people are one in action and thought. We are not allowed to express our thought. However we can continue to do work within our ability to raise the standard of those who are around us. I can see progress even in my five years' work at this city. There are more people who appreciate scientific medicine to-day than five years ago. Inspite [sic] of our insist on prenatal and postnatal care our work in obstetrics has doubled this year than my first year at hospital. Our merchants are giving more toward public good than former years. The schools are demanding to put hygience [sic] as a regular course in their curriculum. All these are signs of progress. But the trouble is that China has too large a population for herown [sic] good. Therefore it would take time to get all China to the same standard. Inspite of civil wars we people have made more progress these ten years than a century under the Manchu Dynasty.
A doctor has no right to practice the art of medicine without further studies from time to time. It would be impossible for me to get away now altho. I very much wish that I could get away for a year of studies this year. The best I could do is to get some new iedas [sic] from Peking Union Medical College. I have registered for a post-graduate course this coming fall with department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Physically I am very tired and I would not mind a vacation at all. The demand on my time is so great at times that I am feeling the strain. For this very reason I have secured a plot of land outside of Tientsin for our workers as well as for myself to play. I have just finished a three-roomed house so we could go there for week ends. One certainly gets so tired of city life.
Kindly remember me to Miss Purington when you happen to see her on campus. We heard that Miss Greene had to cut short of her trip. I hope that she is fully recovered. Miss Purington would be able to tell you what and how we youthful Chinese are trying to renovate our old China. This is time for lunch and I will say good bye to you now. I close this letter with my love to you. When this letter reaches you it would be about summer vacation. I wish you a most profitable summer.
Yours lovingly.
Me-iung Ting.May 6th, 1927.
[But the envelope is postmarked May 5, so the letter should probably be dated the 5th, too.]