John Dudgeon (1837–1901) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

who spent nearly 40 years in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

as a doctor, surgeon, translator, and medical

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

. Dudgeon attended the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

and the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, in the latter of which he graduated

M.D. A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of physician. This ge ...

and

Master of Surgery The Master of Surgery (Latin: Magister Chirurgiae) is an advanced qualification in surgery. Depending upon the degree, it may be abbreviated ChM, MCh, MChir or MS. At a typical medical school the program lasts two to three years. The possessi ...

in 1862. In 1863, he was appointed to the Medical Mission of the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...

to serve at the hospital in Peking established by William Lockhart, arriving in China in December 1863. He was also Medical Attendant to the British

Legation A legation was a diplomatic representative office of lower rank than an embassy. Where an embassy was headed by an ambassador, a legation was headed by a minister. Ambassadors outranked ministers and had precedence at official events. Legation ...

in Peking (modern-day

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

) from 1864 to 1868. Dudgeon was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at the Imperial College (

Tongwen guan The School of Combined Learning, or the Tongwen Guan was a government school for teaching Western languages and science, founded at Beijing in 1862, right after the conclusion of the Second Opium War, as part of the Self-Strengthening Movement. I ...

) during the 1870s and 1880s. In ''Wanderings in China'',

Constance Frederica Gordon Cumming Constance Frederica "Eka" Gordon-Cumming (26 May 1837 – 4 September 1924) was a Scottish travel writer and painter. Born in a wealthy family, she travelled around the world and painted described scenes and life as she saw them. She was a frie ...

wrote: He was an accomplished Chinese scholar, and during his long residence at Pekin he studied the manners and customs of the inhabitants, and the semi-annual reports that he forwarded to the

Chinese Maritime Customs Service The Chinese Maritime Customs Service was a Chinese governmental tax collection agency and information service from its founding in 1854 until it split in 1949 into services operating in the Republic of China on Taiwan, and in the People's Republ ...

contain a large amount of valuable information regarding the climatic condition, physical features and drainage, and general habits of the people bearing upon health. He was the author of an ''Historical Sketch of the Ecclesiastical, Political, and Commercial Relation of Russia with China'', of a Chinese work 脱影奇观 ''On the Principles and Practice of Photography'', the first of its kind, and of an article in the ''Pekin Magazine'' (in Chinese) on the virtues of

quinine Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to ''Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal leg ...

, in which he pointed out the dangers of the imported spurious article. To the ''

Chinese Medical Journal The ''Chinese Medical Journal'' is an official publication of the Chinese Medical Association, co-published by Chinese Medical Association Publishing House and Wolters Kluwer Medknow. The journal publishes peer-reviewed English-language articles, ...

'' he contributed papers on ''A Modern Chinese Anatomist'', and ''A Chapter on Chinese Surgery''. He also made several contributions to other medical journals, especially on subjects connected with the medical practice and ''

materia medica ''Materia medica'' ( lit.: 'medical material/substance') is a Latin term from the history of pharmacy for the body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of any substance used for healing (i.e., medications). The term derives f ...

'' of China. Various editions of his Kung Fu books are still available to purchase : "Kung Fu or Taoist Medical Gymnastics: The Art of Shaolin Kung Fu, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Qigong Beginning Practice" and "Chinese healing arts: Internal Kung-Fu" co authored with William Berk. Over a period of 10 years he translated both Gray's Anatomy and Holden's Osteology into an 18 volume Chinese edition. Dudgeon said that in China, "Infanticide does not prevail to the extent so generally believed among us, and in the north it does not exist at all." Dudgeon resigned from the London Mission Society in 1884 after conflicts over the prioritisation of evangelical and medical work. Thereafter he continued in private practice in Peking until his death in February 1901.

Works

"Kung-Fu, or Tauist Medical Gymnastics"
(1895)

References

''This article incorporates text from an obituary published i
''The British Medical Journal'', March 16, 1901
now in the

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.'' * Nick Pearce, ''Photographs of Peking, China 1861-1908: An inventory and description of the Yetts collection at the University of Durham. Through Peking with a Camera'' (Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2005 ) Biographical sketch of Dudgeon on pp. 24–32. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dudgeon, Jon 1837 births 1901 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Glasgow 19th-century Scottish medical doctors Scottish expatriates in China Scottish surgeons Protestant missionaries in China Scottish Protestant missionaries Christian medical missionaries 19th-century Scottish translators British missionary linguists