John Dudgeon

After earning his doctoral degree in medicine from Edinburgh University, Dudgeon was sent by the London Missionary Society to china in 1863 at the age of 26. The following year, he succeeded to the medical officer’s post at the British embassy and also moved the clinic out of the embassy to accept outpatients. The clinic later became the first public Western hospital in Peking (Beijing) and was named Shuang Qi Gan Hospital (Double Flag-post Hospital). In 1870, Dudgeon was appointed Peking’s customs medical officer. In 1871, he became the first pathology and medicine lecturer at Gung Wen Kuan (“School of Combined Learning”).

Dudgeon contributed enormously to both Western and Chinese medical studies. He edited Quan Ti Tong Kao, Xi Yi Ju Yu (two volumes), and Yi Xue Ci Hui (Medical Dictionary; six volumes), and wrote books introducing Chinese medical studies to the West. These writings included The Art of China’s Diagnosis and Therapy; Illness in China: Its Beginnings, Conditions and Spreading, as Compared to Situations in Europe; and a Brief History of China and Russia in Politics and Religion. Dudgeon was also involved in the anti-opium movement in Peking and stood against opium trading. He was knighted in his old age.