Abstract
John Dudgeon was one of the most prolific European writers on the hygienic conditions of China in the nineteenth century. A Scottish medical man dispatched to China by the London Missionary Society in 1863, he served as Medical Officer to Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs in Beijing and became Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at the Interpreters College. During his long medical career in China, he wrote extensively on the diet, dress, residences and social customs of the Chinese, in terms of their implications for health.
At the time, western medical men in China were highly critical of the sanitary conditions of Chinese towns and the personal hygiene of the Chinese people. However, Dudgeon held the unconventional view that the Chinese lifestyle was far more salubrious than that of the Europeans and that the environmental conditions in Chinese cities were superior to those in their European counterparts. Dudgeon even argued that Europeans ought to emulate Chinese customs and hygiene practices. His position with regard to these issues was diametrically opposed to that of contemporary British medicine, which generally viewed native customs in Asia with disdain.
This paper argues that Dudgeon was prompted to scrutinize the shortcomings of public health measures in Britain by his medical observations in China. Deteriorating economic conditions and heightened social tensions in Scotland in the late nineteenth century also contributed to Dudgeon’s critical reflections on the metropolitan culture and lifestyle prevalent in Europe. In addition, this article addresses the link between Dudgeon’s concept of moral economy and Scottish Presbyterianism. It is the contention of this work that a detailed analysis of Dudgeon’s eccentric medical ideas will reveal the interplay and tension between metropolitan medical theories and the overseas experiences of British medical men on the periphery of the Empire.
Keywords
British Medicine, public health, medical missionary, diseases of civilization, Scottish Presbyterianism
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