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Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
Wong, K. Chimin & Wu Lien-Teh (1879-1960) History of Chinese Medicine, Being a Chronicle of Medical Happenings in China from Ancient Times to the Present Period, Signed Copy.
Tientsin, China: The Tientsin Press, [1932].
First edition, with a paper label autographed by the two physician/authors tipped to half title, with the following note in pencil on the left vertical margin, "For Fred T. Lewis, Harvard Med. Schl. Boston"; illustrated throughout; back board with pocket containing a map of China printed in color, two printed promotional pieces for the book, along with notice of the upcoming second edition, with an international order form; bound in publisher's blue cloth, nicely preserved; 9 3/4 x 6 1/2 in.
Dr. Wu was awarded the Queen's Scholarship (provided at the time for young people who inhabited British-held territories), enabling him to attend Emmanuel College, Cambridge, the first student of Chinese heritage to do so. He was born and raised in present-day Malaysia, in the Straits Settlements, to a father who immigrated there from China. His mother was of Hakka Han heritage, a second-generation Peranakan born in Malaya. As an epidemiologist, he was sent to study the deadly plague outbreak that began in Harbin, China in the winter of 1910. Once there, he took a number of measures that will appear very familiar to those of us who lived through the recent COVID-19 outbreak. He suggested quarantines, designed a more robust surgical mask, disinfected buildings that had housed the sick, and in at least one case ordered an infected plague hospital burned to the ground. Dr. Wu also understood that the corpses of plague victims carried disease, and as the ground was frozen solid, making burial impossible, he asked for an imperial sanction to allow cremation of the remains. With these measures in place, rates of infection began to decline immediately, and in less than a year, the outbreak was over, but not before claiming more than 60,000 lives. Dr. Wu continued his work on plague research, and was also nominated in 1935 for the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
