Person:Edward Hume (2)

Edward Hicks Hume was educated by his father in India. He spoke Maharatti. He was trained in the classics. Although in his autobiographical DOCTORS EAST AND DOCTORS WEST and in his wife's biographical DRAMA AT THE DOCTOR'S GATE he states his desire to go into medicine was quite strong at a very early age, he told me something different in 1955. I met Uncle Ed at our home in Towson, Maryland in the Spring of 1955. I remember a man slightly shorter than myself, rotund, thin hair, and a ruddy complexion. Bright, sparkling, blue eyes and the ability to talk to a seventeen year old as though he really was interested in him. I was just finishing my freshman year at Saint John's College in Annapolis. We discussed Saint John's and the fact that he had received an honorary degree there. He remembered wearing his bright red academic robes from Hong Kong. People thought he was a Cardinal, which amused him still. He asked me about my Greek language efforts. I told him that they were not going well. He began to recite Greek passages and to decline Greek verbs -- I was quite impressed. He told me that his father had instilled in him a love of the classics and that when he was at Yale he wanted to major in the classics and pursue a scholarly career. His father wrote him that that was not really an option, that he was needed as a physician. His father stated that he had an obligation to humanity to become a physician and return to India. His father also wrote to William Welch at Johns Hopkins. Welch wrote to Uncle Ed telling him that Ed would of course come to Hopkins. He maintained his love and interest in the classics all through his life. After graduating from Hopkins, Uncle Ed went to Liverpool and spent a year studying Tropical Medicine. From 1903-1905 he was in Bombay as an Acting Assistant Surgeon in the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service. He was really there to monitor the Plague outbreak that had started in 1896. He studied with Haffkine, who developed the first effective plague vaccine. In 1905, he joined the Yale Mission in China. In 1906, he founded the Yale Hospital in Changsha, Hunan, China. He founded the Hunan-Yale Medical College in 1914 and was Dean from 1914-27. He served as President of the Colleges of Yale-in-China from 1923-27. He returned to the US in 1927. he served as Executive VP and Trustee of the NY Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital from 1928-1933. The list of his memberships, publications, and awards in WHO WAS WHO IN AMERICA is quite extensive.

Sources: Personal Recollection -- Jack Hume Edward H. Hume DOCTORS EAST DOCTORS WEST, Norton, 1946 Lotta Carswell Hume DRAMA AT THE DOCTOR'S GATE: The Story of Dr. Edward Hume of Yale-in-China, Yale-in-China Association, 1961 Reuben Holden YALE IN CHINA: The Mainland 1901-1951, Yale-in-China Association, 1961 WHO WAS WHO IN AMERICA

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} 1930 United States Federal Census.
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 1920 United States Federal Census.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} San Francisco Passenger Lists.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} New York Port, Ship Images, 1851-1891.