Stations in Eeypt. 29 ‘Development of medical Work.

The medical work, which had been somewhat checked by the fears of the people that if they came to the mission they would be reported to the sanitary authorities as having cholera, now progressed rapidly. In 1901 the number of in-patients was 607, and of visits of out-patients 13,450—a great advance over those reported ten years before, and it was significant of the power of the work that almost all the in-patients were Mohammedans. Since then its popularity and extent have increased yet more. A new hospital for women and children, called the Ethel Pain Memorial Hospital, since nearly all the cost (£3,500) of the building was raised by private subscription, principally in Australia and New Zealand, by friends of the late Mrs. E. M. Pain who died in the Mission in 1903, was opened at the end of 1905, and a couple of years later buildings were erected for the accommodation of sufferers from Egyptian anzemia (anchylostomiasis), who are very numerous. There are now hospitals for men and women, the former containing forty-four beds and the latter forty-five. ,In addition there is a large special ward and shelter for the treatment of men suffering from Egyptian anemia, capable of accommodating more than two hundred patients, while similar buildings have lately been erected for the accommodation of women suffering from this disease. The latest statistics record 3,021 in-patients and 16,393 visits of out-patients, drawn from over 600 different towns and villages.

Prejudice overcome.

The medical work has been the means of removing prejudice against Christianity, and of bringing the Gospel before a large number of people, and in many cases there has been reason to believe that the seed sown has fallen in good soil. A case in point is that of a sheikh whose story was given by Dr. Hall as follows :— ‘When he first came to the hospital he was much opposed to hearing the Gospel read or spoken in the ward, and he used to tell the ladies who spoke to him of Christ that if they had happened to be in his village and had dared to speak of the Son of God, the people and he himself would have killed them with a sword. By degrees the Word of God seemed to be softening his heart, and instead of refusing to listen to the teaching of Christ, he became an eager hearer, and at last was hardly ever