JAUNPUR. — This  Dispensary,  only  open  in  1899,  has
registered  4,916  out-patients,  and  15,474  attendances  during
1900.  Miss  McDowell  visits  it  weekly,  though  it  is  forty
miles  from  Benares.  Miss  James,  a  qualified  native  assistant,


Medical  Missions  (II.) — Patna.  197

takes  charge  at  other  times.  The  people  come  from  five  or
ten  miles  round  to  seek  advice  and  medicine,  and  the  great
need  is  a  small  hospital,  where  those  could  be  taken  in  who
would  not  consent  to  go  as  far  as  Benares.  The  medical
work  has  greatly  increased  the  interest  of  the  people  in
Christianity,  and  has  made  them  more  willing  to  listen.
The  Girls'  Missionary  Union  almost  entirely  supports
the  Jaunpur  Dispensary.
PATNA.
The  first  Hospital  at  Patna  .was  a  very  humble  one  — a
two-roomed  hut,  with  one  bed  and  one  patient!  In  the
previous  February  (1891),  Miss  Mackinnon,  assisted  by
Miss  Gregory,  a  trained  nurse,  opened  a  dispensary,  but  the
only  bungalow  they  could  find  to  live  in  was  small,  unsuitable,
and  unhealthy.  Still  the  work  progressed  rapidly,  and  in
1892  there  were  2,606  patients  at  the  Dispensaries,  and  88
attended  in  their  own  homes,  while  eight  major  and  thirty-
seven  minor  operations  were  performed.
The  surroundings  were  depressing  enough.  Miss
Mackinnon  and  Miss  Gregory  went  out  to  read  by  the
river-side  one  Sunday  evening,  there  being  no  service,  and
found  themselves  in  the  neighbourhood  of  a  mock  funeral
procession,  made  by  some  children  as  an  amusement.  The
sand  they  walked  over  was  strewn  with  bleaching  human
bones,  and  even  skulls,  and  yet  this  was  their  one  place  to
go  to  when  they  wanted  fresh  air.  The  city  was  very  large,
dirt}-,  and  undrained,  and  the  great  distances  and  evil  smells
made  visiting  hard  work.
