Ernest Black Struthers
Ernest Black Struthers (April 28, 1886 – May 22, 1977) was a Canadian physician, researcher, educator and medical missionary who worked in the Far East.
[1] Specifically, he accomplished most of his work in the Alice Memorial Hospital in Hong Kong, Cheeloo University in Jinan, China, and Severance Union Medical College in Seoul, Korea.
[5][1] However family friends who he was staying with in London, the Merrys, disapproved of this because the China Customs Service was not “missionary” work.
Along with a Dr Gibson, performed many unique operations, including a man with the congenital deformity of harelip and a boy with a tapering stone.
[1] In September 1913, while still working at the Alice Memorial Hospital, Struthers also became the Warden of Morrison Hall, which was a hostel at the University of Hong Kong sponsored by the London Missionary Society.
After his 18 month appointment in Hong Kong had ended, Struthers decided to leave for home and join the Canadian Presbyterian Board in September 1914 due to his lack of knowledge of Cantonese.
[1] However, in Welhei, he was convinced to stay and learn the language, and by 1915, he was working at the Henan province as part of a Canadian mission.
[5][1] In 1916, Struthers received a message from the British Minister in Peking to the Presbyterian Mission asking for missionaries who knew the Chinese language to serve in France.
[5] He arrived in Noyelles-sur-mer, France, in July and started by running a gonorrhea and syphilis ward, helping at a hut with patients in serious condition, and monitoring the sanitation of a hospital.
[3] In February 1919, Struthers returned to China and became a physician at the Cheeloo University in Jinan, which was known as the Shantung Christian Union Medical College.
Along with William McClure and George M. Ross, Struthers sent a cable to Dr. A. E. Armstrong, of the United Church Foreign Missionary Board, on May 7, 1928, stating "Expect aid.
He obtained support from General Oldum, who was the Canadian Ambassador in Chungking, the Governor of the Province, and the Minister of Education.
[5] He established his first clinic there in 1954, and he believed that overcrowded housing and poor infrastructure were major issues causing a tuberculosis crisis.
[9] On December 22, 1956, New York financier John Hay Whitney gave Struthers $5,000 for his tuberculosis control project of the Korean Church Works service.
Specifically, Struthers became a leading researcher on kala-azar (leishmaniasis), a disease transmitted by sandflies which is caused by a parasite invading the blood-forming organs.
In 1928, Dr. Russell LaFayette Cecil of the Cornell Medical School in New York asked him to author the chapter on Leishmaniasis for his Textbook on Medicine, a notable achievement.
[2] Source:[1] Struthers primarily published in the Chinese Medical Journal, and his most notable publication includes his chapter titled "The Leishmaniases" in Cecil's Textbook of Medicine.
