Mary Hannah Fulton

The Presbyterian Church began their missionary missions to China in 1838.[2] Fulton was appointed as a missionary to South China in May 1884 by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.[1] Upon arrival, Fulton joined her brother and his wife in their quest to evangelize China. Together, they set up an outpost in Kwai Ping in the Guangxi province, an anti-foreigner region where no missionaries had previously ventured. Mary Fulton rented two rooms in a mud house that served as a dispensary for medication and a treatment room, while Albert Fulton preached and his wife opened a school for girls. In order to communicate with the locals, Fulton hired an assistant, Mrs. Mei Yagui, who had trained at the Canton Hospital, to serve as her translator and assistant. By 1886, Mary and Albert Fulton had succeeded in raising the funds necessary to build a new hospital building. However, before the opening, a violent gang attacked the missionary outpost, incited by Confucian scholars who were against the mutilation of human bodies for the sake of medicine. The missionaries escaped without serious injury, but never again returned to Kwai Ping.[3] In the same year, the Medical Missionary Association of China was founded in Shanghai. Fulton was admitted as one of the original thirty-four members.[4]

Birds Eye view of the Canton Hospital, in Guangzhou, China.

Fulton continued her work at the Canton Hospital, which was started by Dr. Peter Parker in 1835 and run by John G Kerr. The Canton Hospital, a treatment and training facility, also ran dispensaries in the area. In 1888, Fulton opened a dispensary for women near the hospital. In 1891, she opened another dispensary for women with the help of Dr. Mary Niles. She used these dispensaries to provide medical treatment to villagers who were not able to travel to the hospital.[5] Fulton performed medical services ranging from regular treatment to common surgical operations free of charge to those who could not pay. When patients insisted on paying her, citing Chinese tradition, she used the gifts to support the patients’ families, and cash was contributed to the hospital. In 1879, John G. Kerr admitted two women to the training program at the Canton Hospital. By 1888 there were 37 female pupils training at the hospital. In 1897, Fulton resumed responsibility for the women’s work of the hospital.[5] When Kerr resigned from the hospital in 1898, no provisions were made for the female students. Fulton began collecting funds at once to set up training for women medical professionals.[6]

Due to the strict social etiquette in China that forbade physical contact between men and women, women were reluctant to consult doctors or receive medical treatment. A male practitioner could not even put a finger on a female’s wrist to feel a pulse; women pointed to a figurine to show where their pain was instead of point to a body part or removing pieces of clothing.[7] Therefore, there was a high demand for female medical professionals who would be able to treat women and girls.

Fulton opened her first training facility, called the Kwangtung Medical School for Women, in 1901. It was housed on the ground floor of the Theodore Cuyler First Presbyterian Church in the western suburbs of Canton and consisted of 11 female students. The building was not sufficient as the students were forced to have their meals in the outpatient room.[8] With three thousand dollars raised by the Fulton and Presbyterian mission, a special hospital for women and children, called the David Gregg Hospital, was built as a teaching facility for the school.[7] Theodore Cuyler and David Gregg were pastors of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York, which commissioned and underwrote much of Fulton's work in China. [9] In 1903, Mr E A Hackett donated enough money to build a special building to house the college, and it was renamed the Hackett Medical College for Women. Three years later, in 1906, another gift from Hackett allowed a second building to be built to house lecture and laboratory rooms. The first building became dorms.

The goal of the college was to distribute Christianity and modern medicine, as well as to elevate the social status of women in China. With Fulton’s recommendation, the curriculum was taught in Cantonese in order to train women to be most effective to the surrounding areas and provide them with greater professional opportunities. The curriculum included attending clinics, helping to lance boils, and practical assistance in childcare and delivering babies. Graduates were instantly employed at mission hospitals and several government institutions.[10] Under Fulton’s guidance, Hackett College provided free medical services to the poor. The women who were trained at the Hackett College were considered fine educated women, and thus highly demanded as wives for the upper class. Therefore, Fulton made a strict restriction that women set to be married were prohibited from studying there. Fulton remained dean of the college for 16 years.