| Physical description |
209 titles, 541 volumes. |
| Notes |
This Collection consists of 500 books published in classical Chinese from the 1890s - early 1920s, which comprise the professional library of Thomas Chong, Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, who conducted his practice in Bairnsdale from the 1920s - 1940s. In addition to the published material, there are 10 notebooks in manuscript, and a number of small bundles of herbal orders addressed to wholesale distributors in Melbourne. The latter are inscribed in the traditional manner using black ink and brush on rice paper. |
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The books cover a broad range of topics and indicate the breadth and depth of Chong's classical education and subsequent medical training (acquired predominantly in Canton), and his continued intellectual pursuits throughout his long, scholarly life. Some of these books are bound simply in the traditional Chinese manner, with paper covers hand sewn with string, whilst others are have hard covers and are bound in the western manner. |
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Almost 300 of the books are on traditional Chinese medical theory and practice and include such categories as Herbal Medicine and Prescriptions, Internal Medicine, Surgery and Chinese Medicine Cases. Another 150 volumes are on Western Medicine in Chinese language, and cover the fields familiar to western practitioners - Anatomy, Pathology, Pharmacology, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Infectious Diseases, Dermatology etc., as well as Nursing, Health Care, First Aid, and Massage. A number contain fine woodcuts illustrating the various plants from which the herbal preparations were made, whilst others on Anatomy are illustrated showing the bones with their muscular attachments outlined, familiar to western medical students of today. |
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There are 6 volumes of medical dictionaries and other reference books, whilst 25 compare both Chinese and Western forms of medicine. Finally, there are another 60 or so volumes addressing a miscellany of subjects including Medical Law, Philosophy, and Religion. |
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Thomas Chong was born in Sydney in 1887, the eldest of four children of Ong Chong, successful shipping merchant, and Young Die, both from Canton. At the age of twelve years, Thomas was sent to China by his father to receive a classical Chinese education, which was followed by a medical training conducted under the traditional apprenticeship system in the clinic-dispensary of Huang Jy Shen, a master in Zhen Jiang, Guangdong. Graduating from this clinic in 1898, Thomas gained further experience working for a four year period in the Kwong Yen Hospital of Canton, and also as Medical Advisor to the Military Authorities of Szechuan. |
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Returning to Australia in 1908 after 18 years of study and clinical practice, Thomas settled, and in 1916, married in Melbourne, where he conducted his practice for some years from his residence in Nicholson St, Fitzroy. Encountering racial prejudice under the White Australia Policy (1901) on his return to Australia, and probably hostility from a medical profession who were trying to restrict the practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Thomas Chong relocated his household and practice in 1920 to Bairnsdale, Gippsland, where he developed a successful practice servicing an extensive area of the surrounding district. |
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His library and papers show that far from a marginal figure in health care in east Gippsland, Chong was integral to a small section of the population there, treating with success the more chronic and musculo-skeletal conditions for which western medicine could offer little help. Under the fluctuating conditions of racial prejudice, the years of economic Depression, and the opposition of a western medical tradition keen to maintain their monopoly of the healing arts and deny the Chinese herbalists their freedom to practice, Chong earned not only the respect of his patients, but also for Traditional Chinese Medicine as an acceptable and effective method of medical practice. |
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Thomas Chong died in Bairnsdale hospital in 1950. His family retained his library and manuscripts until 1994, when they were offered to the Medical Library at the University of Melbourne, where they are now available for research. Chong regarded himself as a scholar in the traditional Chinese manner, and no doubt would have felt it honourable and appropriate that his library should one day find a place in a highly respected university medical library. Here it is hoped that scholars will continue Thomas Chong's lifelong pursuit of knowledge through the use of this valued repository. |
| Contents |
[1.Western medicine in Chinese language = Xi yi. (Pathology = Bing li xue, Anatomy = Jie po xue, Diagnosis = Zhen duan xue, Pharmacology = Yao wu xue, General Medicine = Yi xue, Physiology, Hygiene = Sheng li wei sheng , Internal Medicine = Nei ke, Surgery = Wai ke, Gynaecology & Obsterics = Fu chan ke, Paediatrics = Er ke, Infectious Dieseases = Chuan ran bing, Dermatology = Pi fu ke, Miscellanous diseases and treatment = Za bing ji liao fa, Nursing = Hu li, Health care = Yang sheng, First Aid and Message = Ji jiu ji an mo) -- 2.Medical reference books = Yi xue can kao shu -- 3.Chinese and Western Medicine = Zhong xi yi -- 4.Chinese medicine = Zhong yi.(Herbal medicine = Ben cao, Chinese medicine = Zhong yi xue, Internal Medicine = Nei ke, Surgery = Wai ke, Herbal prescriptions = Yao fang, Chinese medicine cases = Yi an) -- 5.Medical law = Zhong yi fa lu -- 6.Miscellaneous = Za lei -- 7.Manuscripts = Shou gao]. |
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[1.Western medicine in Chinese language = 西醫. (Pathology = 病理學, Anatomy = 解剖學, Diagnosis = 診斷學, Pharmacology = 藥物學, General Medicine = 醫學, Physiology, Hygiene = 生理衛生 , Internal Medicine = 內科, Surgery = 外科, Gynaecology & Obsterics = 婦產科, Paediatrics = 兒科, Infectious Dieseases = 傳染病, Dermatology = 皮膚科, Miscellanous diseases and treatment = 雜病及療法, Nursing = 護理, Health care = 養生, First Aid and Message = 急救及療法 -- 2.Medical reference books = 醫學參考書 -- 3.Chinese and Western Medicine = 中西醫 -- 4.Chinese medicine = 中醫.(Herbal medicine = 本草, Chinese medicine = 中醫學, Internal Medicine = 內科, Surgery = 外科, Herbal prescriptions = 藥方, Chinese medicine cases = 醫案) -- 5.Medical law = 中醫法律 -- 6.Miscellaneous = 雜類 -- 7.Manuscripts = 手稿]. |
| Local note |
Cataloguing of the Thomas Chong Collection was made possible in 2008 by the generous support of the Russell and Mab Grimwade Miegunyah Fund. |
| Other author |
Chong, Thomas, 1887-1950.
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| Subject |
Medicine, Chinese.
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Herbs -- Therapeutic use.
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Chong, Thomas, 1887-1950.
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| Variant Title |
Thomas Chong collection. |
| Local series |
Thomas Chong collection.
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