r. Lyon returned to America on her
furlough, leaving the young physician in entire charge of the hospital
work, a responsibility which she discharged so effectively that at the
close of the year her co-labourers enthusiastically declared: "Sending Hue
King Eng to America for a medical education was providing for one of the
greatest blessings that ever came to Foochow. Skilled in her profession,
kind and patient, Christlike in spirit, one of their very own, her
influence cannot be measured."

At about this time Dr. Hue was honoured by being appointed by His
Excellency, Li Hung Chang, as one of the two delegates from China to the
Women's Congress held in London in 1898. But she was very seriously ill
with pneumonia that year, and for weeks it was feared that she could not
recover. A letter from Mrs. Lacy, then living in Foochow, reads: "Dr. Hue
King Eng has been lying at the gates of death for nearly three weeks. Dr.
Lyon said she was beyond all human aid. Most earnest and constant prayers
by the native Christians have been offered in her behalf. We are glad to
report a decided improvement in her condition although she is by no means
out of danger yet. Dr. Hue is a very valuable worker, not only a most
successful physician, but a very superior instructor in medicine, and is
very greatly beloved by both natives and foreigners, and it does not seem
as if she could be spared. We can but believe that God is going to honour
the faith of His children and raise her up to do yet greater service for
Him."

Gradually health and strength came back, and the next year it was reported
that Dr. Hue had sufficiently recovered her health to teach one class in the
Girls' Boarding School. A trip to the home of a married sister in Amoy,
which gave her a sea voyage, and change of air and scene, completed her
recovery and in 1899 she was strong enough to take charge of the Woolston
Memorial Hospital.

[Illustration: Dr. Hue's Medical Students]

The Foochow Hospital for women and children is situated on Nan Tai Island,
three miles from the walled city of Foochow. The physicians had long felt
the need of a similar work within the city walls, and a few years before
Dr. Hue's return from America, work had been undertaken in the city. A small
building was erected, in which forty in-patients could be accommodated.
This little building was named the Woolston Memorial Hospital, and nurses
from the Island hospital took turns in working in it, under