Even in his submission to the laws of the
country, the Dutchman did no more, no less, but exactly as the
daimi[=o]s,[14] who like himself were subject to the humiliations
imposed by the rulers in Yedo.
It was the Dutch, who, for two hundred years supplied the culture of
Europe to Japan, introduced Western science, furnished almost the only
intellectual stimulant, and were the sole teachers of medicine and
science.[15] They trained up hundreds of Japanese to be physicians who
practised rational medicine and surgery. They filled with needed courage
the hearts of men, who, secretly practising dissection of the bodies of
criminals, demonstrated the falsity of Chinese ideas of anatomy. It was
Dutch science which exploded and drove out of Japan that Chinese system
of medicine, by means of which so many millions have, during the long
ages, been slowly tortured to death.
The Deshima Dutchman was a kindly adviser, helper, guide and friend, the
one means of communication with the world, a handful of salt in the
stagnant mass. Long before the United States, or Commodore Perry, the
Hollanders advised the Yodo government in favor of international
intercourse. The Dutch language, nearest in structure and vocabulary to
the English, even richer in the descriptive energy of its terms, and
saturated withal with Christian truth, was studied by eager young men.
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