William Reginald Morse

William Reginald Morse (30 August 1874 – 11 November 1939) was a Canadian author, medical doctor, and medical missionary serving under the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society in Sichuan, West China. In 1901 he proceeded to West China where he founded West China Union University. The university was one of the first co-educational medical schools in China that provided western education. Morse also made substantial contributions to the fields of anthropology and medical history through his published works. Morse provided historical insight to the West on the traditional practices of Chinese and Tibetan Medicine. Morse specifically delineated the influence of religion and culture in the evolution of medicine in East Asia. Additionally, Morse wrote several anthropological books that outlined the physical and physiological behavior of the people of Sichuan and Tibet. Morse was interested not only in understanding the vast differences in culture between China and the West, but also communicating these differences to the West.

Background and family life Ellen Marry Fitch and Leander Rupert Morse married in 1871. Ellen gave birth to three children named: Leander Rupert Morse (1871), William Reginald Morse (1874), and Harriet Rosamond Morse (1877). William Morse was born in the Province of Nova Scotia in a small village called Lawrencetown. After receiving his medical degree, Morse went into private practice in Rhode Island and Nova Scotia. However, in 1901, Morse joined the ranks of the medical missionaries. William Morse married Anna Crosse Kinney in 1903; the couple had one daughter, Marjorie, born in 1913. He then went on to do postgraduate work at Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University College of London. Additionally, Morse was the first president of the West China Border Research Society, and did much during his early days of the society to maintain interest in its growth and development.

Contributions to the medical field

West China Union University Morse is most regarded for his work done in Chengdu. He and a few other medical doctors founded a medical school at the West China Union University, and he eventually became dean of the medical school and co-chair of the Medical-Dental College. He also held positions at the Union University's Baptist College. Morse writes,"Geographical influences determine to a great extent the characteristics of peoples, and peculiarly so in the regions under discussion… The civilization encourages and creates a religion of superstition and magic, and is it not reasonable that the minds of these primitive folk are filled with the mystery and power and awe of the unseen?" Morse believed that Western education should be synthesized with Christian doctrine. At China Union University, Morse secured Christian teachers whenever he could. Morse wanted all physicians to be actuated by the love of Christ in all their ministrations. In 1915, Morse and the other founders helped create a faculty for religion.