But the discouragements connected with our work was not merely the lack of conveniences and almost dire necessities, or the want of proper enforcement of sanitary regulations and of co-operation, and although Dr. Avison and the foreign staff under him worked heroically, and with unwearied devotion, it was an unequal struggle. The majority of natives are not willing to go to hospitals, and it would have been dangerous to try to force them, while many will not permit foreign doctors to treat them even in their homes, or else use Korean medicines with ours. But alas! in many cases the disease is so violent as to defy all that science, aided by every advantage, can do. It is the most desperately, deadly thing I ever saw, and often medicines seem useless to do more than slightly defer the ultimate result. The poison attacks the nerve centers at once, and every organ is affected. Terrible cramps contract the muscles, the heart fails, the extremities grow cold, the pulse becomes imperceptible, the mind wanders, or suddenly, without previous symptoms, the victim falls and dies at once. Or, after the most violent symptoms of the disease have disappeared, vomiting and pain have ceased, the pulse has become almost normal and the patient nearly ready to be discharged, a mysterious change comes, and the poor victim dies of pneumonia, uræmic convulsions, or some of the other sequellæ of this frightful disease. Mr. Underwood was placed in charge of inspection offices, which were opened in different districts over the whole city, and all cases reported there received immediate attention. Several of his young Christians were trained by him to carry on this work, he himself at first going out with them, hunting up infected localities, using disinfectants, and teaching the helpers and residents how to purify the premises. These young men worked indefatigably, with intelligence, enthusiasm and courage. The inspectors and all the doctors and nurses wore a badge, consisting of the red cross over the Korean flag, so that even in heathen Korea the sign of the cross was carried everywhere, and dominated the emblem of the Korean government. The people picked up the idea that lime was a mysterious agent in preventing disease, so it was not uncommon to see a handful of it scattered, a few grains here and there, along the edges of some of the filthiest ditches, or a gourd whitewashed with lime hanging by the door as a sort of charm to drive away cholera.