Overview

Missionary activities expanded dramatically during the nineteenth century, introducing Western medicine to the "uttermost ends of the earth." These movements stemmed from the period at the end of the eighteenth century known as the "Great Awakening," when powerful evangelists converted large masses to Christianity. To propagate the Christian faith, groups organized to send people to other countries. The term missionary derives from the Latin word mittere, meaning to send, and refers to sending one on an errand.

During the nineteenth century, the evangelical mission of the church converged with the precepts of Western culture and experimental medicine. Missionaries, such as David Livingstone (1813-1873) in Africa and Adoniram Judson (1788-1850) in Burma, were not only preachers of the gospel but explorers who disseminated medical knowledge to the new cultures they encountered. Inland missions, such...