Title page of “Murdered Millions.”
Murdered Millions (1897), by George Dowknott, M.D., is a brief treatise relating to Christian medical missions. In less than one hundred pages, Dowknott seeks to establish a complex theory of ‘murder’ based largely on Biblical interpretation, apply it to the work being done, or being neglected, in mission fields around the world, and suggest remedies.
Dowknott was associated with the International Missionary Society and the Medical Missionary Society at the end of the 19th century. At the time, there was a renewed interest in missionary work; in the United States, much of this centered around the expansion of the “American Empire” into South America and the Pacific.
Missionary work had been a relatively popular field for many years before this point. Books such as Dowknott’s tried to link missionaries with scientific and medical professionals, arguing that the job of the missionary was to relieve bodily pain and infirmity as much as to instruct in religion. From Dowknott’s point of view, one could not be done without the other.
In his introduction, the Reverend Theodore Cuyler references David Livingstone: “Let us not forget that it was with his medical diploma in one hand, and his Bible in the other, that the most illustrious of modern missionaries, Dr. David Livingstone, went to his heroic service and his martyrdom in the wilds of Africa.” (xi)
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