《月光石》中的專業主義與醫學帝國主義

Professionalism and Medical Imperialism in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone

《月光石》（The Moonstone）中的帝國主義早已是廣為評論家討論的一大議題，不論是小說序章中的賽林迦巴坦襲擊事件（the Storming of Seringapatam），或是從印度人的血泊中劫掠而來的神秘寶石，都指向了十九世紀大英帝國的海外殖民擴張。另一方面，詹寧斯（Ezra Jennings）身為最後解開月光石失竊之謎的醫師，一則對比於病後失能的老醫師坎迪（Thomas Candy），二則詹寧斯的混血身分回應了隨殖民暴力而來的文化衝突，詹寧斯對法蘭克林的幫助似乎暗示了某種和解的可能性。無論是查克拉巴提（Pratik Chakrabarti）與巴薩拉（George Basalla）的殖民醫學史，或是更近代直接使用了「醫學帝國主義」、聚焦開發中或最低度開發國家醫療發展的研究，帝國和醫學都是相輔相成的關係，帝國幫助西方醫學取得領導地位，醫學協助鞏固帝國霸權。然而，本文想指出的是，除了這樣相輔相成的關係之外，在十九世紀這個步入現代化專業分工的時刻，醫學悄悄形成了一個以專業為名的現代帝國，而《月光石》中坎迪與詹寧斯兩名醫師的所作所為正暴露出了醫學本身的帝國主義特質。

Imperialism and medicine are two predominant issues illustrated in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone. The prologue of the novel and the Moonstone in England both suggest the colonial violence and plunder committed by British Empire. Being a doctor who eventually solves the mystery of the Moonstone theft, Ezra Jennings becomes the contrast to the disabled doctor Thomas Candy, and Jennings’s hybrid identity also answers the cultural conflict due to colonial acts. Jennings’s help for Franklin Blake implies a possibility of reconciliation. Empire and medicine help each other from either Pratik Chakrabarti’s and George Basalla’s approach based on the history of colonial medicine or the research perspective which goes into the development of medicine in the less developed countries and uses the term “medical imperialism” directly. However, this essay is intended to point out the empire constituted by medicine itself, rather than the association between empire and medicine. In the nineteenth century, the beginning of modernity, medicine exposes its nature of imperialism in The Moonstone.