joining the london missionary society as a medical missionary to the qing empire, he departed with his wife jane abbey hobson and messrs legge and milne on . it left london on 28 july 1839, and reached anyer on 12 november 12 and macao on 18 december. assisted by elijah bridgman, hobson found a residence and joined the local medical missionary society. its hospital reopened on august 1, 1840. when william lockhart left for zhoushan at the end of the month and dr diver retired from poor health soon afterwards, hobson was left in sole charge of its operation. in early 1843, he left to establish the medical missionary hospital hong kong. this opened to patients on june 1 and the demand for its services so outstripped both expectations and capacity that he relied heavily on help from chinese assistants. this led him to consider how to explain western medical training to the chinese, then reliant on often pseudoscientific traditional medicine.