By Scalpel and Cross: A Missionary Doctor in Old Korea is the story of a Presbyterian medical missionary told against the background of Korea in the first half of the twentieth century, decades before the astounding rise of South Korea. Young Dr. Archibald G. Fletcher arrives in 1909, just before Japan annexes Korea. The dramatic, little-read history of early Christian missions is part of the story, as Arch, assigned to Taegu, confronts appalling diseases, poverty, and the scourge of leprosy. The reader gets to know Arch and his wife, Jessie, through their relentless effort to provide...