Dear editor,
I’m writing in response to a Nov. 22 article, “Descendant of Korea’s 1st Western doctor in Seoul.” I think the headline is incorrect and misleading.
As most people will tell you, Horace Allen was the first doctor to actually work in Seoul. This, too, however, is wrong.
There was a doctor here for a couple of weeks before Allen but I do not think he actually worked here ― he had come at the invitation of Paul G. von Mollendorff, a German advisor to the Korean court. But Mollendorff was unsatisfied with him and did not hire him.
Robert Neff
Researcher on Korean history