Chuan
Lyu Lectures
Faculty of Oriental Studies
University of Cambridge
5:00PM, Thursday, May 14, 1998
Lecture Room 1, Sidgwick Site
Subject:The Development of
Scientific Medicine and its Impact on Society in Taiwan,
1865 to 1945
By: Dr. David Landsborough IV, M.R.C.P
Former Superintendent
Changhua Christian Hospital,
Chaughua, Taiwan
Thank you for the great honour you have
done me in asking me to give the Chaun Lyu lecture today.
My thanks are due to Dr. Lee Hwalin
and friends, including Dr. Darrel and Mrs. Sue Liu
for bringing Chuan Lyu lectures into being.
I am indebted to various friends
in Taiwan for providing information for me. And I
consulted especially 3 books ; " The History
of English Presbyterian Mission" by Edward Band,
"The Island of Formosa" by James Davidson
, who was United States consul in Taipei at the time
of the Japanese takeover in 1895, and "The History
of Medicine in Taiwan" by Dr. Chen Yung – Hsin.
In this Lecture I prefer to use the
words "scientific medicine" rather than
"Western Medicine" Referring to the system
of medicine which made an impact on China and Taiwan
when China was opened up to the western influences
in the 19th Century – although in some
senses they are interchangeable.
So called western medicine is now
worldwide.
If we say that science is knowledge
obtained through observation and experiment, then
scientific medicine represents a certain way of viewing
the human body– its internal structures and functions–
and where such is abnormal, how if possible, it may
be put right. The contrast is between Scientific and
traditional medicine. Traditional medicine in Taiwan
is a part of Chinese culture, with a history of 4000
years.
