He came to Taiwan in 1896, with his
assistant Hamano, and constructed a system of re-inforced
concrete open sewers in Taipei, which drained dirty
effluent away from the city to the Tamsui River and
down to the sea. They prospected successfully for
a clean piped water supply for Taipei, Tamsui, and
Keelung. For Malaria control Burton advised that houses
be built with 2 storeys and people should sleep upstairs.
In single storey houses the beds should be raised
as high as possible above ground and the houses well
ventilated. Both Japanese and Taiwanese paid high
tribute to him for what he did to improve hygiene.
Sadly he died in 1899, perhaps from malaria.
During the early years of Japanese
rule the government pressed ahead with 6 main medical
objectives:
- To improve environmental hygiene.
- Infectious disease control.
- To establish government hospitals
and health services.
- Establish medical education and
research.
- Management of opium addiction.
- Population survey:census.
At the risk of reciting a catalogue
I will touch on three examples of the above:
(a) Infectious diseases e.g. the
plague. The plague bacillus was found in the bodies
of those people who had died; there was also the telltale
sign of the dead rats about the houses. Draconian
measures were needed to halt the spread, i.e. reduce
the breeding conditions for rats; cleaning the houses,
disposable of rubbish, rat extermination, isolation
of patients in special hospitals
Very strict quarantine conditions
for ships and junks coming from Fukien province, for
that is where the plague is thought to come from.
Even so the cases continued to appear
in Taiwan every year.
1896 258 cases 157 died
1897 730 cases 566 died
1898 1233 cases 882 died
