Page 11
The Development of Scientific Medicine and its Impact on Society in Taiwan, 1865 to 1945

In 1903 there were 1486 in-patients

In 1905 there were 2036 in-patients

In 1907 there were 2400 in-patients

Maxwell, with a Dr. Jeffreys of Shanghai published, in 1910 an authoritative work "Diseases of China" which was widely used, a second edition came in 1925. (Maxwell's brother, John Preston professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the Peking Union medical College where he worked until 1940. Both sons of Maxwell Senior, therefore, contributed to medical science and education in the Far East.) Maxwell moved to Shanghai in 1923;he left behind him a well-equipped and extensive hospital. He had greatly enhanced the fine reputation of the medical work, which his father had founded.

In central Taiwan the hospital in Chang-hua continued the work which Gavin Russell had begun. In the early years, before the roads were opened up, moving sick patients long distances was very difficult. Besides its general work the hospital dealt with one particular condition. In isolated areas with no medical help, prolonged obstructed childbirth resulted finally in a deaf baby and injury to the maternal structures resulting in permanent, constant leakage of urine – (known as vesico-vaginal fistula). This condition causes personal misery and often leads to ostracism in society and divorce. Corrective operations were performed successfully on 55 patients over the years, bringing enormous relief. Accounts of the same condition in Ethiopia have appeared on television in UK in recent years.

In Chang-hua hospital, as in the Tainan and Mackay hospitals, before graduates from the medical college became available to serve on the staff, able and intelligent young men were trained by the medical missionaries in the various departments of the hospital and also at evening classes, to be assistant doctors. The usual period was 4 – 5 years. These men then sat a government examination, which gave them a limited license, allowing them to practice medicine in the country but not in the towns. These men played an important part in the medical, cultural and community life of their districts. In the 1920s the Chang-hua Hospital attempted a skin graft operation on a boy whose thigh was denuded following a severe infection and necrosis of the skin. It was to be a homologous graft – from human being to human being (one of the missionaries gave skin to assist).



Previous |6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|Next
Sponsored by the Chuan Lyu Foundation
© 1997 - 2008 The Chuan Lyu Foundation All Rights Reserved