The Development of Scientific Medicine and its Impact on Society in Taiwan, 1865 to 1945
The skin did not "take"; there was "graft-rejection",
but it was an attempt. The boy lived, I think it was
not then known that genetically dissimilar tissue
would not be accepted by the recipient's cells. Taking
the Chang-hua Hospital as an example, how did the
mission hospitals' service compare with the various
Government hospitals? Statistics of the yearly patient-volume
showed that the Chang-hua hospital ranked 4th
in 1929, 7th in 1932 and 9th
in 1936. The mission hospitals, it seems, played their
part.
In
the north of Taiwan the Presbyterian Church of Canada
established the new Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei
in 1912. Dr. J.Y. Ferguson moved the medical work
from Tamsui to the new hospital wand developed its
charitable work there. It was a fine building, well
equipped, with 44 beds. Because of the First World
War and staffing problems the hospital was closed
for 6 years, but re-opened in 1923 under a new superintendent,
Dr. Gushue-Taylor: he was a Fellow of the Royal College
of Surgeons of England. He had worked in the Tainan
hospital earlier, with Maxwell (Junior) and, with
a view to providing the necessary training for Taiwanese
nurses, had written an excellent textbook in Romanized
Taiwan language entitled "The Principles and
Practice of Nursing". This book was widely read
in the 3 mission hospitals in Taiwan. Gushue-Taylor
spoke Taiwanese and Japanese, and rapidly built up
the work of the hospital. He had Taiwanese doctors
to help him and the luxury of 2 or 3 missionary nurses,
and a well-trained nursing staff. In the ensuing 15
years he had the help of a succession of 5 missionary
doctors. In 1925 Gushue-Taylor noticed that about
30 leprosy patients were attending Outpatients for
treatment, and that the number was growing. So a separate
leprosy clinic was held in another building, the number
grew in 3 years to 260. Gushue-Taylor ("G-T"
as he like to be called) decided that a leper colony
was needed – the recognized method of managing leprosy
patients at that time. He had an interview with the
governor-general and submitted his plans for a colony
to house 200 lepers. The governor-general was sympathetic
and promised his help. G-T's estimate of the number
of lepers in the island was 4,000. G-T went round
the world visiting leprosaria in Honolulu, Louisiana,
India, Philippines Bangkok, Singapore, China, Korea
and Japan. He also collected money from many sources.
A
fine site for the leprosarium was negotiated in the
country, south of Taipei. In January 1929 the Minister
of Health requested G-T to take him to the site. A
party of six drove out to see it.
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