He attracted young men as "students"
Who accompanied him on his travels. But the populace
was intensely xenophobic. They did everything short
of killing him to make life difficult for him. He
travelled armed with a Bible, Quinine and tooth extraction
forceps, for he found that tooth decay caused almost
as much suffering as malaria. In 20 years he extracted
21,000 teeth and his students half that number. This
was effective in breaking down prejudice and opposition!
Regarding malaria he wrote, "To this dreaded
disease foreigners give such names as ague, intermittent
fever, jungle fever.... Its real cause, no doubt, is
poison generated by the decomposition of organic matter....
( He was writing before Ross and Manson's discovery)
It is not uncommon in Taiwan to find half the inhabitants
of a town prostrated by malarial fever at once. I
have seen households of 30 – 40 with not one able
to do any work.... My prayer is that some discovery
may be made that will do in the case of malaria what
vaccination does in the case of smallpox"
In 1874 Dr. Ringer, community doctor to the British
merchants and consular staff in Tamsui, wrote a report
to the customs service: " In May 1873 there being
no system of medical relief for the natives, with
the assistance of Rev. G.L. Mackay, I started a dispensary
for that purpose, to which all the community readily
subscribed. Since the opening, up to March 1874 there
have been 640 patients, many of whom who came from
10 miles away. At first several cases of leprosy were
seen, but there being no accommodation for them they
failed to obtain relief.
The service was expanded into a hospital in 1880 nobly
staffed and continued by successive community doctors,
until the Canadian Presbyterian Church sent Dr. J.Y.
Ferguson to take full charge in 1905.
In central Taiwan scientific medicine was introduced
by Dr. Gavin Russell, an English Presbyterian missionary,
in 1888. He was greatly sought after and liked by
the people, but after 3 years' work he succumbed to
typhoid fever – such were the risk of tropical diseases
in those days. My father was his replacement in 1896
in the market town of Chang – hua.
