1. General statement. The Japanese have exerted considerable effort to improve health conditions in Taiwan. As a result, smallpox, cholera, scarlet fever, and plague have been practically eliminated from the island. In 1932, in Tainan Province, there were 4,415 deaths recorded from tuberculosis, 6,262 from diarrhoea and enteritis, 1,362 from bronchitis, 5,484 from pneumonia, 390 from pleurisy, 189 from menengitis, 104 from whooping cough, 257 from measles, 55 from influenza, 35 from typhoid, 2 from paratyphoid, 10 from diphtheria, 27 from dysentery, and none from smallpox or scarlet fever.

The Public Health Service in Taiwan is administered through the Police Department of the Government-General. The police serve as inspecting and enforcing agents for a wide variety of health and sanitation regulations. "Public doctors" are appointed by the provinces. These are men stationed in designated areas, who receive subsidies to engage in general medical practice while at the same time serving as public health officials.

The Japanese have developed a system of training midwives which helps relieve the shortage of doctors. Training centers have been established at the government hospitals in Taihoku, Taichu, and Tainan. These centers offer a 2-year course and a 1-year short course. A system of examining applicants for midwives' licenses was put into effect in 1923. By the spring of 1939, 890 had passed the examination and received licenses.

2. Tuberculosis. Deaths in Taiwan from tuberculosis have been well over 8,000 each year; known patients have numbered eighty or ninety thousand. The only institutions for tuberculous patients are the Government-General's Matsuyama Sanitarium, the tuberculous patient ward of the Taiwan branch hospital of the Japan Red Cross, and the isolation wards of other hospitals. Provincial sanitaria were planned for Taihoku and Tainan provinces in 1939, but it is not known whether they were erected. The capacity of the isolation wards in the hospitals is not known.

3. Malaria. Malaria is widespread in Taiwan. In 1938 the government had designated 190 malaria infested districts for special treatment. The inhabitants are subjected to blood tests, and medicine is administered to those bearing malaria germs. A mosquito-control program was inaugurated to encourage the use of mosquito nets, drainage of swamps, and the weeding out of wild grasses, bamboo and trees from breeding places, with emphasis on general sanitation. Of the 3,273,543 persons in the 190 districts tested, 107,246 or 3.26 percent were found to be germ-bearers.

4. Mental diseases. A survey made in 1938 showed there were 3,651 mental patients in Taiwan, of whom 278 were under institutional care. There were only 382 beds for

mental patients, but plans were under way to increase the facilities for them.

5. Venereal diseases and prostitution. Of 1,210 geisha girls reported in Taiwan in 1938, 323 were in Tainan Province. Of 991 licensed prostitutes, 110 were in the province; of 2,841 bar maids, 669 were in the province. The percentage of individuals infected with venereal diseases was reported as being equally high among the three groups. Examinations of prostitutes in Taiwan in 1938 numbered 46,624. In 1832, 42,393 examinations were given to Japanese girls, 3,619 to Formosan-Chinese girls, and 6,080 to Korean girls. Of the total, 3,751 of the examinations given to Japanese girls, 3,561 of the examinations given to Formosan-Chinese girls and 1,374 of those given to Korean girls were in Tainan Province. The frequency of the examinations is not known, and it is doubtful if much confidence can be placed in the figures on the number of girls.

6. Port quarantine. Port quarantine regulations are administered by the harbor departments (Kombu) in the Government-General. The importation of rags, old clothing, old hemp sacks and articles of similar nature from Shanghai and all Chinese ports to the south has been prohibited since 1921. In November 1929, Mekong, Rangoon, Java, Calcutta, and Bangkok were designated as plagueinfected areas. All ships from these ports have been required, on their arrival, to undertake rat extermination measures. Ships from the Philippines, India, the Netherlands East Indies and other places were required, in normal times, to undergo a process of rat extermination once every 3 months. At Keelung, Tamsui, and Takao, rat prevention walls have been erected. All junks arriving from the opposite shores of China are required to load and unload within the walled areas, where watchmen are posted at all times. Ships at dock are required to have all ropes, chains and lines fitted with devices to prevent the rats crossing from ship to shore.

In the port cities and other major cities, rat extermination is either ordered or encouraged by the government by paying for the captured rats or otherwise providing monetary inducements in the form of prizes and rewards. In 1938, the government purchased 56,799 rats, and acquired 254,463 through means other than payment. Of these, 39,175 rats were examined but none carried the plaguebacillus.

7. Health agencies. The 1939 edition of the Taiwan Jijo (Conditions in Taiwan) lists a wide variety of agencies under the title of Health Agencies, as shown in the following table: