A Short Account of the History of Medicine in Lower Canada*

[From Hieronymus Mercurialis: Praelectiones Patavinae. Venetiis, 1603.] ANNALS OF MEDICAL HISTORY Thi rd Seri es , Vol ume I July, 1939 Number 4 A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE IN LOWER CANADA* By HERBERT S. BIRKETT MONTREAL THE history of medicine the natives; but nevertheless the disease in Lower Canada be- began to manifest itself among Cartier’s gan seventy-five years crew, according to his own description, before the foundation of Quebec, at the time . insomuch as some did lose all their strength, and could not stand on their when Jacques Cartier feete, then did their legges swel, their sin- built his rude fort on the banks of the nowes shrinke as blacke as any cole. Others St. Charles, facing the Indian village of also had all their skins spotted with spots Stadacona. It was in September, 1535, of blood of a purple colour; then did it that Cartier chose this place as a tem- ascent up to their ankels, knees, thighes, porary shelter, and, leaving his men to shoulders, armes and necks; their mouth construct an abode against the ap- became stincking, their gummes so rotten proaching winter, he sailed up the that all the flesh did fall off, even to the river St. Lawrence as far as the village rootes of the teeth, which did also almost of Hochelaga, the site of which includes all fall out. With such infection did this today part of the grounds of McGill sickness spread itself in our three ships that about the middle of February, of a University. hundreth and tenne persons that we were, Upon his return to Stadacona, he there were not ten whole, so that one found the little fort in a state of alarm. could not lielpe the other, a most horrible Scurvy had broken out in the Indian and pitiful case, considering the place we village, and according to the account of were in, forsomuch as the people of the the leader of the tribe fifty had already countrey would dayly come before our succumbed. Every precaution possible fort and saw but few of us. There were was taken to prevent intercourse with alreadie eight dead, and more than fifty *Delivered before the Twenty-ninth Meeting of the Nu Sigma Nu, in Toronto, November 24, 1938. sicke, and, as we thought, past all hope of them together, then to drinke of the recovery. sayd decoction every other day, and to Among the crew was one member evi- put the dregs of it upon his legges that dently possessing a knowledge of sur- is sicke; moreover they told us that gery, who determined to hold a post- the vertue of that tree was to heale any mortem on the body of one young man other disease.’’ to ascertain the cause of death, and if The sailors in those days as in these possible save the remnants of the ship’s were troubled with another complaint, company. Here is the report of the first “French Pockes,” but after liberal doses autopsy held in Canada: of the bark, they “were cleane healed.’’ From this time forth the decoction was He was found to have his heart white, at a premium, and men were ready to but rotten, and more than a quart of water kill each other in their eagerness to test about it; his liver was indifferent faire, its efficiency, but his lungs blacke and mortified; his blood was altogether shrunke about the . so that a tree as big as any oake in heart so that, when he was opened, great France was spoiled and lopped bare, and quantities of rotten blood issued out from occupied all in five or six daies, and it about his heart; his milt towards the backe wrought so wel that, if all the physicians was somewhat perished, rough as if it had of Montpelier and Lovaine had bene there been rubbed against a stone. Moreover, with all the drugs of Alexandria, they because one of his thighs was very blacke would not have done so much in one yeare without, it was opened, but within it was as that tree did in sixe daies, for it did so whole and sound; that done, as well as we prevaile, that as many as used of it, by the could he was buried. grace of God, recovered their health. The captain was a man of observa- When Champlain arrived in Canada tion. Walking one day on the ice, he in 1608, he sailed up the St. Lawrence perceived a band of Indians from and founded the future city of Quebec. Stadacona. Amongst them was one who, The ax-men felled the trees on the nar- less than two weeks before, had been in row belt which skirts the promontory the grip of the disease, “with his knee of Cape Diamond, and soon a modest swolne as bigge as a child of two years building arose, rudely fashioned into old, all his sinews schrunke together, his a fort, styled the “Abitation de Que- teeth spoyled, his gummes rotten and bec.” During the winter the colony was stincking. Our Captain, seeing him decimated from the effects of either whole and sound, was thereat marvel- scurvy or dysentery, but it is difficult to lous glad, hoping to understand and determine from which disease. know of him how he had healed liini- When the colony founded by Cham- selfe, to the end that he might ease and plain had been in existence for half a help his men.’’ He learned that the spe- century, there was evidently a need of cific was the bark and sap of a certain more physicians to attend the wants of tree called in their language Anneda* the settlers, for we find that Jean Mar- This tree is known today as I’epinette, tinet undertook to teach his brother- or the spruce. The method of prepara- in-law, Paul Prudhomme, the art of tion was as follows: “To take the bark medicine and surgery by the system of and leaves of the saycl tree, and boil apprenticeship. This is the first re- * “Ameda,” the usual spelling, is due to a corded instance of a method of teach- misprint in the first edition, Paris, 1545. ing which subsequently became much in vogue. This system led to such an in- bec. Of the attending staff of this hos- crease in the number of physicians that pital there is one who deserves especial keen competition and rivalry resulted notice, Michel Sarrazin, who came to in the establishment of a form of part- Canada in the capacity of Surgeon- nership. Those entering into such a Major of the French troops. After prac- partnership ‘‘pooled all their posses- tising his profession in Quebec for some sions, furniture, provisions, roots and years he returned to France for the peltry; all the products which they purpose of pursuing his medical studies gathered from the ground, their instru- at the University of Rennes. Three ments of surgery, their medicines, and years later he received the title of Physi- lastly all the revenue which they would cian to the King, and was delegated by obtain from their work and industry.” the Academy of Science of France to It was further agreed that each of them make a special study of animals and would devote himself to the profit of plants in Canada. His work in this di- the partnership as far as lay in his rection was remarkable. In the Trans- power, and that he would not run into actions of the Academy of Science for debt (without the authority of his as- 1704 there appears a paper by Sarrazin sociates) exceeding the sum of five sous. on the “Anatomy of the Beaver’’ which At the end of four years the profits were even today is regarded as the best work equally divided. It was further stipu- on the subject. His further anatomical lated that in the case of the death of a researches dealt with the muskrat, the member before the expiration of this seal and the groundhog. He also inves- term, all the goods of the community tigated the mineral waters at Cap de la would belong to the survivors. Madeleine. In his botanical researches An interesting physician of this pe- he discovered the pitcher plant, which riod was Dr. Gaulthier, who. as a cor- is known today as Sarracenia purpurea. responding member of the Royal Acad- In recognition of these extensive re- emy of Science of France, had made searches he received a pension of 550 many botanical observations in Canada. livres. To Sarrazin’s skill as a physician It was he who discovered the winter- the records of the Hotel Dieu bear green plant, which today carries his ample testimony. name and is known as Gaultheria pro- Expansion and colonization in this cumbens. new country frequently followed in the With the considerable increase of wake of missionary activity. “Not a cape population, not only at Quebec, but was turned,” writes Parkman, “but a also at Ville-Marie (Montreal), disease Jesuit led the way.” Few more striking in various forms had become much examples of religious enterprise are to more prevalent. Smallpox, especially, be found than the establishment of the had spread to such a degree that it was little colony at Ville-Marie, which later necessary to provide some suitable developed into the city of Montreal. place to care for the unfortunate sick. The founders were Jerome Le Royer The Duchesse d’Aiguillon, finding de la Dauversiere, receiver of taxes in such an unfortunate condition of affairs, Anjou, and Jean Jacques Olier, a young decided to found a hospital, and sent priest of Paris.

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