[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. To both of these men from Dieppe a certain number of nuns. there came at nearly the same time She received a grant of land and estab- (1636) the idea of founding a religious lished in 1639 the Hotel Dieu at Que- colony at Montreal. They formed an association for this purpose and called the following year the furniture, medi- it the “Society of Montreal.’’ At first the cine and surgical instruments arrived, society consisted of six members, but and some live-stock was brought for the the number was soon increased to forty. use of the inmates. The usefulness of Among these was Madame de Bullion, such an institution was soon conceded, who gave 42,000 livres for the purpose for scarcely had the walls been com- of endowing a hospital in the new set- pleted when news of the settlement tlement. In 1641 Paul de Chomedy, reached the Iroquois and encounters Sieur de Maisonneuve, set out for New with the savages began. The wounded France, with a company of 100 soldiers were among the first to reap the benefit under his command. Among those who of the shelter and careful attention joined the expedition was Mademoi- which the hospital afforded. selle Jeanne Mance, the descendant of In 1657 Allie Mance, who had been an honourable and influential family directress of the hospital since its foun- in France, who became a member of dation, fell on the ice, fractured her the Society of Montreal. To Mademoi- right arm and dislocated her wrist. A selle Mance was entrusted the control surgeon set the arm, but failed to dis- of the funds given by Madame de Bul- cover the dislocation of the wrist, and lion for the establishment of a hospital the arm remained entirely useless until at Montreal. On the arrival of the ex- Mlle Mance’s temporary return to pedition in the St. Lawrence the sum- France, occasioned by the financial mer was found too far advanced to pro- needs of the hospital. Here the use of ceed to Montreal, so the winter was her arm, pronounced by the most emi- spent in Quebec, and the following nent surgeons in Paris to be beyond spring they sailed up the river and took recovery, was miraculously restored by possession of the Island of Montreal on touching the casket containing the heart May 17, 1642. The settlement was of M. Olier, one of the two founders of named Ville-Marie in honour of the the Society of Montreal. Virgin Mary, to whom it was especially During the siege of Quebec in 1759 dedicated. Surgeon Robert Adair established hos- Of a hospital, however, there seemed pitals for the British on the Island of for a time to be little need. The colony Orleans, while the surgeons of Quebec was exceptionally free from sickness appear to have attended to the needs and there were as yet no wounded to of the French. Andre Arnoux, Surgeon- be attended, as the Iroquois knew noth- Major of the French troops, established ing of the little settlement and left the himself with his son on St. Louis Street colonists to build in peace. Mlle Mance near the Ursuline Convent. When even suggested that the endowment for Montcalm received his mortal wound the hospital be given to the Jesuit Mis- 011 September 13, he was taken to the sions. To this, however, Madame de home of the surgeon where his wounds Bullion refused to consent. Work on were dressed by the younger Arnoux. the hospital was continued, and the It was here that Montcalm died at four building was opened in October, 1644. o’clock on the following morning. There were two rooms for the sick, a About the year 1773 the attention room for Mlle Mance, a kitchen, apart- of the Government of Lower Canada ments for the servants, and a chapel was drawn to the increasing ravages of ten feet square, built of stone. During a peculiar disease, which, originating at Mai Baie. had spread to other parts of mercurial ointments. Ibis officer was the Province. A tradition exists that it later recalled to Quebec, and upon his was brought to Mai Baie by a detach- death Philippe Louis Francois Bade- ment of Scottish troops who were either lard, who came from France as Assist- sent there on service or had been ant-Major of the French troops, was thrown there by some accident of navi- appointed to investigate the disease and gation a few years before. The great report thereon. He therefore wrote a resemblance of this disorder to syphilis pamphlet on the subject, which was and its disgusting character led the un- printed by the Government, in which happy sufferers who were aware of that it is stated that the use of the foregoing resemblance to conceal their condition remedies resulted in many of the af- as long as possible; while those who flicted ones being cured. were not aware of it looked upon the Upon the exact nature of this disease symptoms as the result of scurvy and the opinions of medical men were trusted to ordinary remedies or to time found to differ. Among those most for relief. From both these causes, and keenly interested in the subject was Dr. because of the remoteness of the parish John Bowman, who was employed by where the disease first made its appear- the Government in investigating the af- ance, and the want of medical assistance fected districts and in distributing the on the spot, the disease was not com- remedies. One Robert Jones of Mon- monly known until it reached such a treal wrote an elaborate pamphlet, height as to require the attention of the published in Montreal in 1786, to Government. prove that the disease was not syphilis; The symptoms of the disease, as while a letter of Dr. Charles Blake, stated in a private description circu- Surgeon of H. M. Thirty-ninth Regi- lated by the Government in 1785, are ment states that: as follows: This disease is nothing more than a con- Ulcerations appear on the soft palate, firmed syphilis showing itself in different tonsils, uvula and mucous membrane of ways in different parts of the body and the mouth. As time goes on, these extend making anomalous symptoms and appear- and cause destruction of these parts. At a ances accordingly. The habits of the Ca- later period nodes appear on the head, nadians facilitate its communication in arms, legs and trunk, which, breaking various ways. They use the same cup, often down, produce extensive stinking ulcera- borrow one another’s pipe to smoke, chew tion. When the disease has attacked the their infants’ food and spit it into their nose for a length of time, it results often mouths. They constantly spit on their in the bridge falling in. Loss of the hair of floors and never clean them, and the lower the head, eyesight and hearing, and a hor- classes are generally regardless of cleanli- rible stench are generally the precursors of ness. All these circumstances help to com- death. No one is exempt from the disease, municate the disease, which may take ef- the child at the breast as well as the aged fect anywhere that the skin happens to be or infirm being equally attacked. broken. The disease being of the nature In 1775, General Carleton, who was already stated, it gives way to no remedy but mercury. Governor at the time, sent a surgeon’s mate with instructions to administer Lower Canada had as yet no facilities medical relief. The remedy which he for teaching medicine other than the distributed consisted of calomel and form of apprenticeship, which did not appeal to the ambitious student. It was ship with a physician of standing and necessary, therefore, to go elsewhere for had then gone to the mother country a medical education. The earliest stu- for graduation and further study; or dent to go abroad was Francois Blan- they were, as often happened, English- chet, who was born in 1776, and re- men and Scotchmen who had received ceived his preliminary education at the their entire training at home. Many of Seminary of Quebec. At the completion these were former army surgeons who of his course at the Seminary he studied had found the demand for their medi- medicine in New York, and published cal services in civil life so great that they a work on “The application of Chem- had retired from active duty and were istry to Medicine.’’ After graduation, engaged only in their profession as Blanchet returned to Quebec, and en- private practitioners. It is said that the tered upon the practice of his profes- type of Englishmen who thus first prac- sion. His ambition, however, was not tised medicine in Canada was as good satisfied in medicine. He launched into as British education could make it. journalism, founded a newspaper, pub- On the other hand, as was natural lished several seditious articles, and was in a country where there was no pro- imprisoned for a short time. His active vision for medical education, and interest in politics and education, how- where the demand for medical assist- ever, led to his election as a member of ance far exceeded the supply, quackery the Legislative Assembly, and it was he seems to have flourished abundantly. who proposed during his tenure of It was to correct such a condition of office the first law on medical education. affairs that in 1750 the Intendant Bigot During the war of 1812, he occupied introduced an ordinance which may be the post of Chief Medical Officer in considered the code of the medical pro- Lower Canada. fession in Canada. This ruling pro- Following the example of Blanchet, vided that no one should practise medi- we find that Jacques Labrie, after serv- cine without passing an examination. ing his apprenticeship, went to Edin- Those wishing to practise in a city were burgh to complete his course of studies. to be examined before the Physician of He was the first Canadian to study at the King in the presence of the Lieu- the university there. Labrie returned tenant-Governor of the Jurisdiction. again to Quebec in 1808, and like his Those wishing to practise in the outly- preceptor he entered politics and be- ing districts were to pass an examina- came a member of the Legislative As- tion before the Physician of the King sembly. It is to them and their medical and a sub-delegate. colleagues that we are indebted for the This ruling continued until 1788, legislation which still protects the when the British Parliament passed an honour of the medical profession in the act which provided that no one should Province of Quebec. practise physic and surgery within At this time the condition of the Lower Canada, or midwifery in the medical profession and of medical edu- towns of Quebec and Montreal, with- cation was, like everything else, in a out a licence. state of transition. The medical men of By the Act of 1847 ^ie medical pro- good professional status who were prac- fession in Lower Canada was incorpo- tising in the country were either Cana- rated under the name of “The College dians who had served their apprentice- of Physicians and Surgeons of Lower Canada," which was empowered under certainly one of the chief causes which certain restrictions to frame its own retarded the colonization of Canada. statutes for the regulation of the study Fhe disastrous results were seen at of medicine in all its departments, and Tadoussac, Island of St. Croix, Port by-laws for its own government. Royal. Quebec, and the Island of The year 1826. it is to be noted, Miscou. marked the formation of the first medi- After scurvy came smallpox with its cal society in Quebec and the publica- attendant train of fatalities. There were tion of the first medical journal. This during the French regime four charac- constituted the first attempt towards teristic epidemics: 1703, 1732, 1733 and promoting the interest and cultivation 1755. A disease as dreadful in results of medical science in Lower Canada as smallpox naturally incited the pio- and towards a free intercourse with the neers in medicine to try various meth- medical world. ods of treatment. We find that Michel During the course of time, increased Sarrazin thought that in his discovery intercourse with France and England of the Sarracenia purpurea he had had led to greater numbers of immi- found a remedy; but this proved use- grants reaching the colony. The marked less, and it was not until 1705 that we increase of population had brought find any attempt being made to intro- about the prevalence of disease, “that duce vaccination as a preventive. This everlasting traveller which follows hu- was first employed in September, 1768, manity wherever it goes,’’ and one of its by a Mr. Latham, Surgeon to the King’s, earliest manifestations was in epidemic or Eighth, Regiment of Foot, who an- form. nounced to the inhabitants of Quebec The earliest disease to be mentioned that he was prepared to carry on this was scurvy. A description of the symp- method of prevention. toms and its treatment as noted by The people of New France were in- Jacques Cartier has already been given. deed sorely afflicted, for we find that It is interesting to note here that new plague made its appearance amongst and more drastic remedies were evi- them on no less than three different dently resorted to. Captain Knox in his occasions (1711, 1718 and 1740). The Journal writes: historian of the Hotel Dieu of Quebec This morning I was an eye-witness to relates that it was brought to this coun- the ceremony of burying a man alive, try by a ship hailing from Siam, where mirabile dictu, for the sea scurvy. To ex- the plague was prevalent about that plain this matter, it must be observed that time. The disease was therefore known a pit was made in the ground, and the as the “Disease of Siam.” There are no patient stood in it with his head only records affording any description of the above the level earth; then the mould was symptoms of those afflicted with the dis- thrown in loose about him, and there he ease, hence any opinion as to the exact remained for some hours; this, I am told, nature of the epidemic must be mere is to be repeated every day until his re- conjecture. covery is perfected. Owing undoubtedly to the unhy- Scurvy, 'which was known in the early gienic conditions existing at this time, days of New France under the name of diseases other than those just men- “mal de terre” and later found to be tioned of an epidemic nature were prev- the same disease as “mal de mer,” was alent amongst the colonists. Chest affec- lions were frequent, and the methods With the arrival of every vessel bringing adopted to effect a cure were perhaps immigrants, the pestilence was expected to unique in the history of medicine in make its appearance in Quebec. At length, this country. In a letter dated at Que- on the Sth of June, the appalling news bec, 1720, we learn that “there are a reached the city of its actual appearance at Grosse Isle, by “The Garricks” from Dub- great number of persons in these parts lin, with 133 passengers on board, 59 hav- who are attacked by chest disease, and ing died of cholera during the passage. that the most efficacious remedy is asses’ From Quebec it bounded onwards as it milk. As there are no animals of this were by leaps in its direful progress up the kind in the colonies, we beg the Council St. Lawrence, breaking out on the 10th at to see that a male and female are sent Montreal with great violence. out next year by the ships of His The severity of the epidemic may be Majesty.” gathered from the fact that from June Che use of ice for the purpose of re- 9 to September 2 no less than 2,215 peo- ducing the temperature in typhoid ple died from this alone in the city of fever is thought by many to be of com- Quebec. Since that time, there have oc- paratively recent date, but about 1780 curred four outbreaks (1834, 1849, we learn from the memoirs of Philippe 1852 and 1854) of Asiatic cholera in de Gaspe that, when a child, he had Lower Canada. been cured of a very severe attack of Let us now leave Quebec with its il- typhus or typhoid fever by the use of lustrious past, and turn our attention to ice. “I showed scarcely any signs of life Montreal, which was destined to be- for three days,” he writes, “my death come the centre of medical education. was expected each minute.” So far the Montreal was in 1816 a thriving town patient had been treated by some one of 20,000 inhabitants, a distribution who possessed only a pretentious knowl- centre for immigration and the head- edge of medicine; as the condition of quarters for the trade of the North the patient became one of extreme West Company. gravity, Dr. Fred Oliva was sent for. He The various charitable institutions suggested that the child be dipped in a of this city had been for several years bath of iced water and then wrapped in hot flannels. “At the end of half an found inadequate for the needs of the hour,” writes de Gaspe, “there followed population, due to the increased im- an abundant perspiration which saved migration. The termination of the war my life.” in 1815 brought to our shores vast num- From 1800 to 1832 the country ap- bers of persons who through sickness on pears, as far as one is able to glean from their passage or poverty on their arrival available sources, to have been singu- were incapable of reaching their ulti- larly free from disease of an epidemic mate destination. Unable to procure nature. Nevertheless, Asiatic cholera, either support or medical attendance which had originated in India during from any funds of their own, they made the early part of the nineteenth cen- an urgent appeal which prompted the tury, gradually spread over extensive benevolent inhabitants of our cities to areas, until in 1832 it reached France devise means for the relief of these and England. The spring of 1832 was miserable exiles. An association of cold, rainy and backward, and remark- women in Montreal, the “Female (now able for the prevalence of heavy north- Ladies’) Benevolent Society,” was easterly gales. formed expressly for the relief of the indigent immigrants; bnt more than contained nineteen wards and had a this was needed. The sick required med- capacity of 160 beds. ical aid; and to attain this object some I'he formation of a medical school was medical men of the city agreed to give the natural outcome of a general impulse their assistance provided a house could in a rapidly growing city. As a result, be obtained where the most necessitous therefore, we find that in 1822 lectures cases of sick poor could be relieved. A were publicly announced and given by small building of four apartments was some of the members of the staff of the then rented, and called the “House of Montreal General Hospital, notably Drs. Recovery.” Small as it was, and inade- Stephenson and Holmes. This continued quate to meet the numerous cases that for a year, when a meeting of the hospital needed relief, it became the germ of medical staff was held to consider the ex- that noble institution which redounds pediency of establishing a medical school. Steps were immediately taken to organize so greatly to the benefit and honour of a teaching staff, to utilize the hospital for the city of Montreal, the Montreal clinical purposes, and to give a course of General Hospital. This building was lectures, and these were begun in Novem- soon found totally inadequate to relieve ber, 1824. anfl delivered at the institution, all those who made request for assist- the first announcement of teaching read- ance. and means were taken of raising ing as follows: ‘‘Principles and Practice of a sum of money which enabled them to Medicine, Dr. Caldwell; Surgery, Anat- rent a larger house in Craig Street. The omy and Physiology, Dr. Stephenson; Mid- medical department was placed under wifery and Diseases of Children, Dr. Rob- the direction of four physicians, who ertson; Chemistry, Pharmacy and Materia attended monthly in rotation; one of Medica, Dr. Holmes.” This organization was then known as the Montreal Medical them as house surgeon attended daily Institution, and the first session was held in cases of accident. On May i, 1819, in the academic year 1824-25. such patients as were in the House of Once established, it seems to have Recovery, together with the little prop- quickly won good repute, and in 1829 it erty belonging to that establishment, became “engrafted upon” McGill Uni- were moved into the new institution, versity as its medical faculty. This univer- which now assumed the title of the sity was founded by the will of the Hon. “Montreal General Hospital.” James McGill, and the bequest, which consisted of £ 10,000 and the estate of Considerable interest had been Burnside, was left in trust for a college to aroused in favour of this newly estab- The Royal Institution for the Advance- lished charity, and to such a degree that ment of Learning, a body contemplated in August, 1820, sufficient funds had by a Provincial Act of 1801, but not in- been raised to enable them to buy a corporated and therefore not able to hold new site on which to erect a modern property until the year 1818. Action was building. On this site, which it still oc- delayed by this circumstance and by an cupies, the hospital was opened in May, almost total lack of funds in the institu- 1822, for the reception of patients. The tion, and by protracted litigation over the bequest. Indeed, had it not been for the medical staff consisted of Drs. Caldwell, far-seeing condition of the bequest, that Robertson, Holmes and Stephenson. the legacy should revert to certain persons Within ten years the demands for ad- unless a university were established within mission exceeded its capacity, and an ten years of the testator’s decease, it is important addition was opened in De- more than probable that the project cember, 1832. The hospital at this time would have been indefinitely delayed. At this time the eyes of the Royal In- bec for the proposed medical school stitution and of the friends of education was due to various reasons. The popu- were turned upon the Montreal Medical lation of the city was now between Institution, now an active teaching body 30,000 and 40,000. As the principal of established reputation, and it was de- port also for ocean shipping, it was at cided to bridge the difficulty by making Quebec that the diseases continually this body the medical faculty of the Uni- versity, its officers becoming professors or brought by incoming vessels and the lecturers in their respective branches. accidents from the process of loading In June, 1829, the first meeting of the and unloading in port were most in Governors of “Burnside University of evidence. It was here, therefore, that McGill College’’ was called at Burnside the aid of medicine and surgery was House, which had just come into the hands most urgently required. It was felt also of the Royal Institution under the will. that the school would attract from the This meeting had as its object the promul- colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Sco- gation of the Charter and the Inaugura- tia and Prince Edward Island the young tion of the University. It was largely at- men who had hitherto been compelled tended by representative citizens of all to go abroad for an opportunity of classes, and at this meeting the members studying medical science. Among the of the Montreal Medical Institution who had been invited to be present were suggestions regarding the course of formally engrafted upon the University of medicine to be pursued was the pro- McGill College as its medical faculty. posed regulation that the whole period The Montreal Medical Institution, as allotted for education at the medical it still continued to be called for some school should be five years. The first years, was now a faculty of an established three years were to be passed in strict university capable of granting degrees. attendance at the school of medicine For some years the only active work done and the last two years in close attend- in the university was that in this faculty, ance to duties at the hospital. and by its simply fulfilling the time limit In 1840 Lower Canada became of the will, it may justly be said to have united with Upper Canada under a saved the university at least from much Governor-General and a Federal Par- involved and tedious litigation if, indeed, liament. By that time the medical pro- it did not preserve for it the bequest itself. fession in Lower Canada had become The improvement of medical edu- well established and assured of legal cation was even as early as 1837 a much recognition and protection, the hospi- discussed subject, and relevant to it is tals provided scientific and clinical fa- an extremely interesting report made cilities well worthy of the day, and the by Sir John Doratt, m.d ., then Inspec- teaching of medicine had been soundly tor-General of Hospitals, who was ap- organized in institutions well qualified pointed by the British Government to to carry on the best traditions of the investigate, report upon, and advise re- British and the French universities. To garding this question. This report rec- those pioneers in our profession who ommended the establishment of a made this possible in a new and com- medical school in the city of Quebec paratively isolated country, much credit in connection with the Hotel Dieu and is due, and the institutions which they the Marine Hospital. These hospitals, established on such a secure foundation it was considered, would conjointly pro- still merit and receive the grateful and vide clinical beds to the number of generous support of the public which three hundred. The selection of Que- they serve.