Nten Anb I1oohz- the MEDICAL HISTORY of There, in the Grandfather's Old Stone Mansion BRITISH COLUMBIA# Overlooking the St
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1931 JOURNAL 1931 THE CANADIAN [OCt. 470 THE CANADIANMzi)icALASSOCIA.TION 470 that should be relied upon but actually the with an antiphosphatide rabbit serum. Both trend of the index over a period of time. To cite these tests are also proving of use in prognosis. a specific instance. Should there be a monocyte For example, if phosphatide antigen is present count of 2,000 cells per cubic millimetre in two and low-antibody the prognosis is bad; if there persons with tuberculosis, a count indicating in is no antigen and a high antibody content the both cases a spread of the focus, the prognosis prognosis is good, while quiescence would be is better in the first if the lymphocyte count is indicated by no antigen and low antibody. 7,000 than in the second where the lymphocyte The third aid concerns the tubercle bacillus count is only 2,000 cells per cubic millimetre. itself and is based on certain observations made This observation has been well checked clinically by Petroff on the morphological differences of and is worthy of wider application. Medlar virulent "S" colonies and avirulent "R" colonies. would also have one not neglect the polymorpho- The latter are long, beaded, strongly acidfast and nuclear leucocyte, as he has frequently predicted branching -while the former are short, faintly abscess formation and cavitation in the presence acidfast and Much's granules are present. Thus of a high count of polymorphonuclear leucocytes. an enumeration not only of the number but of The second aid cited is a precipitin test, using the characteristics of the bacilli present *may as antigen a phosphatide fraction recently isolated prove helpful. by Anderson of Yale.' Using spinal, pleural, Finally, there remains the method of serial joint and ascitic fluids in 350 cases, Doan has x-ray plates in children over a period of years, had the diagnosis checked in the majority of when developing tuberculosis can be followed and instances. Not only is the patient's serum or diagnosed early. exudate used against the phosphatide as antigen Tuberculosis still offers an inexhaustible field but an antiphosphatide rabbit serum is used for careful observations and application of new against the patient's fluids as antigen. In early methods. tuberculous meningitis free antigen is often found ARNOLD BRANCH Nten anb I1oohz- THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF there, in the grandfather's old stone mansion BRITISH COLUMBIA# overlooking the St. Lawrence, the boys grew up. They caught a military presence from the soldier By A. S. MONRO, M.D., grandfather who had brought a Highland regi- Vancouver ment with him to America and which, after the victorious campaign of Wolfe, remained to JOHN MCLOUGHLIN, 1784 TO 1857 colonize these colonial domains. Here they read In the early annals of British settlement on Scotch stories, heard the tales of Highland his- the north Pacific coast of America, there is no tory, and the music of the bagpipes and the more interesting and romantic character than sight of kilts and tartan were familiar to them. that of Dr. John McLoughlin, chief factor of The brothers were sent overseas, probably to the Hudson's Bay Company, from 1824 to 1846. Edinburgh, and were pursuing their medical McLoughlin was in charge of all their opera- studies when Napoleon was at the zenith of his tions in that vast territory extending from power. Dr. David McLoughlin went to the wars Alaska to California, and from the Rocky Moun- and followed the Iron Duke until Napoleon tains on the east to the shores of the Pacific on went into exile at St. Helena. Dr. John Mc- the west. Styled by some of his confreres Loughlin said "I could never fight Napoleon, "Emperor of the West", on account of the vast I admire him too much". He returned to territory over which he exercised the powers of Canada. The lure and glamor of the west, the an absolute monarch, yet his reign was char- fact that his uncles, the Frasers, were great and acterized by the exhibition of such sound justice, powerful in the fur trade, no doubt led him to such wise and humane treatment towards those join the Northwest Company, the partners of whose lives he controlled, that to-day he is known which were so aptly styled "Lords of the as the "first citizen of Oregon" and his memory North" by Washington Irving in his "Astoria". is respected and revered by the people of that Birth, talent, and a magnificent presence (he State. was six feet three inches in height) brought Dr. John McLoughlin was born at Riviere du rapid promotion and soon he was in command Loup, Quebec, October 22, 1784. While still a of Sault Ste. Marie. Here he met Margaret boy, his father was drowned, and his mother, McKay, widow of Alexander McKay, one of that with her two boys, John and David, moved to adventurous band who accompanied Alexander the home of her. father, Malcolm Fraser, and McKenzie on his trip to the Pacific Coast, 1793. * The first paper in this History can be found in the This was the first party of white men to cross Jownal, 1931, 25: 336. the continent and recently a memorial tablet Oet. 1931] MEN AND BOOKS: THE ME:DICAL HISTORY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 4471 has been unveiled near Bella Coola to com- Canadian doctor startled them all with the memorate the event. When John Jacob Astor boldest speech that had ever rung in those con- planned to enter the fur trade on the Pacific servative warerooms. He was a study, that Coast, he went to Montreal to find the men for courageous young doctor of locks prematurely his enterprize. McKay met Astor. They liked white and flashing eye, that free-born spirit each other and became partners. McKay, pro- that had breathed in liberty on the banks of ceeding around the Horn on the Tonquin, finally the St. Lawrence. reached the mouth of the Columbia and there "My Lords and Gentlemen, I plead for the fur traders built, on the site of Astoria, a better terms! Since the days of Prince Rupert trading post for the new company. The story this monster monopoly has sat supinely on the by Irving is one of the most fascinating tales banks of Hudson's Bay and shut out Canada of the fur trade. After eight years of patient from her birthright. Did we seek extended waiting for a missing husband, word came by settlement? It would drive away their game. a fur brigade from the Columbia, that her Did we attempt to trade in furs? They claimed husband had been killed at Nootka when the the- only right. Westward, beyond the basin Tonquin and all her crew had been sacrificed by of Hudson's Bay there lay an open field. To a murderous band of Indians of that coast. this the merchants of Montreal sent out their Margaret McKay, now a widow, married Dr. traders. We scoured the forests and threaded McLoughlin at the Lake Superior Fort. A few the streams. We sought new tribes and won years later McLoughlin was in command at Fort their friendship. We explored the Saskatch- William and in the meantime, two children were ewan and the Athabasca. Our men it was that born, Eloise and David. An accident, the traced the Mackenzie and planted the flag on capsizing of a canoe and long immersion in the the polar ocean, and turning back found a way cold waters of Lake Superior, almost cost him across the mountains to the Pacific itself. his life. When carried into the Fort nearly While the Hudson's Bay Company waited we dead, he was the sole survivor of the accident. ran. We built up posts in remotest wilds, we His hair, which up to that time had been de- discovered new waterways, we established scribed as golden-the Indians called it "sun- trade. When the profits began to flow in, the shine"-turned completely white, and later on Hudson's Bay Company began to rub its sleepy the Columbia, his waving white locks and com- eyes and claim the fruits of our toil. They manding presence, led to the appellation of claimed our trading fields and shot our traders. "The White Eagle", given him by the Indians. To obstruct our work they threw the Red River In 1816, the intense rivalries of the Nor'- settlement across our path, cutting communica- Westers and the Hudson's Bay Company tion with Montreal and blockading our sup- culminated in the Battle of Seven Oaks, a plies. They prohibited their settlers from point a few miles north of Winnipeg, at which selling provisions and tried to starve us out. Governor Semple of the Hudson's Bay Com- They used their money to buy over our pany and twenty of his men were killed. A traders, and when bribes would not suffice they monument now marks the spot, erected some shot us in the forest. Is this the condition of thirty years ago by the Countess of Selkirk, British subjects? No wonder we fought for the last of that illustrious line whose name is our rights. And now you ask us to ' share so unforgetably described in "The Annals of equally' the profits of the trade. I do not the History of Western Canada". object to the union,-God knows I regretted The wedding of the rival fur companies is the war,-but ought we to give equal share of historic. When the French and English were those profits they never raised a finger to fighting at Waterloo, two rival fur companies obtain, nay, did all they could to discourage were fighting in North America, the Hudson's and destroy? What reward have we for those Bay and the Northwest.