·1·

·OSLER·L BRARY·NEWSL TTER· Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University, Montréal (Québec) Canada

NUMBER 110 · 2008

THE

I E

IN THIS ISSUE OSLER AND GRACE VISIT TRACADIE

by Arthur Gryfe

IN THIS FALL ISSUE, ARTHURGryfe, pathologist at the TrilliumHealth Centre, Mississauga,Ontario, explores a mysterioustrip that William Osler andyoung W.W. Francis embarkedon to visit a leprosarium in NewBrunswick… in the company oftwo unmarried ladies, one ofthem destined to be his wife.Please read on!

Recent McGill InformationStudies graduate JacquelineBarlow describes her role in ourdigital project, “The WilliamOsler Photo Collection”, whichinvolved cataloguing the photo-graphs assembled by HarveyCushing, and subsequent Oslerstaff, for on-line access, thanks togenerous funding from theMcGovern Foundation.

Dr. Chuck Roland who has justpublished his biography of Dr.Archibald Malloch, the seniormember of three generations ofa family with close ties with theOsler family, continues with hiscolumn, “Roland’s CanadianMedical History Miniatures”.This issue’s candidate is geologist/doctor Robert Bell.

And as is usual in the fall, we sendyou our annual appeal, with areport of the range of activitiesthat take place here, in largemeasure, thanks to your help. �

•

•

I n 1889, William Oslerdecided, apparently at theeleventh hour, to change hissummer travel plans. Instead ofattending the annual meeting ofthe Canadian Medical Associa-tion in the beautiful mountainoussetting of Banff, Alberta, he tookhis 11 year old cousin, BillyFrancis, and headed off to theleper colony at Tracadie inremote New Brunswick. He alsoarranged to rendezvous along theway with the recently widowedGrace Revere Gross. Grace anda friend, Sarah Woolley, ac-companied Osler to Tracadie.Billy decided to wait with friends30 miles away in Caraquet.

It was the year before Oslerbegan writing his famoustextbook, The Principles and Practiceof Medicine, in which, he refers tohis trip to Tracadie. According tothe time-honoured story, whenOsler received the first copy ofPrinciples in 1892, he tossed thebook into Grace’s lap andexclaimed, “There, take the darnthing; now what are you goingto do with the man?” Theymarried three months later. Oslerhad previously proposed toGrace sometime between theirvisit to Tracadie and the book-tossing incident, but she hadadvised him to complete hiswriting first.

It is easy to understand whyOsler, the consummate physician

and writer, planning to create thedefinitive medical textbook,would visit one of the twoleprosaria in Canada. But why, ofall places, would he take an 11year-old boy, and the woman hewould marry three years later?

Miss Sarah Woolley, William Osler, W.W. Francisand Grace Revere Osler, taken in 1889, William OslerPhoto Collection, CUS_046-31_P

WhenOsler visitedTracadie in1889, hesupported thetheory thatleprosy wasinfectious,possiblywith somehereditarypredisposition.

�

·2·

•

•

While searching for the answerto that question, I serendipitouslydiscovered a previously un-published letter from Osler to Dr.Alfred Corbett Smith, anattending physician to thelazaretto. This led to thediscovery of four additionalunpublished letters, directlyassociated with or resulting fromOsler’s visit, including two morewritten by Osler himself. Theseletters significantly influencedthe management of leprosypatients in Canada, the career ofDr. Smith, and the constructionof new living and hospitalfacilities for the leprosy patientsand their care givers. This paperwill discuss only briefly thehistory of leprosy in NewBrunswick and the lazaretto inTracadie, since these subjectshave been described in otherpublications, most notably byLosier and Pinet in Children ofLazarus: The Story of the Lazaretto atTracadie.(1)

Leprosy first appeared in NewBrunswick around 1815. Theprimary source of infection in theprovince is unknown. Until latein the 19th century, the medicalcommunity was undecided if thedisease was contagious, he-reditary, or both. When Osler

visited Tracadie in 1889, hesupported the theory that leprosywas infectious, possibly withsome hereditary predisposition.(2)

After an unsuccessful attemptto create a lazaretto on SheldrakeIsland, and with unremittinglobbying by the clergy and byfamily and friends of the lepers,a lazaretto was constructed atTracadie in 1849, where thepatients would be close to home.However, the buildings weresmall and poorly ventilated.Three years later, they wereaccidentally destroyed by fire. Anew lazaretto was constructedthe following year.

The lazaretto was under themanagement of a ProvincialBoard of Health, each member ofwhich, possessed despotic power.Lepers were hunted like wildbeasts, dragged away by an ironhook attached to a long pole,handcuffed, and thrown into aprison, surrounded by a 12 footwall, surmounted by a row oflong spikes to prevent escape.When the Medical Super-intendent died suddenly in 1865,25 year old Dr. Alfred CorbettSmith, a recent graduate ofHarvard Medical School and anative of nearby Bathurst, N.B.,was appointed to the position,

and remained associated with thelazaretto until his death, 44 yearslater.

When Smith moved toTracadie in 1865, there were 21patients in the lazaretto. It wasvery difficult to get people fromthe area to work there, and noproper nursing was available. InSeptember 1868, six nuns fromthe Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal weresent to the lazaretto, and underthe name of Les ReligieusesHospitalières de Saint-Joseph àTracadie, they and their suc-cessors served the establishmentfor 97 years. Six months after thenursing sisters arrived, Dr. Smith’sposition as Medical Super-intendent was terminated to savemoney. He and his wife, Helen,moved to Chatham where heopened a general practice.However he retained his interestin leprosy and the leprosarium.

Two years later, in 1871,Joseph-Auguste Babineau becamethe priest of the parish ofTracadie, and as the Super-intendent of the lazaretto and amember of the Board, he wieldedconsiderable power in therunning of the institution and inthe direction of the sisters. Hedecided who would be admittedas a patient, and had control overtreatment. It was around this timethat Mycobacterium leprae, thecausative agent of leprosy, wasdiscovered by Norwegian phy-sician G.H.A. Hansen.

Before the 1870s were over, thesisters’ authority was reduced.Due to faulty diagnoses, patientswith skin diseases other thanleprosy had been admitted. Someremained for over a year. Itbecame obvious that Babineauand the nuns did not havesufficient medical expertise. As aresult, in October 1878, Smithwas appointed Consulting Physi-cian to the lazaretto by the NewBrunswick Legislature. Headvised on in-patient care, and

Back of photo, William Osler Photo Collection, CUS_046-31_PB

·3· �

visited the lazaretto four times ayear, for which he received anannual salary of $200 and travelexpenses. However he had noreal jurisdiction in the hospitalitself, but visited the surroundingparishes, inspecting homes andfactories, and by “moral suasion”,removed suspected cases to thehospital.

In 1880, the jurisdiction of thelazaretto was transferred to theFederal Department of Agri-culture, after an investigationrevealed conflicts of interest andsquabbles amongst Board mem-bers. The federal takeover of thelazaretto seemed to result in asudden curiosity on the part ofthe general public. Throughoutthe 1880s, a steady stream ofreporters, politicians, and theclergy made their way to theTracadie hospital. The reportsthat appeared in the newspapersand magazines were not flat-tering.

During the summer of 1889,William Osler relocated fromPhiladelphia to the newly openedJohns Hopkins Hospital inBaltimore. According to HarveyCushing’s biography, The Life of SirWilliam Osler, “He got away by theend of August for a visit toToronto, and from there in thecompany with his favouritenephew, W.W. Francis, [11 yearold Francis was actually his first-cousin-once-removed] instead ofproceeding to Banff, where theCanadian Medical Associationwas to meet, he for good andsufficient reasons went to pay avisit to a doctor-friend in chargeof the leper colony at Tracadie,on the Gulf of St. Lawrence inthe very north-eastern corner ofthe Province of New Brunswick.New Brunswick is not so large butthat some Philadelphia friendswho were spending the summeron the Island of Grand Manan,off the southwest corner of the

Province, joined forces withthem”.(3)

The “doctor-friend in charge ofthe leper colony” was AlfredCorbett Smith, and the “friends”with whom they “joined forces”were the recently widowed GraceRevere Gross and her closestfriend, Sarah Woolley. Osler hadknown Grace and her latehusband, Dr. Samuel Gross, forsome time, and had often been aguest in their home. After thedemise of Samuel, Osler con-tinued to see Grace frequentlyand often referred to her as “TheWidow Gross”.

In all editions of his textbook,Principles and Practice of Medicine,Osler refers to his trip toTracadie. In the first edition,published in 1892, he wrote, “Anendemic focus [of leprosy] is atTracadie, New Brunswick. A fewcases are also met with in CapeBreton, N.S. At Tracadie, whichis on a bay of the Gulf of St.Lawrence, the disease is limitedto two or three counties whichare settled by French Canadians.The disease was imported fromNormandy about the end of thelast century. The cases areconfined to a lazaretto, to whichthey are sent so soon as thedisease is manifest. I made a visitto the settlement two years agowith the medical officer, A.A.Smith (sic), of Chatham, at whichtime there were only eighteenpatients in the hospital. It isinteresting to note that thedisease has gradually diminishedby segregation; formerly therewere over forty under sur-veillance.” In the second editionhe corrected A.A. Smith to A.C.Smith. Osler continued to cor-respond with Smith and in latereditions, mentions statistics sentto him by Smith in 1898 and1904.

There does not appear to beany indication that Osler ori-ginally intended to travel to

Tracadie. The first mention thathe was about to head for NewBrunswick was a short, previouslyunpublished letter, in Osler’shand, to the Minister of theInterior, sent from 83 WellesleyStreet, Toronto, and dated only,“Monday”. It reads,

Dear Sir,It is my intention to visit this

month the Lazaretto for Lepersat Tracadie. Could you kindlysend me an official letter inorder to save any trouble theremight be in seeing the place.

Yours truly,William OslerProfessor of MedicineJohns Hopkins Univ.Baltimore (5)

It appears that when Oslerreached Toronto, on his intendedway to Alberta, he stopped tovisit relatives, learned that GraceGross was vacationing on GrandManan Island, and decided totravel instead to New Brunswick.The only account of his eastwardjourney from Toronto wasdescribed years later by W.W.Francis.

Osler and Billy Francis wentfrom Toronto, via Montreal toPortland, Maine and on toEastport, “where”, according toFrancis, “we waited impatientlyfor a boat from Grand Manan,which was bringing two mys-terious friends to join us. The fourof us made the rest of the triptogether, via St. John, Bathurst,and a funny little railway thenceto Caraquet, on the Baie deChaleurs, where we were all putup by a very charming family,with some girls who made a lotof me. Next day, the rest of themdrove 30 miles to Tracadie andinspected the colony of 18 lepers.I was left behind with ‘cold feet’,the result of heat, lobsters andseeing some pictures of the

Oslercontinued tosee Gracefrequentlyand oftenreferred to heras “TheWidowGross”.

…Dr. Smithhas been incommunicationwithphysiciansall over theworld whoare workingat this subject& he hasthe necessarytechnical skillto pursuethese enquiries

�

·4·

•

•

lepers. When we got back toBathurst and the main line, thetrain was late, hot and crowded,and the only accommodation leftfor W.O, and me and anenormously fat R.C. bishop wasthe smoking-room of thePullman. The bishop offered toclimb up to the upper berth, butwe both looked at his girth, andhe joined us in a laugh. W.O. andI shared the upper, and the bishopsnored horribly. We dropped ourcompanions the next day atCacouna. Such is my childhoodrecollection. Boiled down, I fearthere is nothing in it but the factof the visit and that Mrs. Grossaccompanied us”.(6)

The next letter, and the secondin Osler’s hand, was to theMinister of Agriculture and waswritten when Osler returned toJohns Hopkins. It is datedBaltimore, Sept. 22nd, 1889, andreads:

SirI made an inspection lastmonth of the Lazaretto forLepers at Tracadie and thereare one or two points of publicinterest to which I should liketo direct the attention of thedepartment.In the first place the

experiment which has therebeen carved out is of thegreatest importance as sho-wing that the careful segrega-tion – even though incompleteis sufficient to reduce greatlythe number of cases & diminishthe risk to the community. Iknow of nothing more inte-resting in the history ofmodern Leprosy than the wayin which at Tracadie thedisease has been graduallylimited & the number ofpatients reduced. Upon thispoint the Government may bemost heartily congratulated.

I would like to make withyour permission, three sug-gestions.

First: The present accom-modation is not at allsatisfactory. It is not right thatthe women affected – 8 innumber now – should behoused in a garret whichthough clean is altogether toocontracted & inadequate. Twonew wards should be built withproper conveniences.

Second: As the questions ofthe modes of infection, theexact nature &c of leprosy nowbecome of imperial interestand as the isolated Tracadiesettlement offers very ex-ceptional opportunities for thesolution of these problems, Iwould suggest the appoint-ment for a term of years ofsome one who would give hisentire time to the study of thedisease as it exists in theinfected regions. Your visitingofficer Dr. Smith has been incommunication with physi-cians all over the world whoare working at this subject &he has the necessary technicalskill to pursue these enquiries– I know of no one moresuitable for the position shouldyou create it.

Third: An energetic attemptshould be made in the next fiveyears, by an annual house tohouse inspection of the in-fected counties, to isolate allthe cases. Ample power shouldbe given to the officers toremove patients and if ne-cessary, in the case of workers,the government might pensionfor a time the children.

I feel certain that withintwenty years Leprosy could bestamped out in New Bruns-wick. What has been doneindicates clearly what could be

·5· �

I have to saythat Igenerallyhold withDrs. Smithand Osler,that it isdesirable toprovide forcompulsorymeans ofseclusionwhenpersuasionfails to bringit in duetime…

done with thorough inspec-tion & additional police power.

The Sisters & Father Babineauare so devoted to the work thatwith them there could be noserious trouble in the compul-sory segregation of all cases.

I have the honour to beYours trulyWilliam Osler MD,F.R.C.P.(Lond)Professor of MedicineJohns Hopkins UniversityBaltimore(4)

Osler then wrote a letter to Dr.A.C. Smith in Tracadie. This, infact, was the first of theunpublished letters that wediscovered. It was locatedamongst Dr. Smith’s papers in theUniversity of Moncton archivesin Shippagan, N.B., and was theimpetus that led to the eventual

discovery of the other un-published letters. Typical ofOsler, the letter is dated only,“Baltimore, Monday 1889”. Itreads as follows:

Dear Dr. SmithI was away all last week & onlyhad your message last eve onmy return. I have written to theMinister (3 pages) & urged: –(1) the erection of moresuitable buildings, (2) theprovision for a thorough studyof the disease in the infectedregions, (3) the attempt tostamp out by an annualinspection with police powerto remove to the lazaretto. Ihave urged you as the mostsuitable person for the study &I have written a private letterto Mr. Carling. I have lost mystenographer or I would sendyou a copy.

Thanks for the goodness insending on the letters to Mrs.Gross.

Sincerely yoursWm Osler(7)

The mention of “Mrs. Gross” atthe end of the letter is the onlyreference by Osler that we havebeen able to find that Graceaccompanied him to Tracadie,although her presence wasconfirmed by W.W. Francis, asnoted previously.

During the months ofSeptember and October 1889,Smith had had communicationswith John Carling and JohnLowe, respectively the Ministerand Deputy Minister ofAgriculture, regarding mainlysegregation of lepers. OnOctober 21, 1889, a letter waswritten from Dr. J.C. Taché, theformer Deputy Minister ofAgriculture, to John Lowe. Thisletter reads:

My dear Mr. Lowe : –Concerning the questions

approached in Documentsrespectively numbered 70,653,70,719 and 70,724, (Dr. Smith,Dr. Smith, Dr. Osler) whichherewith return to you, and onwhich you demanded myopinion, I have to say that Igenerally hold with Drs. Smithand Osler, that it is desirableto provide for compulsorymeans of seclusion whenpersuasion fails to bring it indue time, and to secure by anincrease of the salary of thevisiting physician (Dr. Smith),a large portion, if not the wholeof his time for the discovery,inspection and seclusion ofnew cases of Leprosy withinthe Canadian territory. Thisopinion is not a new notionwith me; oftentimes have Itaken it up for consideration inthe course of my official life,coupled with the view that

The visitand lettersundoubtedlyplayed a rolein improvingthe conditionsin thelazarettoand thetreatmentof leprosy…

�

·6·

•

•

persons taken with Leprosy arenot to be outlawed or treatedlike criminals, or considered asobjects of horror, but dealtwith, as heretofore they havebeen, as unfortunates to beespecially attended to, both intheir and the public interest.

J.C. Taché(8)

The fifth letter was written by Dr.Alfred Smith on Oct. 31, 1889,to John Carling, the Minister ofAgriculture, stating that for afixed annual salary of six hundreddollars plus traveling expenses, hewould work full time at thelazaretto. Smith states that he iswilling to “devote all of my timeand attention, in addition to anypresent duties in education withthe Tracadie lazaretto, to thestudy of Leprosy in the

Dominion of Canada, and to thestamping of it out of ourcountry”.(9) Shortly thereafterSmith was hired as the full timephysician for the lazaretto, andwithin a few years of Osler’s visitand letters, a new lazaretto wasconstructed.

In conclusion, we describe herefive letters, discovered seren-dipitously, relating directly toWilliam Osler‘s visit to thelazaretto in Tracadie. Three ofthe letters were written by Oslerhimself. The visit and lettersundoubtedly played a role inimproving the conditions in thelazaretto and the treatment ofleprosy in Canada, as well as thecareer of Dr. A.C. Smith. How-ever, we never did find anexplanation why Osler tookGrace, the woman he soonmarried, or why he intended to

take 11 year old Willy to thelazaretto. Osler and Grace kepttheir courtship a secret until theday of the wedding and neitherleft any letters or other accountsof their trip together to Tracadie.Osler mentions his visit to thelazaretto in all editions of histextbook, but nowhere does hemention his companions. Grace’spapers were destroyed after herdeath at her request. In the 21st

century it is quite acceptable foran unmarried couple to traveltogether. Would it have beenequally acceptable in Victorian19th century? �

References and Notes1. Losier, M.J. and Pinet, C. Children

of Lazarus: The Story of the Lazaretto atTracadie. Canada National Library,Quebec 1999.

2. Osler, W. The Principles and Practiceof Medicine. Appleton, New York1892. pp. 256-259.

3. Cushing, H. The Life of Sir WilliamOsler, Vol. 1. 1925. p. 319.

4. Letter from Osler, W. to Carling,J., 1889. Dept. of Agriculture,Canada. General CorrespondenceSept. 22-28, 1889. No. 70.724.

5. Letter Osler, W. to Minister ofDept. of the Interior, 1889. Dept.of Agriculture, Canada. GeneralCorrespondence Aug.14-16, 1889.No. 70.354.

6. Cushing, H. The Life of Sir WilliamOsler, Vol. 1. 1925. pp. 319-320.

7. Letter from Osler, W. to Smith,A.C., 1889. In the papers ofDr. A.C. Smith, University ofMoncton Archives at Shippagan,N.B.

8. Letter from Taché, J.C. to Lowe,J., Oct. 21, 1889. Dept. of Agri-culture, Canada.

9. Letter from Smith, A.C. to Carling,J., Oct. 31, 1889. Dept. of Agri-culture, Canada. General Corres-pondence Oct. 31 – Nov. 2, 1889.No. 71.050.

Letter from William Osler to J. Carling,Department of Agriculture, Canada, 1889

·7· �

…thereare tworelationships– between thedoctor andthe patientand betweenthe doctorand thedisease.

“IN OSLER’SFOOTSTEPS”A ONE DAYCOLLOQUY ONHEALING

by Chris Lyons

Sir William Osler meansmany things to manypeople – a great physician,a great researcher, a great teacherand a great bibliophile. Thesemyriad roles have inspired pastand present students and prac-titioners in the art of healing. OnSaturday, September 27th 24people gathered at the OslerLibrary to consider the theme ofhealing and the role of the healer.The background of the speakersranged from physicians, thoseliving with their own or a familymember’s illness, a minister/therapist and yes, even a librarian.Dr. David Elpern, the co-organiser of the colloquy and thefirst speaker, set the day in aproper Oslerian context byquoting from an extemporaneousspeech that Sir William gave in1899 to medical students inAlbany, New York. Osler hadtold the gathered students that:

There is a strong feeling abroadamong people – you see it inthe newspapers – that wedoctors are given over now-adays to science; that we caremuch more for the disease andits scientific aspects than forthe individual. I don’t believeit, but at any rate, whether thetendency exists or not, I wouldurge upon you in your ownpractice, to care more parti-cularly ... for the individualpatient than for the specialfeatures of the disease ...

Dealing as we do with poorsuffering humanity, we see theman unmasked, exposed to allthe frailties and weaknesses,and you have to keep yourheart soft and tender lest youhave too great a contempt foryour fellow creatures. The bestway is to keep a looking-glassin your own heart, and themore carefully you scan yourown frailties the more tenderyou are for those of your fellowcreatures.

Dr. Elpern stated that readingautobiographies about theillnesses of others, a genre calledpathography, helped him toremain in touch with “poorsuffering humanity” and providedan education beyond what hereceived in academia. He saidthat they allowed him to see thesecret world of patients, theirsuffering and their not alwayspleasant feelings towards theircare or caregivers. He illustratedthis with a poem written by thelate comedian Gilda Radner inher book about her battle withovarian cancer:

were increasing his suffering.Hospice care, in contrast,provided him with the chance tolive the last few months of his lifeaccepting and preparing fordeath, in part by consciouslyspending time with his family.Andy DeAngelis is a youngerman who has lived with lamellarichthyosis, a sometimes de-bilitating skin ailment. He toodescribed the frustrations ofdealing with insensitive healthcare providers, but more op-timistically noted how positiveinteractions with members of themedical profession have allowedhim to live a fulfilling life.

Several medical speakersdiscussed their sense of what itmeans to be a healer. Dr. ThomasHutchinson, who is with theMcGill Programs in WholePerson Care and who teaches inthe physicianship programme,described the nature of thedoctor-patient relationshipwhich can help healing by beingaware that there are tworelationships – between thedoctor and the patient andbetween the doctor and the

Doctors are whippersnappers in ironed white coatswho spy up your rectums and look down your throatsAnd press you and poke you with sterilized toolsAnd stab at solutions that pacify fools.I used to revere them and do what they saidTill I learned what they learned on was already dead.(It’s Always Something, Harper, 2000)

This sense of patient alienationfrom health professionalswas expressed by two of theother speakers. Deborah GoldenAlecson described how she wasfrustrated by the medical profes-sion’s attempts to keep herhusband alive at all costs duringhis struggle with pancreaticcancer despite an obvious lack ofsuccess. Indeed the treatments

disease. Often practitioners cutthemselves off from their patientand focus on the disease in partto protect themselves from asense of failure if the curativemodel doesn’t work. The irony isthat this kind of distancingactually can increase the like-lihood of burnout since one thenmisses out on the positive aspectsof a good relationship with the

Sir Williamlinked booksto improvedmedicalpractice, notonly in termsof providingutilitarianinformationbut also toinspire themto develop agreaternobility ofcharacter.

�

·8·

•

•

patient, regardless of the ultimateoutcome. Dr. Bill Kober spoke ofthe importance of using humourwhen working with patients,noting that U.S. author KurtVonnegut described it as the soulseeking its release. Given thatOsler humanised the relationshipbetween doctors and patients,current practitioners should notbe afraid to use a new form oftherapeutic relief, which hedubbed Osler’s laugh. Physicianassistant Brian Mauer pointed outthat everyone can benefit bylistening to the stories of others.Even Sir William Osler had todeal with the tragedy of the lossof his own son. The theme of thewounded healer was also dis-cussed by the Reverend BillZeckhausen, a Congregationalminister who is a therapist withexperience running physiciansupport groups. He felt thathaving gone through traumathemselves gives doctors cre-dibility as healers.

In addition to the pre-sentations, participants weregiven a tour of the Osler Libraryalong with a discourse on how SirWilliam linked books to im-proved medical practice, not onlyin terms of providing utilitarianinformation but also to inspirethem to develop a greaternobility of character.

Part of what made the day feellike such a success were theinteresting questioning, dis-cussions and conversations thattook place both after eachpresentation and during thebreaks and lunch. Everyone wasparticularly pleased to see agoodly number of medical andnursing students attend as itbespeaks an interest in thisimportant topic. The OslerLibrary was particularly delightedto host this event as it gave us theopportunity to propagate SirWilliam Osler’s enduring legacy.�

ROLAND’SCANADIANMEDICAL HISTORYMINIATURES

by Charles Roland

Robert Bell – Medical Geologist

I f you ever happen to bestanding on the bank lookingacross Bell River, in north-western Quebec, or seek acampsite in Bell Island, inHudson Bay, you can impressyour companions by pointing outthat both geographical featuresare named after a Canadianphysician. This man was RobertBell (1841-1917), a doctor whoseems never to have actuallypracticed medicine.

Bell was descended from Scotswho came to Canada almost twocenturies ago. Both his father andhis father’s father were ministersof the Church of Scotland. Thefather, the Rev. Andrew Bell, wasa pioneer of Canadian geology,and whether by nature or nurturehis son Robert followed the samepath.

One of the many fascinationsof Bell’s life is his unusualeducational history. After his firstyears at the grammar school inPrescott County, he went on tostudy at McGill. There hereceived his degree in AppliedScience in 1861 and his MD in1878. But he had joined the staffof the Geological Survey ofCanada in 1857, aged 16. Andwhen he retired in 1908 he wasstill with the Survey, his salaryafter 51 years having arrived atthe munificent sum of $3,000annually.

According to one obituarynotice, Bell studied medicine soas to be equipped “to meet

emergencies that might arise inthe course of his exploratoryjourneys.” That would help toexplain his rather odd edu-cational history. Whether or nothe ever utilized his training isuncertain. He did attempt toteach, at Queen’s, and was foundto be incapable of maintainingorder in his classes. Snowballsand other items were thrownabout the room, students talkedamong themselves; of course,medical students were a prettyrough-and-ready lot in the mid-19th-century.

In 1873 he and William Oslerhappened to be in London,England, at the same time. Bellobviously was already known toOsler and he was interested inmedicine. Osler once wrote tohim saying “if you feel inclinedto see any practice I shall be mosthappy to show you around thewards.” A decade later, Osler wassoliciting Indian skulls from Bellto take with him for theanthropological collections ofRudolf Virchow in Germany.

Robert Bell. ISO, FRS, MD, CM,DSc, LLD (1841-1917)

·9· �

WhenI think of thispast year,“energy” isthe word thatbest describeswhat ourstaff andresearchershavedisplayed…

His connection with medicinetenuous, Bell was a geologist firstand last. He spent much of hisadult life in the remotest parts ofCanada. His surveys took himthrough a great portion ofnorthern Quebec and Ontario,the area around Hudson Bay,northern Manitoba, Alberta, andthe Northwest Territories.Among the rivers he surveyedwere the Slave, Athabaska,Beaver, Churchill, Hayes,Nelson, Winnipeg, English,Nipigon, Moose, Harricanaw,Nottaway, and presumably theBell. He believed firmly in theeconomic good sense of ex-porting wheat to Europe viaHudson Bay.

Bell was not the typical heavy-handed European intruder in thewilderness. He learned to speakOjibway and other aboriginallanguages, so that he couldconverse with the native popu-lation. He was deeply interestedin the folklore of these people,and collected native legends,many hundreds of them. Hisintelligent and sympatheticinterest was, evidently, appre-ciated, for at Grand Lake,Quebec, Bell was made anhonorary chief of the AlgonquinIndians. He was careful to seeknative names for geographicalfeatures, and may have had thegood grace to be embarrassedwhen his own name was attachedto features that undoubtedly hadearlier designations. Never-theless, he is credited withnaming more than 3,000 lakes,rivers, hills, valleys, andmountains.

In 1884, Bell was medicalofficer and geologist (almostcertainly with the emphasis ongeologist) to the Neptune expe-dition, and to the Alert expeditionthe next year. Both expeditionswere spared serious epidemic orlow-vitamin disorders, while thegeological contributions to our

knowledge of the Arctic weresubstantial.

Surprisingly, perhaps, despitespending a substantial part of hislife exploring northern Canada,Bell was married. Little seems tobe known about his family life.He lived in brief retirement inOttawa, then on a farm hepurchased in Manitoba. There hedied in June 1917. �

ANNUAL APPEALTO THE FRIENDS2008

The Healing Hands depictedhere is taken from awoodcut done by NovaScotia artist Robert Pope (1956-1992) who died after a ten yearbattle with cancer. In hisdiscussion of this work he speaksof the healing power of hands,“The lines symbolize curative lifeenergy flowing inside and outsidethe body.” Hands are symbolic ofa library as well. We think ofhelping hands and hands onexperiences. The stained glasswindow designed by PercyNobbs in the Osler Room depictsthe heavenly hand and book,symbolizing learning and scho-larship. When I think of this pastyear, “energy” is the word thatbest describes what our staff andresearchers have displayedthanks to the help of our Friends.

This has been a great year forprojects and for unusual andwelcome gifts. We have con-tinued to purchase the incrediblebooks that are published eachyear on the history and socialstudies of medicine, over 1,600volumes. We have been fortunateenough to purchase rare works tofill gaps in our collection and we

have received some stunninggifts. Added to this is the happyopportunity each year, alsoprovided by our Friends, ofconserving fragile works in orderto make them available toresearchers for years to come.Remarkable projects include“The William Osler PhotoCollection” and the addition ofover 8,000 volumes covering theperiod of 1850 to 1913 from theLife Sciences Library holdings inremote storage!

A list of our recent purchases canalways be found on our web page,but the following titles give youa brief overview of the range ofmaterial that you can expect tofind here. A fascinating newarrival is Medieval Islamic Medicine,Washington, 2007 by Peter E.Pormann and Emilie SavageSmith that among other topicsdescribes the interaction betweenIslamic, Christian and Jewishpractitioners and sweeps awaysome of the cobwebs surroundingIslam’s contribution to medicine.

“Healing Hands” on pgs. 108-109 in Robert Pope’sIllness & Healing: Images of Cancer, 2004

Over thelast yearDr. WilliamFeindel hasadded to ouroutstandingholdings ofthe works ofThomasWillis.

·10·

•

•

One of our most useful purchasesis the New Dictionary of ScientificBiography, Editor-in-Chief NorettaKoertge, published by specialarrangement with the AmericanCouncil of Learned Societieswith Thomson Gale, 2008, an 8volume update of the 1970edition. This edition includesportraits of the subjects and as itis not available on-line, is wellworth consulting here. Inaddition, Dr. Theodore Sourkes,Chairman of our StandingCommittee, has contributed abiography of J.L.W. Thudichumto this new edition. Gerard W.Boychuk’s National Health Insurancein the United States and Canada, Race,Territory, and the Roots of Difference,Georgetown University Press,2008, is intended to add a newdimension to the discussion ofwhy neighbours have taken adifferent approach to a burningquestion. Observing Bioethics byRenée C. Fox and Judith P.Swazey, Oxford University Press,2008, examines the developmentof this field (not uncritically)following World War II. At a timewhen there is a revival of interest

in life-like anatomical models,Flesh and Wax, the Clemente Susini’sAnatomical Models in the University ofCagliari, edited by AllessandroRiva, Ilisso 2007, provides ahighly illustrated folio volumethat offers a detailed history ofwax modelling, focussing on theartistic and scientific importanceof the work of Clemente Susini,1754-1814. Stanley Burns haspresented us with his latest bookin a series on medical photo-graphy, this one dedicated toOsler’s distinguished seniorcolleague and friend Silas WeirMitchell (1829-1914). EntitledSeeing Insanity, New York 2007,Dr. Burns uses photography tochart the history of psychiatrywith the hope that understandingpast practices will promote theimprovement of future treatment.

Among the most exciting of ourrare book purchases are twoworks by Charles Bell (1774-1842). William Osler assembleda very good collection of Bell’sworks, but somehow these eludedhim: A System of Dissections,Explaining the Anatomy of the Human

Body…, Edinburgh, 1799-1801and Engravings from Specimens ofMorbid Parts…, London, 1813.Another purchase is Anatomia peruso et intelligenza … del disegno…,Rome 1691 by Bernardino Genga(1620-1690), believed to be thebest professional atlas of its time,published for artists. WilhelmBraune’s (1831-1892) Topographisch-anatomischer Atlas, Leipzig, 1872,is a fine addition to a heavily usedcollection.

Over the last year Dr. WilliamFeindel has added to ouroutstanding holdings of theworks of Thomas Willis. Theseinclude: Cerebri anatome, cui accessitnervorum…, London, 1664, thefirst issue of the octavo edition;De anima brutorum quae hominis…,Oxford, 1672, also an octavo andWillis’ great work on comparativeneuroanatomy and the first workof medical psychology inEngland; The remaining medical worksof that famous and renowned physicianDr. Thomas Willis… “Englished bySamuel Pordage…” London,1681, a fol io , bound withPharmaceutice rationalis or anexercitation of the operations…1679.To celebrate William Osler’s 159th

birthday (and Dr. Feindel’s 90th)Dr. Feindel presented us with thethird edition of René Descartes’Opera philosophia, published inAmsterdam in 1656.

Emeritus Librarian, David Crawford,continues to add to our collectionof hospital histories, particularlyvery welcome histories ofCanadian hospitals.

The Elliott family has donated 7manuscript war diaries of Dr.Harold Elliott, (1907-1973)McGill MDCM 1936, a neuro-surgeon who worked at the RoyalVictoria Hospital, the MontrealNeurological Institute and at theMontreal General Hospital.During World War II, Dr. Elliott

L to R: Mr. William Pope, Mrs. Pamela Miller, Prof. Carman Miller,Mrs. Isabel Pope and Mrs. Janet Murray (photo by Dr. Jock Murray)

·11· �

Her gift to amember of aMethodistfamilydemonstratesEllen Osler’smissionaryskill.

served overseas with the No. 1Canadian Neurological Hospital.His subsequent career centred onneurosurgery at the MontrealGeneral Hospital concentratingon the prevention of trafficaccidents. The diaries are illus-trated with newspaper clippingsand several small water coloursketches by the author. Coin-cidentally, the gift came at thesame time as the followingdonation, and contains referencesto Sir Geoffrey Jefferson and toLady Jefferson.

Andrew Jefferson of Kent,England, the grandson of SirGeoffrey and Lady Jefferson,donated 13 letters from WilliamOsler to Gertrude Flumerfelt,nick-named Trotula by Osler, andthree from Lady Osler over theperiod of 1909 to 1918. GertrudeFlumerfelt was the very attractivedaughter of a wealthy Canadianbusiness man from the west coast,Alfred Cornelius Flumerfelt. Shewas admitted to do clinicalstudies in Manchester, marriedher fellow-student (Sir) GeoffreyJefferson and had a distinguished

career in England in psychiatry.She was a frequent guest of theOslers at Oxford, with whom shedeveloped a warm friendship.Included in the gift are nine pagesof Gertrude Flumerfelt’s re-collections of Osler. HarveyCushing would have had accessto these letters while writingOsler’s biography, but theseletters are the originals and aretruly fun, revealing the teasingside of Osler’s character whoconsistently downplayed herability to succeed in medicine asa female, while at the same timeproviding introductions tocolleagues who could help her onher way.

A copy of the Book of CommonPrayer, London, 1847 was do-nated by Dr. Karen Smith. Theinscription reads “Mary AnnLudlow from Mrs. Osler, TecumsehParsonage, Dec. 24th, 1848. I willpray with the spirit and I will praywith the understanding also. 1Corinthians XIV. 15”. Accom-panying the little book were 51“quarterly tickets,” c. 1830-1899from the Wesleyan-Methodist

Church and the WesleyanMethodist Church in Canada inthe name of several members ofthe Ludlow family. According toMichael Bliss, the Methodistswere a real thorn in the side ofFeatherstone Osler due to theirhighly emotional approach toreligion and their attacks on hischurch. Her gift to a member ofa Methodist family demonstratesEllen Osler’s missionary skill.(Our alert evaluator provided thestunning calculation from thedate of the inscription that EllenOsler was three months along inthe pregnancy that producedWilliam Osler!) The donor, Dr.Smith, is a descendant of theLudlow family.

Donations of archives andartifacts this year include aframed letter from William Oslerin 1901 announcing to Mrs A.T.Carver, the very serious illnesswith little hope of recovery, ofher brother. Patty Vogel and hermother Mrs. Eleanor Bradsher arethe donors (Mrs. A.T. Carver wasPatty Vogel’s great grandmother.)

Margaret Saul donated a 74 pptypescript entitled “Neighboursin Kashmir” written by Dr.Minnie Gomery in 1951 abouther service as a medical mis-sionary in Kashmir. Dr. Gomerygraduated from Bishop’s MedicalCollege, winning the Wood GoldMedal, included in the donation,for the 1897-1898 session. Thegift includes a Kashmiri hymnbook, a small photo album, theguest book for the John BishopMemorial Hospital, Islamabad,1902-1935, plus photos, clip-pings and miscellaneous biogra-phical information.

Letter from William Osler to Gertrude Flumerfeld (Trotula) Jefferson, April 1st,1910 (P100 Sir William Osler Collection)

This year wehave hired astudent … tocarry out theHerculeantask ofputting orderinto the 88metres ofarchives ofprominentMontrealcardiologistHaroldNathanSegall.

�

·12·

•

•

Dr. William Gunn donated aletter by the distinguishedsurgeon Baron Dominique Larrey(1766-1842), appointed Surgeon-in-Chief to the French army byNapoleon in 1805. This is a letterof recommendation for a youngfriend, written a year beforeLarrey’s death, to M. Brissot,Inspector General of la Salubritéde Paris.

Dr. Stuart Kenning has donateda splendid collection of 10medals commemorating famousmedical figures, but mostimportantly 2 gold medals fromCanadian medical facultiesincluding the Robert NelsonMedal from the University ofBishops College (1890) awardedfor special examination in surgeryto James Laurie and theHutchinson Medal from theManitoba Medical Collegeawarded to Frederick WilliamAndrew for highest aggregate inmedical courses, 1907. The OslerLibrary has a collection of about70 medals and these areimportant additions.

Conservator Terry Rutherfordhas taken up permanent resi-dence in Montreal which means

that she can now work moreeasily on our most valuable items.Her work this year includes therestoration of a number of superbworks, much in demand byresearchers and specializedstudent groups. A selectionincludes: William Hunter’sAnatomia uteri humani gravid tabulisillustrate…, Birmingham, 1774,Jacob Bigelow’s American MedicalBotany, Boston, 1817-1820, 3volumes whose bindings werecrumbling but whose illustrationsare glorious, Symphorien Champier’sIndex Librorum, Lyon, 1517,Illustrations of the Great Operations ofSurgery, Charles Bell, London,1821, Johann Caspar Lavater’sEssays on Physiognomy…, London,1850 and Bernhard SiegfriedAlbinus’ Tables of the Skeleton andMuscles of the Human Body, London,1749 [an elephant folio one ofwhose pages was torn almost inhalf.] It really is rewarding toknow that thanks to your help,these works can be studied andeven displayed, for many years tocome.

Exhibitions highlight ourexceptional collections but theyalso provide guest curators withthe opportunity to display theirresearch interests. As reported inthe last Newsletter, at the end ofJune, Allister Neher of theHumanities Department ofDawson College presented anexhibition entitled, Art Anatomyand the Representation of Knowledge.Thanks to a grant from theHannah Foundation, the exhi-bition is accompanied by acatalogue, which we are givingaway in the Library.

By coincidence this fall we aredisplaying two exhibitionssimultaneously, but with onetheme in common, namely artand medicine. Along with AllisterNeher’s exhibition, we aredisplaying nine copies of

paintings by Robert Pope, theyoung artist mentioned at thebeginning of this report. This hascome about thanks to Dr. JockMurray and William Pope, theartist’s father. Dr. Murray is amember of the Board of Gover-nors of the Pope Foundation, afoundation dedicated to perpe-tuating the work of Robert Popewhose paintings depict illnessfrom the patient’s perspective andprovide rare and touchinginsights into the patient’sexperience with modern medi-cine, family and caregivers. Dr.Murray gave the address at theannual White Coat Ceremony atMcGill held for second yearmedical students on the 3rd ofOctober. Each class memberreceived a copy of Robert Pope’sIllness & Healing: Images of Cancer.

Every year we like to focus on aparticular project. Over the lastfew years, we have ensured thatour French theses were cata-logued. This year we have hireda student in the School ofInformation Studies, DuncanCowie, to carry out the Hercu-lean task of putting order into the88 metres of archives ofprominent Montreal cardiologistHarold Nathan Segall. Theproject is carried out with fundsfrom our Friends and will resultin an inventory to a unique sourcefor research on cardiology inMontreal from the 1920s, to the1970s.

It has been a great year forprojects because of a generousdonation of $25,000 from theMcGovern Foundation. With theclose collaboration of LouiseO’Neill and the department ofLibrary Technology Services,Assistant History of MedicineLibrarian Chris Lyons has spenta great deal of time and energymanaging a project to digitize thephotos assembled by Harvey

Dr. S. William Gunn presenting themanuscript letter by Baron DominiqueLarrey to Dr. William Feindel

·13· �

Cushing while he wrote hisbiography of Osler. “Managing”includes organizing numerousmeetings to coordinate content,cataloguing standards, digitalquality, search requirements anddesign. The report that follows,by Jacqueline Barlow on her workcataloguing the contents ofThe William Osler PhotographCollection, explains in depth thecomplicated process of cata-loguing photographs so that thepublic will have easy access to arich resource. It has been awonderful project and allconcerned feel gratified by theresults. Chris’ energy has alsobeen spent on the transfer ofabout 8,000 volumes from theLife Sciences remote storagefacility to the Osler Library’spost-1840 storage facility, the H.Rocke Robertson Room as wellas to Redpath open accessstorage. This has requiredmonths of planning but willultimately result in far easieraccess to this impressive resource.

I hope that this report gives youa picture of the excitementgenerated by your help and ourgratitude to you. It launches ourannual appeal, and as you can see,we depend on you. Thank you.�

THE WILLIAMOSLER PHOTOCOLLECTION

by Jacqueline Barlow

My first inkling of thedigitization of theCushing Collectioncame in March of this year, whenChris Lyons, Assistant History ofMedicine Librarian, asked me if

I’d be interested in working on it.I had been working at the OslerLibrary for almost a year asLibrary and Archives Assistant, apart-time job while I finished myMaster of Library and Infor-mation Studies degree. Thedigitization project wouldprovide me with a job right aftergraduation, and valuable ex-perience to boot – digitization isbig business these days in theworld of archives and libraries. Ihappily accepted the offer.

I wasn’t sure, at the time, whatthe Cushing Collection reallywas. As I came to learn well inthe following months, thecollection began when HarveyCushing started research on hisclassic biography, The Life of SirWilliam Osler. He canvassed farand wide for recollections of

Osler and letters from him. Bypublishing requests in majornewspapers and medical journals,writing to anyone who knewOsler, and visiting the homes ofOsler’s family members, Cushingamassed a large collection ofpapers and photographs chro-nicling Osler’s life, and The Life ofSir William Osler was published in1925. In 1932, Cushing depo-sited this collection at the OslerLibrary in Montreal. But it did notremain unchanged after it wasdeposited in the archives.Beginning with W.W. Francis, asuccession of Osler Librarianscontinued to add to thecollection new photographs,letters, and other documentsrelating to Osler’s life, as theywere given to the library. In thisway – a way that would horrify

In 1932,Cushingdeposited thiscollection atthe OslerLibrary inMontreal.

“TheWilliamOsler PhotoCollection”will be agreat success,anachievementto be proudof, and anoutstandingresource…

�

·14·

•

•

most archivists I’m acquaintedwith – the Cushing collectioncame to contain a good deal ofmaterial that Cushing himselfhad never seen.

At some point in the history ofthe collections, the photos wereseparated from the papers, to bestored in more suitable con-ditions. (This would make thearchivists feel a little better.) Incertain cases, letters and noteswhich pertained to the photo-graphs were kept with the photocollection. The photographswere organized into sections thatcorresponded with the periods ofOsler’s life: his boyhood in BondHead and Dundas, Ontario; hisschoolboy days in Barrie andWeston, and first years atuniversity in Toronto; his longand productive stay in Montreal,as a medical student and then asa physician, professor andlecturer; his brief stint at theUniversity of Pennsylvania, inPhiladelphia; the pinnacle of hiscareer, his sixteen glorious yearsat Johns Hopkins Hospital inBaltimore; and the latter days ofhis life as Regius Professor ofMedicine at Oxford University.There were also separate sectionsfor photographs of Lady Osler,their son Revere Osler, and theOsler and Francis families.

All of this makes the CushingCollection an interesting andinformative collection, but it is byno means the only interestingand informative photographiccollection at the Osler Library,nor, by extension, at McGillUniversity. Why was this col-lection chosen to be digitized?

A few years ago at the OslerLibrary another collection ofphotos, two albums in fragilecondition, assembled by MarjorieHoward Futcher (see The OslerLibrary Newsletter no. 92) wasdigitized purely for preservationpurposes. This preservationproject caught the eye of AlanBurk, who was then working as adigital consultant at McGillUniversity Libraries. The Libra-ries had been looking for acollection that could act as a pilotproject for future digitizationefforts at the university. Whilethe original digitized albumswere ultimately not chosen, theCushing Collection was soonidentified as a suitable pilotproject for a number of reasons.Among these reasons was thelarge and enthusiastic audiencefor a site about Osler’s life; and agenerous donation from theMcGovern Foundation was thedeciding factor.

Early this year, meetings beganin earnest to plan the digitizationof the Cushing photos, whichwas proving to be a big under-taking. At that time the “team”consisted of Alan Burk, PamelaMiller and Chris Lyons of theOsler Library, Greg Houston andElizabeth Thomson of the DigitalProgram, Megan Chellew ofCollection Services, and LouiseO’Neill Associate Director ofLibrary Technology Services.Not long afterwards, I wasrecruited to go through thephotos and, under the super-vision of Chris Lyons and PamelaMiller, evaluate them based onquality and content. Once wehad agreed on which photosshould be included, DeepakMathews, a McGill student,began scanning them. Scanningtook place through the month ofMay. Meanwhile, I was busyapplying metadata to – basically,cataloguing – the photos. Alltold, digitizing 400 items took agood part of the time of sixpeople over a six month period.And the team continued to meetand hash out some of the project’sthornier issues.

Now that those thorny issueshave been tamed, The WilliamOsler Photo Collection is up andrunning and may be found athttp://digital.library.mcgill.ca/osler. My time at the OslerLibrary, sadly, has come to anend, but I’m quite confident thatThe William Osler PhotoCollection will be a great success,an achievement to be proud of,and an outstanding resource, notjust for the community ofOslerians but for any interestedparty. At the very least, thewebsite will increase awareness ofWilliam Osler’s life and achie-vements, which the Osler Libraryhas long endeavoured to do. �

Jacqueline Barlow in the Francis Seminar Room at the Osler Library

·15· �

The Librarygratefullyacknowledgesthe support ithas receivedfrom Friends.

FRIENDS OF THEOSLER LIBRARY

T he Library gratefullyacknowledges the sup-port it has received fromFriends, both old and new, whohave responded to the appeal forfunds for the 2007-2008 acade-mic year. Over the year, 191Friends have given a total ofapproximately $29,853 and theyare listed below. Most of thecontributions have come fromFriends in Canada and the UnitedStates of America. However, verywelcome contributions have alsocome from several other con-tinents.

The appeal to the Friends for the2007-2008 academic year con-cluded on May 31, 2008. Contri-butions received after May 31,2008 will be recorded in the 2009fall issue of the Osler LibraryNewsletter.

The appeal for the 2008-2009academic year is made in thisissue, No. 110-2008.

Contributing Friends

Jacques BernierDeniz BevanGeorges BordageStuart S. BursteinRobert CampbellLibrary, Canada Science

and Technology MuseumCarmine J. CapalboDavid F. CopelandStacey B. DayPeter S.B. DigbyDuke Medical Center Library,

Duke UniversityJonathan ErlenRobert Roy ForseyThomas Emmett FrancoeurJ. William FutrellDaniel W. GadeToby Gelfand

John T. GoldenRobert JacksonGuy JoronDouglas W. MacEwanMedizinhistorisches Institut

der Universität BernHelena OvensJohn Marshall PogueSusan C. ReidEvelyn RossG.M. RuckerbauerPierre M. SenécalSeymour A. SiegalJulio A. SosaMarshall TrossmanWalter Van Emde BoasH.D. VosAkihiko WatanbeJohn A. Woods

Supporting Friends

Ronald G. BarrGregory Kent BergeyJ. Robert BowenEdward CarterRobert J. ChapmanAlan J.H. CoffeyRichard B. DavisPaul G. DymentClare M. FlintPeter G. GillettPhil GoldDavid Samuel GoldbloomPaul GrandmaisonPeter E. GreigFrances GroenTheodore J. HaywoodAlexandre Ram Henri-BhargavaRuby G. JacksonPeter B. KangEsther and Leonard GellerRobert A.H. KinchDouglas G. KinnearElizabeth LamontDonald G.M. LawrenceIan M. MacDonaldJ. Peter MacLeodBreen N. MarienIvar Mendez

NOTES FROM THEOSLER LIBRARY

We are delighted andrelieved to announcethe appointment ofDiane Philip as Senior Docu-mentation Assistant. Dianereplaces Mary Simon whorecently retired. With herbackground in the ReferenceDepartment of the McLennanLibrary and at the EducationLibrary and even a brief timespent working here during ourrecent renovation project, wehave a fine new member of staffwith a wide experience in theprint and electronic envi-ronment.

Dr. Granville Nickerson, Med.’45, recently published a bookentitled One Hook One Fish aboutgrowing up in Liverpool, NovaScotia, his early days in medicineand about the family’s role in thegrowth of the well known fishprocessing company, NationalSea Products. There are still a fewcopies left and they may beobtained from The Queen’sCounty Historical Society, P.O.Box 1078, Liverpool, NovaScotia, B0T 1K0. �

Diane Philip in the Wellcome Camera

�

Gra

phic

Des

ign

by D

avid

Mor

in 5

14-8

44-3

237

…verywelcomecontributionshave alsocome fromseveral othercontinents.

�

·16·

•

•

Erich MeyerhoffKimie MoriyamaSean B. MurphyEarl F. NationAllister NeherCarole O’BeirneW. David ParsonsClaus A. PierachAnne PiternickSteven RiethmillerStuart A. RosenbergJames A. SharpeTheodor K. ShnitkaMark E. SilvermanMary SimonWilliam A. SmithRalph H. SpekenEdward A. SpragueCharles N. SwisherC. Peter W. Warren

Patrons

Allan AitkenBilly F. AndrewsHugh Anson-CartwrightMichael E. AubreyJeremiah A. BarondessR. Denis BastronJames D. BaxterJ. Ronald D. BayneLeonard George BendikasZlata BlazinaMichael BlissJ. Donald BoudreauBernard BraisHugh R. BrodieBogdan CaricevicRobert F. CommitoDavid S. CrawfordRichard L. CruessJames H. DarraghAndré DascalArthur D. DawsonRolando F. Del MaestroAnthony R.C. DobellPatrick M. DoranDavid G. EastmanGeorge C. EbersMartin P. EdelsteinFrank P. EsteyWilliam FeindelCharlotte I. FerenczJaime FlamenbaumKappy Flanders

Louis Hugo FrancesuttiRichard S. FraserSamuel O. FreedmanW. Bruce FyeWilliam C. GibsonRichard L. GoldenSheldon H. GottliebJohn H. GreistArthur GryfeEve Osler HampsonJoseph K. HanawayM.E. Hart Foundation

(Sally and Michael Sheehy)Lewis W. HerseyCampbell P. HowardJohn D.W. HsuIan E. HutchisonBrahm B. HyamsWilliam IbbottJoan K. JacksonH. Michael JonesLeon KaufmanJ. Susan KelenStuart G. KenningJack D. KeyHolly KordaGeoffrey W. LehmanJoseph W. LellaAlphonse Leure-DupreeRichard I. LevinHoong LimA. Brian LittleChristopher M. LyonsCatriona D. MacLeanJosiah Macy Jr. FoundationJohn P. McGovern FoundationMaurice McGregorMargaret McIntyrePeter James McLeodPeter F. McNallyJames C. MeadRobert MennelPamela J. MillerRobert E. MitchellBrian MorrisonT. Jock MurrayGranville H. NickersonJames C. NiedermanRichard T. O’KellSilvio J. OnestiEdgar T. PeerJames Benjamin PhillipsPeter C. PulrangBracken Library,

Queen’s University

Nicholas J. RobertHarold N. RodeFred B. RogersCharles G. RolandN. Paul RosmanHenry J. ScottHuntington SheldonSilicon Valley Community

FoundationTheodore L. SourkesSarah StevensonPhilip M. TeigenMichael L. TerrinR. Carmichael TilghmanSamuel TirerAndré TurmelRoger W. TurnellJ. van GijnKevin WattersJohn WhaleyWilliam A. WhitelawFrederick M. WiegandLouise Marie WilliamannH. Bruce Williams

Editorial Committee for theNewsletter: Faith Wallis, Editor;Pamela Miller, History ofMedicine Librarian and AssistantEditor; Lily Szczygiel, EditorialAssistant.

Address: Osler Library of theHistory of Medicine, McGillUniversity, McIntyre MedicalS c i e n c e s B u i l d i n g , 3 6 5 5Promenade Sir-William-Osler,Montréal, Québec, Canada,H3G 1Y6.

Tel: (514) 398-4475 ext. 09873Fax: (514) 398-5747E-mail: osler.library@mcgill.caURL: http://www.mcgill.ca/osler-library/

Legal Deposit 2/2008 ISSN0085-4557 (Print)Legal Deposit 2/2008 ISSN1712-7955 (Online)