Canada 150 - Medical Journals of Canada

During our country's 150th anniversary celebration of confederation I will write posts titled Canada 150 with a link to a publication or website I find that may help you tell the story of your Canadian ancestors.
Click on the Canada 150 label on the right or at the bottom to see all the posts.

Today I have for you...

Canadian Medical Journals

Look for names in the news, obituaries, association members, personals and contributors to articles.

Canada Lancet and Practitioner 1914, pg 195

Medical cases, treatments and some images.




Relevant Links

The Canadian Practitioner

The Canada Lancet (and Practitioner)

The Canadian journal of medicine and surgery

The Montreal Medical Journal

Canadian journal of public health

Related Post:  Is There a Doctor in the House?

Serendipity Sunday - Medical Service of British Army

This week I came across this study done by the University of Aberdeen in 1917...

"Roll of commissioned officers in the Medical service of the British army, who served on full pay within the period between the accession of George II and the formation of the Royal army medical corps, 20 June 1727 to 23 June 1898, with an introduction showing the historical evolution of the corps."

Related posts:  

Military Medical 

Is There a Doctor in the House?

Serendipity Sunday - Other Practitioners in Illinois

This is an interesting directory I came across this past week ....

"Official register of legally qualified other practitioners; a list of persons licensed by the State Board of Health to treat human ailments without the use of medicines internally or externally, and without the use of operative surgery, prior to July 1, 1917" - Illinois

This is not surgeons and physicians, rather it is a directory of osteopaths, chiropractors, naturopaths, physcultopaths, vitopaths, naprapaths, etc...

Relevant Links


Register of Other Practitioners - Illinois

Serendipity Sunday (on Saturday) - The Vivisector

This is NOT for the faint of heart. 
Readers discretion is advised.

This week I came across this publication.

It is a Directory of all Vivisectors licensed in the UK, with some information about them, not all having the same info.  Some have dates of birth, death, some have addresses.

Vivisectors are those that experimented on living creatures for the scientific study of normal function in living systems.



Relevant Links

The Vivisectors' Directory UK 1884  (Reader's discretion is advised)

The British Vivisector's Directory: a black book for the United Kingdom 1890






Glasgow Lunatic Asylum Records

The University of Glasgow Library has been digitizing material from the Mental Healthcare Archives.  They are one year in on a 2 year project. 

They have made available for browsing the over 100,000 images they have completed from the Gartnavel Royal Hospital and Crichton Royal Hospital. These include staff handbooks, photographs of the buildings, staff and patient outings, reports, ledgers and correspondence, as well as register of patients and register of deaths. And patient case notes!  The patient records span 1814-1913.

You have the option to download just the page as a jpg or the whole document as a pdf.      

"The images can be freely downloaded and reused in any situation, so long as attribution is given to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Archives, in association with Glasgow University Archive Services."  

Browse the images via the Welcome Library Digital Collection. Click on the titles for more details, or click on the "View Online" link.

For background on the collection, read about it at the University of Glasgow Digital Center blog. 



Related Post: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

Medical History - Knowing your Genes

Here was I these past years, working on my family tree, and I asked other family members for their family info. I'm sure everyone went.. Phew! Dianne is doing it so I don't have to! No one at that time was that interested that they would ask me questions about it. Until something happened! I am writing this with permission from my cousin and her family, and with their encouragement to tell people the importance of knowing your family medical history.

My cousin's son is athletic. At the age of 25 he was coming home from a 10K run and as he reached his home driveway he passed out. He was rushed to the hospital and spent a week in intensive care and another week in a room while they tried to figure out what was wrong.  He went through a battery of tests until they found it, a disease that is difficult to diagnose -

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. 

HCM is an inherited heart disease.  The whole family was promptly tested and although her daughter was fine, her other son was found to have the same disease, to an even greater degree. There is no cure, and both boys are on experimental drugs and curtailed athletic activity. In some cases a person may have HCM and never know it, some develop severe symptoms of heart failure, and still others die suddenly with no previous symptoms. HCM also is what can cause the hearts of newborn babies to swell and eventually give out within the first months or years of life.


More than we realize, it is common for young athletes to die suddenly of an arrhythmia caused by Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. My cousin's son was lucky! Could his attack have been prevented all together if they had known and paid attention to our family medical history? My cousin and I talked about it.  Although the disease can affect women as well as men, I knew that the men in our family did not live long lives¹. My father even joked about it at age 90, saying he had outlived them all, as he died of old age at 92. So I went back through the family line to check causes of death. (Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy was first recognized in 1958, so before that the cause of death was put down to sudden heart failure.) 

¹There were only 4 females born until my generation, which produced more females than males.

The clues were in front of us all along.
Also, when reading an ancestor's death certificate, check the underlying illness.  A person may have been in the hospital for a certain illness, then contracted phneumonia and died.  The doctor will then write phneumonia as the cause of death, although the underlying illness, which could be hereditary, would have killed him soon.

So I really want to stress the importance of knowing what, if any, hereditary and genetic diseases run in your family. 

Do you know what is in your family genes?


Related Links:

Report from McGill University - Familial Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Military - Medical

No 2 Canadian General Hospital (Photo from LAC)

I have mentioned my grandfather's brother Alexander George Mavor a couple of times (Remembrance Day and Windows of the Soul). He enlisted with the CEF 23rd Battalion in Montreal on October 31, 1914. After training in Valcartier, he sailed with his regiment from Quebec City on the Missanabie on February 2, 1915. He was transferred in the field at Ypres to the 4th Battalion (Infantry) on April 26, 1915.

Not only did the doctors and surgeons in the field have to deal with the previously known ravages of warfare, they had to learn quickly how to deal with the damage being done to the soldiers by new technology - machine guns, new-and-improved hand grenades, high explosive shells, and not least of all... the first use of Chlorine Gas in the field April 1915 at the Second Battle of Ypres. Alexander arrived just in time!

On the 9th of April 1916 the 4th Battalion relieved the 1st in the trenches at The Bluff, near Ypres. While on duty the next day, April 10th, a bullet glanced off a periscope and hit Alexander in the stomach.

Soldiers with abdominal wounds were moved without delay, so Alexander would have been taken quickly from the First Aid post to the closest Dressing Station, then by Field Ambulance over rough terrain (possibly by horse-drawn wagon) to the nearest Casualty Clearing Station, which was No 17 at Remy Siding. There Private Alexander George Mavor died the next day, April 11, 1916.

Remy Siding - Casualty Clearing Stations and Hospital

If your ancestor was among the tireless doctors and surgeons practicing during war time, he may be listed in one of many books written about their units.
Following are links to a few.


Relevant Links:

List of Massachusetts physicians in the Medical Corps of the US army, navy, the Red Cross or British service during the great war 1919

List of Hospital Corpsmen: US Naval Hospital unit, Bilibid Prison Manila, PI - 1947

Base Hospital 34 in the World War - US 1922

Base Hospital No 52 : war diary - 1919

Base Hospital No 9 - 1920

Pennsylvania hospital unit - Base Hospital No 10, US 1921

US Naval Receiving Hospital Dec 1944 - Dec 1945 Anniversary Booklet

A history of Base Hospital 32 (including Unit R) - 1922

Roster of all regimental surgeons and assistant surgeons in the late war, with their service, and last known address - 1882

No 5 Australian General (Base) Hospital Melbourne

A History of No 7 (Queen's) Canadian General Hospital 1915-1917

The Casualty Clearing Stations of WWI

The Australian Army Medical Corps n Egypt; 1914-1915 (names near back)

The Story of a Red Cross unit in Serbia - UK 1916 (names in back)

Awards for members of Czechoslovak field hospital in Korea - 1953

Chronological history (+ photos) of the 363th field hospital company - 1921

Facts and Fancies (+ photos) of 363rd field hospital company - 1919

Surgery at a Casualty Clearing Station - 1918

Medical Units of the BEF - WWI 1921

Regimental surgeons of the State of New York, in the War of the Rebellion 1861-63

Women as army surgeons : being the history of the Women's Hospital Corps in Paris, Wimereux and Endell Street ; September 1914 - October 1919

Canadian Army Medical Corps reinforcements Nominal Roll 1915

Historical records of No 8 Canadian Field Ambulance: Canada, England, France, Belgium

Serendipity Sunday - Military Badges and More

While seeking out material for last week's Remembrance Day Honour Roll I came across this very handy book. 

 

 

"Badges and Their Meaning : a companion to 'Rank at a glance' : Army & Navy, the R.N.A.S., R.N.D., R.N.R., R.N.V.R., the Royal Marines, Forces of the Overseas Dominions, British Red Cross Society, miscellaneous badges, etc., etc., with descriptive notes (British and Commonwealth) 1916" 

 

Of course after reading it is the "companion to Rank at a Glance" I had to look for that one too.  At Internet Archive it was uploaded as separate images each page, but I did find a website that has all the pages at a glance (pun).

 

 



Rank at a Glance

 

 



Following are also a few links with more names of people pertaining to the military that are not fitting in a previous category.


Relevant links:

Badges and their meaning : a companion to "Rank at a glance" : Army & Navy, the R.N.A.S., R.N.D., R.N.R., R.N.V.R., the Royal Marines, Forces of the Overseas Dominions, British Red Cross Society, miscellaneous badges, etc., etc., with descriptive notes (British) 1916

Rank at a Glance in the Army and Navy

A list of colonels in Cambridge Camp & the number of men each regiment contains: which drew provisions on ye 10th of July - US 1775

Letter to the South Carolina Council of Safety enclosing list of men and supplies 1775

A list of the officers of the Army : the Royal Artillery, the engineers, the Marine Forces, and of the officers on half-pay, and a succession of colonels - 1793

Memorial of the patriotism of Schuylkill County in the American slaveholder's rebellion: embracing a complete list of the names of all the volunteers from the county during the war, patriotic contributions by the citizens - PA, 1865

Record of medals of honor issued to the officers an enlisted men of the United States Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard - 1862-1923

The origin, progress, and conclusion of the Florida war : to which is appended a record of officers, non-commissioned offices, musicians, and privates of the U. S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, who were killed in battle, or died of disease : as also the names of officers who were distinguished by brevets, and the names of others recommended : together with the orders for collecting the remains of the dead in Florida, and the ceremony of interment at St. Augustine, East Florida, on the fourteenth day of August, 1842

Military contributions in Mexico. Message of the President of the United States, transmitting reports from the secretaries of war and navy, in answer to a resolution of the House of the 20th December last, relative to the money and property received at the various Mexican ports during the late war – 1849

It's Epidemic!

As long as people have been travelling to and from other lands, they have been spreading disease. Most epidemics in New France began shortly after the arrival of a ship. With travel so much easier and more common the outbreaks spread farther afield, as in the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the latest ebola epidemic, affecting multiple countries. 

When I was a child I contracted the usual childhood diseases... measles, whooping cough, chicken pox (which is why I got shingles last year, ugh!).  Some diseases it was thought better to have while young, so any kid in the area that got sick, all the other kids were sent to "keep him company". When my younger brother got mumps we had a house full of kids for a while.  But my older brother and I never got it. Now you can get vaccinated for these diseases and they are not so common.

My grandfather's sister contracted tuberculosis in 1937 and was sent to a sanitorium. She died soon after, at the age of 31, and meanwhile my mother had been sent to stay with a relative in the country. In the 1950's there was a polio epidemic and our beaches were closed to swimmers, and public pools were heavily chlorinated.

 

Tuberculosis  1800-1922

Diseases that have been more or less eradicated across the country are making a comeback. "Measles is one of the most contagious and potentially harmful diseases that is preventable by vaccination. Since the vaccine was developed in 1963 there have only been rare cases... " until earlier this year where outbreaks have been reported in Europe, the US and Canada. During the outbreak in Canada some schools would not allow children who have not been vaccinated to attend class.

Some of the epidemics our ancestors may have experienced are typhoid, the plague, cholera, smallpox, yellow fever, dengue fever, measles and influenza. If you find two or more family members (and probably a few neighbours) dying at the same time, you can look for an epidemic occurring at that time.

Below are some lists of victims, and some information booklets or websites. Try local books and newspaper accounts at times of epidemics for lists of victims. For the  last two newspaper links below I searched using keyword "epidemic" - try searching using one of the diseases as keyword.



Relevant links

A short account of the malignant fever in Philadelphia : with a statement of the proceedings that took place on the subject in different parts of the United States ; to which are added, accounts of the plague in London and Marseilles ; and a list of the dead, from August 1, to the middle of December, 1793

A short account of the yellow fever, as it appeared in New-London, Connecticut 1798

The malignant fever, prevalent in the city of New York and list of burials 1799

An Accurate list of persons who have died of the malignant fever in New York, including those at Bellevue - 1803

An account of the yellow fever in New York in the year with a list of deaths 1822

The Bilston Cholera Epidemic of 1832, list of victims (still on Wayback Machine)

The Grosse-Isle Tragedy and the Monument to the Irish fever victims, 1847

Immigrants at Grosse Île Quanantine Station (database) 1832-1937

The epidemic summer. List of interments in all the cemeteries of New Orleans from the first of May to the first of November 1853, with names and ages, cause of death, etc.

Death Roll from the Yellow Fever outbreak in Buenos Aires 1871

The Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878 and names of the victims in Memphis.

Dr Dromgoole's Yellow Fever Heroes, Honors and Horrors of 1878, Louisville.

Yellow Fever epidemic at Hickman, KY (including names of victims) 1878

Sketch of the medical and statistical history of epidemic fevers in Ireland, from 1798 and a comparative view of cholera morbus - Dublin 1832 (with 8 named cases)

Some account of the fever which existed in Boston during 1817 and 1818 (some names)

History and description of an epidemic fever, commonly called spotted fever; which prevailed at Gardiner, Maine, in the spring of 1814 (cases but no names)

Annals of influenza or epidemic catarrhal fever in Great Britain from 1510 to 1837.

A Tuberculosis Directory; List of Institutions - United States and Canada 1916

Interactive Timeline - Diseases and Vaccines (use slider at bottom to change year)

Cholera and The Thames (info website)

List of Epidemics world wide (Wikipedia)

Epidemic accounts in Newspapers (google)

Epidemic newspaper accounts - Trove

Serendipity Sunday - Proper Burial

While looking up parish registers, I happened upon a 34 page booklet published 1811 in Bath, Lancashire, England titled ...

"A respectful examination of the judgment delivered Dec. 11, 1809, by the Right Hon. Sir J. Nicholl ... against the Rev. John Wight Wickes, for refusing to bury an infant child, which had been baptized by a dissenting minister : in a letter to Sir John Nicholl" ~ by the Rev Charles Daubeny, Archdeacon of Sarum

It reminded me of an incident I came across in my family research. My great grandfather  had a brother John Mavor, who ventured west in 1901 to get cheap land being sold by the CPR.  Once settled he went back to his hometown in Compton,QC to marry his sweetheart, Marcia Ruth Carbee. That is how I came to look into the Carbee family.

Marcia's brother Edwin had a son Albert born 1901. Albert died in 1906 of the Black Measles, a very rare and deadly disease. Because of this he was refused burial at the cemetery and so was buried north of the homestead in a secluded grave. It was believed the germ would never die, so the grave was never to be opened.


Related Stories:

Infant baptized by dissenting minister refused burial 1809

Ex-Priest's baby denied burial in Catholic grave - Fla 1966

Negro Baby refused burial in cemetery of Nova Scotia - 1968

Neighbours help family so baby can have proper burial - 1920

 

Is there a Doctor in the house?

I was born in the Homeopathic Hospital of Montreal When I was a teenager I had no clue what that meant, just that is sounded cool! Homeopathic! My friends were born at the General Hospital.  I was born at the Homeopathic Hospital! It was a respected training hospital, was later renamed the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and closed on 1996. Homeopathic remedies were natural, not chemical.

You may remember in my article titled “Heigh-ho,heigh-ho” I talked about discovering that my ancestor John Tait was a fermorer or infirmerer, and since then I found in the Register of Apprentices that he was apprenticed to a surgeon in Edinburgh in 1677.

Tait - John, son to John T gardener, 'prentice to James Hopkirk chirurgiane

I wonder what kind of training he would have had in 1677?  How much about medicine and surgery did they know and understand? This is what I found at the University of Glasgow:

“…the training of surgeons was conducted through a system of apprenticeship, lasting on average between 3-5 years. The apprentice pledged his services and paid an agreed fee to his master who in return was bound to teach him his trade. The surgical apprentice learned his craft by visiting patients with his master i.e. through observation and asking questions. In due course he would have been expected to acquire knowledge of materia medica, pharmacy and the ability to perform small surgical operations - this may have been undertaken through formal University based teaching but could equally have been undertaken just by reading and observation. The system was regulated by guilds or faculties such as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, which would examine apprentices during different stages of their training. Requirements were set out by individual institutions and therefore varied throughout Scotland and elsewhere in the UK until the requirement for a medical degree or licence to practice was formalised by Act of Parliament in 1858. Therefore, it was common for medical students to take classes at the University (or any other medical school) paying a fee directly to the professor and so leaving no written record behind.”

I would not make a good doctor because I am too emotional and I would be crying all the time.  I have so much respect for those who go through the years of training and then take people’s lives in their hands. There are links below listing some of these fine physicians, and you can also search at archive.org:  roll of college of physicians, biographical sketches of certain physicians, especially those that practiced in the field of a war. Some of the directories also give a list of fees.

Relevant Links:


Graduates up to 1913 and Roll of Honour - University of Glasgow

University of Edinburgh Alumni search from 1597

New Orleans Medical news and Hospital Gazette - "Treatment of Apparently Drowned"

Montreal Homeopathic Hospital

Homeopathy in Canada

The Medical Profession in Upper Canada 1783-1850 (+Biographies)

Culpepper's English Physician; and complete herbal 1789

Glossary of Medical Terms used in 18th-19th Centuries

Disease names frequently found on death certificates

Official register of legally qualified physicians - Illinois 1898

Civil War Journal of acting assistant surgeon Ezra Pray

Homeopathic domestic physicians 1870 

Physicians', dentists' and druggists' directory of the New England States 1892

The Medical and Surgical Directory of Cook County Illinois 1888-89

Official Register of legally qualified physicians and midwives Illinois 1886

The Published Ontario Medical Register 1878 (+others)

Connecticut Register: public officers and institutions(+ physicians) 1854 (+others)

Medical and Surgical Register of the United States 1890

Vaccination Register - Glasgow 1801 (Vol 1 of 10)

The Alberta Medical Register 1911 

Medical and Dental Red Book of Cleveland and vicinity 1899

The London Medical Register for the year 1779

The London and Provincial Medical Directory, incl Scotland & Ireland 1861

Register of Doctors of Philosophy of University of Chicago 1803-1921

Catalogue of Physicians and surgeons California 1883

The Cottage Physician for individual and family use 1898 USA

1885 Catalogue of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons Glasgow in 6 Vols

The New London Medical and Surgical Dictionary 1826

The early days of the Royall Colledge of Phisitians, Edinburgh 1899

Medical women; a thesis and a history 1886

Sources of Information about Pioneer Doctors- Australia

Surgeons at Sea - UK

The Ship-surgeon's Handbook - London 1911

New Zealand's first Woman Physician 1897

Medical Directory of Ireland 1863

Les secrets et merueilles de nature, recueillis de diuers autheurs& diuisez en XVII. Liures (translated from Latin) – 1586

Yearbook of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, MD 1914

Medical Examiners - The Federal Life Insurance, Hamilton, Ont - 1896

Medical Directory of New York - 1887

Medical Register of Nova Scotia 1911

List of Medical Practitioners: Connecticut 1896-1893

The Dublin Hospital Gazette

The Australasian Medical Gazette