FOOTNOTES:
1The first jail under the French régime was situated, according to documents found by Mr. Massicotte either on St. Paul Street near St. Sulpice, or at Point a Callieres, i. e., either at Maisonneuve’s château or in the original fort.
1The first jail under the French régime was situated, according to documents found by Mr. Massicotte either on St. Paul Street near St. Sulpice, or at Point a Callieres, i. e., either at Maisonneuve’s château or in the original fort.
2An auction duty of 2½% was levied, with a tax on tea, varying from twopence to sixpence a pound, likewise threepence a gallon on spirits and twopence on molasses and syrup.
2An auction duty of 2½% was levied, with a tax on tea, varying from twopence to sixpence a pound, likewise threepence a gallon on spirits and twopence on molasses and syrup.
3In 1839, the date of the publication of Newton Bosworth’s “History of Montreal,” the author writes, “There is no chaplain attached to this gaol nor, we are sorry to learn, is there any provision made for the moral and religious instruction of the prisoners. Vice and immorality, we are informed, prevail to an alarming extent and call loudly for the benevolent services of all who feel it important to check the prevalence of these enormous evils and to reclaim the sinner from the error of his ways.” Vol. II—27
3In 1839, the date of the publication of Newton Bosworth’s “History of Montreal,” the author writes, “There is no chaplain attached to this gaol nor, we are sorry to learn, is there any provision made for the moral and religious instruction of the prisoners. Vice and immorality, we are informed, prevail to an alarming extent and call loudly for the benevolent services of all who feel it important to check the prevalence of these enormous evils and to reclaim the sinner from the error of his ways.” Vol. II—27
4The same suggestion has been made on several occasions since, but always with the same result.
4The same suggestion has been made on several occasions since, but always with the same result.
5The provincial appointments from 1841 to 1864, and from 1867 to 1895 are given for Lower Canada. It has been found impossible to identify them all in time for the press. Those marked “M” have been identified, as Montreal, “Q” as Quebec and “?” as questioned.
5The provincial appointments from 1841 to 1864, and from 1867 to 1895 are given for Lower Canada. It has been found impossible to identify them all in time for the press. Those marked “M” have been identified, as Montreal, “Q” as Quebec and “?” as questioned.
HOSPITALS
THE HOTEL DIEU: JEANNE MANCE—THE HOSPITALIERES OF LA FLECHE—THE HOTEL DIEU CHAPEL—ST. PATRICK’S HOSPITAL—THE MIGRATION TO PINE AVENUE—THE PRESENT MODERN HOSPITAL.
THE GENERAL HOSPITAL: “THE LADIES BENEVOLENT SOCIETY”—THE HOUSE OF RECOVERY—THE MONTREAL GENERAL HOSPITAL—ITS BENEFACTORS AND ITS ADDITIONS—THE EARLY TRAINING OF NURSES—THE ANNEX OF 1913.
THE NOTRE DAME HOSPITAL: THE LAVAL MEDICAL FACULTY—THE OLD DONEGANI HOTEL—THE LADY PATRONESSES—MODERN DEVELOPMENT.
THE WESTERN HOSPITAL: THE BISHOPS COLLEGE MEDICAL FACULTY—THE WOMEN’S HOSPITAL.
THE ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL: IN MEMORY OF QUEEN VICTORIA—ITS DESCRIPTION—ITS INCORPORATION—ITS EQUIPMENT.
THE HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL: FIRST ORGANIZED WORK—INCORPORATION—THE FIRST HOSPITAL—THE FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS—THE PHILLIPS TRAINING SCHOOL FOR NURSES.
THE HOSPITALS FOR THE INSANE: EARLY TREATMENT OF INSANE—THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE HOSPITALS ST. JEAN DE DIEU AT LONGUE POINTE AND THE PROTESTANT ASYLUM AT VERDUN.
CIVIC HOSPITALS: THE SMALLPOX HOSPITAL—“CONTAGIOUS” HOSPITALS—HOSPITAL ST. PAUL—ALEXANDRA HOSPITAL.
TUBERCULOSIS DISPENSARIES: THE ROYAL EDWARD INSTITUTE—PIONEER TUBERCULOSIS CLINIC IN CANADA—PUBLIC HEALTH EXHIBITIONS—THE INSTITUTE BRUCHESI: ITS DEVELOPMENT—THE GRACE DART HOME—CIVIC AID.
CHILDREN’S HOSPITALS: THE CHILDREN’S MEMORIAL HOSPITAL—STE. JUSTINE.
OTHER HOSPITAL ADJUNCT ASSOCIATIONS.
NOTE: MEDICAL BOARDS: PRIVATE, PROVINCIAL, MUNICIPAL.
Montreal is blessed in its charities and philanthropies. Those for the sick have an interesting history, which may be told best in chronological order:
THE HOTEL DIEU
The early history of the first hospital in Montreal has been told in the first volume. To recapitulate its history to the beginning of the English régime. It started on the first day of the foundation of Montreal, May 17, 1642, when JeanneMance arrived with the express purpose of founding a hospital, being helped thereto by funds provided by Madame de Bullion. Her first home adjoined to the château, shortly built in the fort inclosure, and that little home, the Hôtel Dieu, built of logs, in 1644, at what is the North East corner of St. Paul Street, became the first of the infirmaries directed by her alone for seventeen years. The Hôtel Dieu was not, however, completely founded until the arrival, in October, 1659, of the three Hospitalier Sisters of St. Joseph from La Flèche in Anjou, sent to her by M. Jerome de la Dauversière. These were Judith Moreau de Brésoles, Catherine Macé and Marie Maillet. This body had been established by de la Dauversière and Mlle. de la Ferré in 1642 for Montreal, and now when the hour had arrived its representatives were received in the first Hôtel Dieu, the wooden building twenty-five feet square, which lasted fifty years on St. Paul Street. In 1666 Louis XIV confirmed the establishment of the Hôtel Dieu by letters patent. In 1695 the Hôtel Dieu was razed to the ground by fire and the remains of Jeanne Mance consumed, but the hospital was rebuilt on the same site. Fires again in 1721 and 1734 attacked it. Still it rose from its ruins. In 1760, owing to the scarcity of barracks, Amherst’s troops took possession of the west chapel, which had been commenced in 1656 and had served till 1678 as the only place of worship for citizens and sick alike. It was dismantled and turned into a stable. Years afterward the sister procureur of the Hôtel Dieu, came across the account of the bill for the unpaid damages and sent it to Queen Victoria who promptly sent a check for the amount due. In 1852 the Hôtel Dieu established, in the college built originally by the Baptists and bought for $16,020.00, the branch hospital of St. Patrick’s on Guy Street, for the principal purpose of providing the Irish and English Catholic population with English-speaking physicians and sisters.
The first physicians were Doctor David, Doctor Howard and Dr. (Sir William) W.H. Hingston. The work was discontinued about 1860, when preparations were being made to open the present Hôtel Dieu on Pine Avenue, and the building was opened on September 8, 1860, by the Congregation Nuns as a convent school under the name of the “Pensionnat du Mont St. Marie.”
On account of the disasters from fires the statistics of the Hôtel Dieu for the first century of its work are incomplete, but from 1760 to 1860 the exact number of cases of invalids admitted is 82,121. By 1909, when the 250th anniversary of the arrival of the three Hospitaliers was celebrated, the number had mounted to 119,352. In 1861 the Hôtel Dieu made its first great change, when it was transported from the corner of St. Paul and St. Sulpice Street to its present location, Mont St. Famille on Pine Avenue. When it is remembered that the nuns are an inclosed order and never leave their cloister or their grounds, to leave the old Hôtel Dieu on St. Paul Street was like tearing themselves from their home to journey to a far-off land. Their consolation was to take with them the remains of their sisters, buried there during the preceding 200 years. The stones of the old chapel on St. Joseph (afterwards St. Sulpice Street) and St. Paul Street, were taken to erect a little chapel dedicated to St. Joseph in the new convent grounds. Since 1845 eight independent off-shoots of the Hôtel Dieu have risen to carry on the work started in 1659, viz., at Kingston, Tracadie, Chatham, Madawaska, Campbellton, Arthabaska, Windsor and Winooski. From the house of Kingston the Hôtel Dieus of Cornwall and Chicago have sprung.
Since the transition from St. Paul Street the Hôtel Dieu has become more andmore of the nature of a public hospital, fully equipped and of the modern type. From 1857 to 1874 the Hospital provided a home for old people of both sexes to the number of thirty-seven to forty a year. This was then left to other religious bodies established for the purpose.
ANCIENT HOTEL-DIEU UP TO 1821 (ST. PAUL ST.)ANCIENT HOTEL-DIEU UP TO 1821 (ST. PAUL ST.)
ANCIENT HOTEL-DIEU UP TO 1821 (ST. PAUL ST.)
HOTEL-DIEU IN 1861HOTEL-DIEU IN 1861
HOTEL-DIEU IN 1861
The care of young orphans was not relinquished till 1890. Ninety to one hundred of these have been cared for annually. Outside their patients the nuns now only continue the maintenance of seventeen scholars who act as sanctuary boys in the services of the chapel. Their functions are entirely occupied now with the care of their sick. The next hospital in chronological order would be the “Hôpital Général” originally founded by the Charron Nères and reformed in 1747 by Madame d’Youville. But as this institution, still existing, is rather an asylum for the aged as well as an institution for foundlings with the baby hospital work in connection, it will be treated elsewhere.
THE GENERAL HOSPITAL
The General Hospital, the first general hospital under British rule, has, for many years, been perhaps the most popular of Montreal’s numerous charities. It owed its inception to the inspiration of Montreal ladies.
In the first annual report, it is stated that the increase of population and the great influx of emigrants from the United Kingdom, rendered the Hôtel Dieu inadequate for the care of the indigent sick, and further it was desirable to accommodate patients suffering from contagious diseases.
Its history is as follows:
About 1815 a band of ladies combined under the name of the “Ladies Benevolent Society” to meet the cases of destitute immigrants occurring. By 1818 a fund of £1,200 was raised. A small house, thenceforth called the “House of Recovery,” was hired. This with its four rooms was attended by Doctor Blackwood, a young retired army surgeon, with the assistance of others. Very soon a large house was secured on Craig Street, fitted up with three wards and made capable of receiving twenty-four patients. The movement now became popular. A public meeting was called. The idea of a “General Hospital” took hold. The medical department was first under the control of four professional men in connection with the “Montréal Medical Institution,” which afterwards became the first medical faculty of McGill University.
On May 1, 1819, the patients were removed from the “House of Recovery” to the new building, which now assumed the name of the Montreal General Hospital. About this time a site used as a nursery, on Dorchester Street, was up for sale. This lot then “in the suburbs, was chosen for its proximity to the town, and the salubrity of the situation.” In view of erecting a hospital thereon it was purchased on the joint credit of the Hon. J. Richardson, the Honorable Mr. McGillivray and Mr. S. Gerrard. A contract was signed for the new hospital early in January, 1821. The Hon. J. Richardson, Rev. J. (Dean) Bethune, Doctor Robertson, John Molson, D. Ross, John Fry and A. Skakel, Esqs., were appointed a committee to superintend the work.
The corner-stone of the building was laid with Masonic ceremonies on the 6th of June, 1821, and the building was opened for the reception of patients on the 1st of May, 1822, the cost of the erection being £4,556 currency. This building,which is now represented by the entrance hall and rooms above, was designed to accommodate seventy-two patients.
The subsequent history consists chiefly in the addition of block after block of buildings to the original small stone central edifice, each addition being named after a generous donor or honoured citizen.
On the death of the Hon. John Richardson, the first president, it was resolved to perpetuate his name and connection with the Hospital by the addition of a wing to be named after him. A generous response was made by the public, and in 1832 the building attached to the east end of the original structure was opened for the reception of patients.
In 1848 the widow of Chief Justice Reid signified her intention of adding a wing corresponding with the first, to be named after her deceased husband.
Special provision was made for the treatment of children by the erection of the Morland wing, in rear of the Reid wing. This building was added in memory of Mr. Thomas Morland, an active member of the Committee of Management, and was opened in 1874. It contained rooms afterwards utilized for outdoor patients, private wards, and accommodation for servants, which was subsequently transformed to a female ward.
In accordance with the views of the founders of the Hospital, accommodation was long provided for patients suffering from infectious fevers. Cases of smallpox, typhus, scarlatina, diphtheria and measles, were for years accommodated in the central building or its wings. During the great epidemic of typhus or as it was better known, ship fever, brought to the country chiefly by Irish immigrants, the Hospital capacity was taxed to its utmost, and temporary sheds had to be erected for the accommodation of the sufferers. In the years 1831-32, 1832-33 and 1847-48, 5,631 patients were admitted of whom 3,458 suffered from fever. Doctor Howard, in his report, states that over half the fever patients were cases of typhus.
Smallpox again, which in former years was very prevalent in Montreal, was treated in special wards of the Hospital. Owing to the disease spreading to other patients a brick building afterwards used as a kitchen and laundry, was constructed in the rear of the Richardson wing. Half the cost of this structure was generously donated by Mr. Wm. Molson; the building was used for infectious cases up to 1894. At that time, after many applications and much pressure from the governors, the city undertook to subscribe $6,000 annually to the Hospital to defray the expense of providing for infectious disease. Two houses were utilized for a year in the neighbourhood, and the department was then moved to the Civic Hospital, on Moreau Street. Half this building is controlled by the General Hospital and is supported financially by the city.
Two surgical pavilions and a large operating theatre were opened for use in December, 1892. Mr. George Stephen, afterwards Lord Mount Stephen, one of the generous donors of the Royal Victoria Hospital, contributed $50,000 in memory of the late Dr. G.W. Campbell, formerly dean of McGill Medical Faculty, and a bequest from Mr. David Greenshields of $40,000 was also utilised in adding these wings. From that time accommodation for surgical cases has been excellent. The old part of the Hospital was, however, in a very unsatisfactory state. The wards were small and the building antiquated. Lack of funds only had long prevented a radical change being made in this block. Thepresident, Mr. F. Wolferstan Thomas, set himself the task of collecting funds to renovate this part of the building and to render it in keeping with the surgical side. As the outcome of his untiring work in aid of the Hospital $100,000 was collected. The interior of the old building was pulled down and it was skillfully remodelled, under the direction of Mr. A.T. Taylor, for the accommodation of medical, gynæcological and ophthalmic patients, the old operating room being retained as a medical lecture, and gynæcological operating theatre.
It was evidently the intention of the founders of the Hospital to provide for proper nursing so far as was possible, before the advent of Florence Nightingale. We read in the first annual report, among other rules, that the nurse, on admission of a patient, “shall immediately wash his or her face and hands, neck and arms, feet and legs, with tepid water; she shall give him or her (if he or she have none) an hospital shirt and night-cap.” Again they are instructed to keep themselves clean and decently clothed, and to be diligent in complying with the orders of the medical officers, surgeon and matron. Surely we have here inculcated two important duties of the modern nurse, cleanliness and obedience.
In 1890 the present successful school of nurses was established and in 1897 the Jubilee Nursing Home on the hospital grounds was being erected, while in 1913 a large annex was added to meet the growing demands of the population on the charity of the Hospital.
THE NOTRE DAME HOSPITAL
This institution is situated n Notre Dame Street, near the eastern Canadian Pacific Railway station, in a populous commercial and manufacturing centre, and in close proximity to the harbour.
It was founded in 1880. The branch of the Laval Medical Faculty, established in Montreal in 1877, had no hospital, its professors and students being excluded from the Hôtel Dieu, on account of the difficulties that had arisen between the Faculty and the Montreal School of Medicine and Surgery, the latter holding the Hôtel Dieu. Knowing that a hospital was greatly needed in the commercial and manufacturing part of the city, and would afford abundant clinical material, the professors undertook to found Notre Dame Hospital.
Dr. E. Persillier-Lachapelle, taking the lead, obtained the co-operation of the Rev. Victor Rousselot, of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, who assumed half the financial responsibility of the enterprise, the professors taking the other half.
The co-operation of the Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns) was next obtained to care for the sick and see to the internal economy of the Hospital.
The old Donegani Hotel was rented, and the contracts for repairing, renovating and furnishing the building granted; and on the 1st of July, 1880, the Hospital, with fifty beds, was inaugurated. In 1881 it was incorporated, the corporation being under the direction of a Medical Board, a Board of Governors and a Board of Management. Later on the Hospital became possessor of the Donegana Hotel and the adjoining estates on each side, and gradually completed the important repairs and renovations requisite to adapt those buildings to the needs of the institution.
Its presidents were successively: Hon. L.J. Forget, Hon. J.R. Thibaudeau, Mr. C.P. Hébert, and Hon. L.O. Loranger.
The first superntendent and adviser of the Hospital was Dr. E.P. Lachapelle, who filled the position for many years, being succeeded by Dr. L. de Lothbinière Harwood.
The citizens of Montreal and the public generally have always contributed liberally to the maintenance of the institution. The ladies of Montreal, fully interested in the good work to be done, founded an association—The Lady Patronesses of Notre Dame Hospital—to co-operate more effectively with the directors.
The Hospital to-day contains 150 beds, the greater number of which are devoted to the poor and unfortunate sick of all races and creeds.
Besides the wards there is an outdoor department, comprising dispensaries for general medicine, surgery, eye, nose, throat and ear diseases, diseases of women, diseases of the skin, diseases of children and nervous diseases.
In the Hospital proper, there are men’s and women’s wards for surgery, medicine, ophthalmology and gynæcology. There is a pathological laboratory in the hospital as well as an electrical and radiological one. An ambulance service does active work, succouring the sick and injured, and providing the Hospital with abundant clinical cases. The whole of this varied and practical clinical material is classified and utilized by the Faculty for the graded and thorough instruction of its students. The medical service is directed by a bureau of thirty-two physicians. The Grey Nuns are in charge of the hospital nursing department. The hospital has now an annex being constructed on Sherbrooke Street, facing Park Lafontaine. By its side is the hospital of St. Paul for contagious diseases.
WESTERN HOSPITAL
This hospital was first projected in 1871, the year in which the Medical Faculty1of Bishops College was established. For some time previously the want of a hospital in the West End had been felt and spoken of, but further than this no action was taken. When Bishops Medical Faculty was in its inception, it was feared they might not get full facilities for their students in the existing hospitals. Circumstances which occurred seemed to indicate that this would be realized. As a result a friend of Bishops College, Major Mills, offered to give $12,000 to build a western hospital. This donation was put in writing by Doctor Wilkins, then in Bishops, and signed by Major Mills, and an active canvass commenced. In a short time $30,000 was subscribed, the charter for incorporation was assented to on January 20, 1874, the present site purchased, and on the 29th June, 1876, the foundation stone of the first building was laid with appropriate ceremony. It is not required to notice the vicissitudes, which the building met with, beyond stating that for several years it remained unfinished. When at last completed, the Western Hospital Corporation was not in position to commence hospital work. It was leased, in 1884, by the Women’s Hospital, the charter of which was owned by the Medical Faculty of Bishops and opened for hospital work, there being two departments—a Gynæcological and a Maternity. A most successful work was done by this hospital when, in 1895, the marked growth of the city westward seemed to indicate that the time had arrived for putting the building to its original purpose, that of a general hospital. The lease with the Women’s Hospital was therefore cancelled by mutual consent, andin the fall of 1895, the Western Hospital, as a general hospital, began its active work. The ground owned by the Hospital Corporation is nearly three acres in extent, and is bounded by four streets, one being an avenue of over one hundred feet wide. This avenue leads directly to many of the large manufactories in the West End, and they furnish the Hospital with a large amount of its surgical work.
In 1907 the charter was altered and the new building was erected, the old one becoming the nurse’s home. The late Mr. Peter Lyale was the president at the time, having been in that office from 1906 to his death in 1912. He was succeeded by Mr. D. Lorne McGibbon.
THE ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL
The Royal Victoria Hospital received its name in commemoration of the jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887, in memory of which it was founded in that year.
On the 2d of December, 1893, His Excellency the Governor General assisted at the inauguration of the new hospital, which was devoted, by Lord Mount Stephen and Sir Donald Smith, K.C.M.G., etc., to the cure of the sick, of whatever race or creed, to the training of nurses, and to the furtherance of science. The building is erected within a lot of eighteen acres, purchased by the founders for $90,000, to which another five acres, held under long lease from the city, make a convenient addition. It stands on part of the Mountain Park and faces on Pine Avenue and University Street.
The style of architecture is Scottish baronial, to which the limestone of Montreal is well suited. The facade of the administration block is after the style of F’yvie Castle, in Aberdeenshire. Over the main arch of the doorway are the monograms of Lord Mount Stephen and Sir Donald Smith. On the western gable of the central block appear the coat of arms of Lord Mount Stephen with his motto “Lippen,” an old Scotch word, meaning to attend. Sir Donald’s coat of arms is on the eastern gable, and bears the motto “Perseverance.” Both of these mottoes are admirable motives to inspire service in the cause of the sick. The building, begun in 1891, has employed 600 workmen and cost nearly eight hundred thousand dollars. To construction, furnishing and maintenance, the founders have devoted nearly one million five hundred thousand dollars. Designed by H. Saxon Snell, an English architect of eminence, whose specialty is hospitals, the structure combines, with peculiarities of its own, the best characteristics of Mr. Snell’s previous efforts.
The act of incorporation, passed in 1890, provides for fifteen governors, of whom seven shall be the mayor of Montreal, president of the Board of Trade, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, president of the Bank of Montreal, the chief officer of the Grand Trunk Railway resident at Montreal, and the principal and dean of the faculty of McGill College.
The other governors, expressly named in the act, were Sir Donald Smith (afterwards Lord Strathcona), Lord Mount Stephen, Alexander G. Patterson, W.J. Buchanan, Andrew Robertson and Thomas Davidson, Esquires.
The act provided for branch convalescent hospitals at Banff, N.W. Territories, and at Caledonia Springs.
Associates are constituted by paying $1,000 and $20, or more annually, or $5,000 in all.
In an address read by R.B. Angus, chairman of the board, to His Excellency, the Governor General was informed that he was ex-officio a visitor of the institution, and would always be welcome.
Replying, His Excellency declared that, out of consideration for Sir Donald Smith, whom he had with difficulty induced to attend, he would substitute, for praise of the founders, congratulations of all concerned upon the happy conclusion of this magnificent act of practical philanthropy and of Christian benevolence.
He announced that R.B. Angus, Esq., successor of the late Sir John Abbott as chairman of the board, had promised $25,000 towards the support of the institution, and hoped that the example would be followed in sums large and small.
Wishing the founders long life, to witness the happiness which they have prepared, the Governor General called for and lead three cheers for the founders and three for Her Majesty.
The Hospital consists of three really separate buildings, connected together by stone bridges. Viewed from the front on Pine Avenue, the hospital appears to form three sides of a square, but it is in reality H-shaped. The central part is the administration block, while the two wings contain the wards and accessory rooms, the theatres and chemical laboratory, etc.
Regardless of expense, the best surgical inventions and appliances have been collected from the chief seats of medical science on two continents. Not only are the physicians, surgeons and nurses elegantly housed, but even the servants are to be envied their comfortable quarters. A training school for nurses is attached to the hospital.
A fine bust of Her Majesty, in prominent position, reminds visitors that the inception of this admirable institution celebrates, in the name, and with the approval, of Her Majesty, the fiftieth anniversary of her coming to the throne.
THE HOMŒOPATHIC HOSPITAL
The first records of Homœopathy in this city are contained in a pamphlet by Dr. John Wanless, published in 1864, giving the substance of a series of letters which had appeared in attempted refutation of Homœopathy, and the doctor’s replies thereto as they were printed in the Montreal “Transcript” of the time.
In his pamphlet the author mentions Doctor Rosenstein as one of our first Homœopaths, and relates in detail the treatment which that practitioner received while trying to conduct an experimental case in the Montreal General Hospital. Dr. Arthur Fisher was a contemporary.
On the 28th of June, 1863, Messrs. Thomas McGinn, F.E. Grafton, James Baylis, James A. Mathewson, James Muir, E.L. Ransom, D.A. Ansell, Fleck, and McCready, met in the Mechanics’ Hall and made the first attempt to organize Homœopathy in Montreal.
A dispensary was established, which from unexplained causes was discontinued after two years of apparent prosperity.
New names of adherents appear from time to time, among them Hon. James Ferrier, G.A. Holland, Hon. L.S. Huntingdon, George Washington Stephens,James Stewart, John S. McLachlan, Charles Alexander, D. Drysdale, E. Lusher and Henry Lyman.
ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITALROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL
ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL
MONTREAL GENERAL HOSPITALMONTREAL GENERAL HOSPITAL
MONTREAL GENERAL HOSPITAL
On March 18, 1865, Messrs. James A. Mathewson, James Baylis, George A. Holland, James Muir, Thomas McGinn, John Wanless, M.D., and Francis E. Grafton, obtained from the Legislative Council and Assembly of Canada a charter incorporating themselves and their successors under the name and title of “The Montreal Homœopathic Association,” with power to establish in Montreal a Dispensary and a Hospital, to establish a College and appoint professors to teach the principles and practice of medicine according to the doctrines of Homœopathy, and to grant licenses to practice medicine according to these doctrines within the Province of Lower Canada. This charter was further amended, and the powers amplified by the Legislative Council and Assembly of Canada, September 14, 1865, and the Quebec Legislature on March 30, 1883. Owing to a limited clientéle and paucity of resources, little was done for many years beyond thepro formarequirements of the charter, and the very important powers granted thereunder lay dormant, though carefully nursed and guarded by the old stalwarts of those pioneer days. In 1893 the Association took a new lease of life, and from that day on the story of Homœopathy has been one of brilliant achievement and ever-widening influence. The Association has recently established a public free dispensary at the corner of St. Antoine and Inspector streets, and its hoped-for career of usefulness will be watched with interest.
In March, 1893, a petition to the Governors of the newly inaugurated Royal Victoria Hospital, asking for a Homœopathic ward, was circulated, and within two months thirteen feet of names of prominent citizens favouring Homœopathy were obtained.
On May 18, 1893, a deputation consisting of Doctor Wanless, Reverend Dr. Barbour, Reverend Dr. Ross, Dr. H.M. Patton, Messrs. Samuel Bell, James Baylis, John Torrance, James A. Gillespie, James Ferrier, F.E. Grafton, Charles Alexander and E.G. O’Connor met the Governors of the Royal Victoria Hospital in the board room of the Bank of Montreal, and presented the petition. It was courteously received, and compliance therewith promised, if possible. On January 5, 1894, a formal reply was received, stating that the petition could not be granted. On November 13, 1893, a similar request to the Montreal General Hospital was also refused.
In 1893 negotiations for special accommodation in existing hospitals having failed, and the demand for Homœopathic Hospital facilities having become urgent, the board decided to take the important step permitted in its charter, and to acquire a hospital under its own control.
The property, No. 44 McGill College Avenue, consisting of a four-story brick building and 3,300 square feet of land, was purchased for $8,000, and in July, 1894, the deeds were signed for the Association by Mr. Charles Alexander, president, and Dr. H.M. Patton, the secretary. During the summer of 1894 the repairs committee, with energy and excellent taste, transformed the old residence into one of the most attractive and complete of small hospitals.
On October 2, 1894, the Hospital was formally opened, the Lord Bishop of Montreal and other representative clergymen conducting an imposing inaugural ceremony in the presence of a large number of prominent citizens; thus waslaunched into benevolent activity the first Homœopathic Hospital in the Province of Quebec, under the following management:
The first hospital officials, 1894, were: President, Samuel Bell; vice president, Mr. Charles Morton; treasurer, Joseph Gould; secretary, Dr. W.G. Nichol.
The committee of management was composed of Lady Van Horne, Mrs. Hector Mackenzie, Mrs. W.B. Lindsay, Mrs. Henry Thomas, Mrs. T. (Dr.) Nichol, Mrs. Roswell Fisher, Miss Ames, Dr. John Wanless, Dr. H.M. Patton, James Baylis; Miss M.E. Baylis, secretary of committee.
The medical superintendent was Dr. H.M. Patton and the lady superintendent, Miss Thompson.
The consulting staff consisted of Dr. Arthur Fisher, Dr. George Logan, Doctor McLaren, and Dr. George Gale, while the attending physicians were Doctors Wanless, W.G. Nichol, Griffith, and T. Scott Nichol.
The attending surgeon was Dr. H.M. Patton.
The first year’s work showed 158 patients occupying its beds, 135 of whom were public, and twenty-three private patients. The death rate for the year is given as 2.5.
A new wing was soon required, while the maternity annex and nurses’ home was next added by the Woman’s Auxiliary.
Once more the devoted ladies of the Woman’s Auxiliary nobly responded to the growing demands of pressing hospital needs, which included provision for laundry work under their own supervision, better accommodation for their admirable little band of pupil nurses, and the inauguration of a much-needed maternity for ladies desiring private hospital accommodation. The adjoining house, No. 46 McGill College Avenue, was leased from Mr. W.L. Maltby on a long term, Miss Annie Moodie becoming personally responsible for the rent. The basement was fitted up as a laundry. The first floor given over to the nurses as a dormitory, with sitting-room and locker accommodation. The bath-room was remodelled and refitted, and four dainty, private wards equipped and furnished for maternity patients. The whole Annex was handed over complete to the Hospital management, practically free of debt, on August 6, 1899.
The year 1900 is noteworthy from the fact of the Woman’s Auxiliary relinquishing all share and responsibility for Hospitalmanagement, which hitherto had been jointly controlled by the committee and the auxiliary. The Committee of Management was recast and consolidated, and large responsibility put upon the chairman, Mr. S.M. Baylis being the incumbent of the office at that time.
In 1904, after careful deliberation, the Homœopathic Association, under whose charter of 1865 and amending acts the Hospital had been instituted and maintained, formally authorized the application for a special charter, and agreed to transfer all real property, equipment, securities and effects hitherto held under its title, and acquired for the use and benefit of the Hospital, to the new corporation, on consideration of the latter assuming all annuity and other obligations attaching thereto. In May, 1904, the Quebec Legislature passed an act incorporating “The Homœopathic Hospital of Montreal,” the following gentlemen and their successors being constituted a body politic under that name and title: James A. Mathewson, Francis E. Grafton, Charles Alexander, Samuel Bell, John T. Hagar, Louis Barbeau, Roswell C. Fisher, Edward G. O’Connor, Samuel M.Baylis, Thomas J. Dawson, Edward M. Morgan, M.D., Hugh M. Patton, M.D., Arthur D. Patton, M.D., Alexander R. Griffith, M.D., Arthur Fisher, M.D., John W. Hughes and George Durnford.
INSANE ASYLUM AT LONGUE POINTINSANE ASYLUM AT LONGUE POINT
INSANE ASYLUM AT LONGUE POINT
HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITALHOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL
HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL
WESTERN HOSPITALWESTERN HOSPITAL
WESTERN HOSPITAL
PROTESTANT INSANE ASYLUM AT VERDUNPROTESTANT INSANE ASYLUM AT VERDUN
PROTESTANT INSANE ASYLUM AT VERDUN
The Jubilee Endowment was inaugurated in 1897, in commemoration of the jubilee of beloved Queen Victoria, by the donation of $10,000 by the late Alexander Clerk, and since augmented by bequests from the late James Baylis, and other sources, to the capital sum of $10,871.61.
The Phillips’ Training School for Nurses was founded contemporaneously with the establishment of the Hospital, and so named in honour of the first benefactress, Mrs. Georgina D. Phillips; the school has done good work in training and launching in professional careers so many graduates.
The College of Homœopathic Physicians and Surgeons of Montreal is operated under the charter granted to the Homœopathic Association in the Act of 1865, and amending acts. Since the relinquishment to the new incorporation of its hospital work, the College is now the main care of the Association. Applicants for its valued license must be graduates of an approved Medical College, and must pass the critical examination of its licensing board in the special field of Homœopathic therapeutics.
HOSPITALS FOR THE INSANE
St. Jean de Dieu, Longue Pointe
The care of the insane was first entrusted as a special department in this city to the Grey Nuns in 1793. The work was relinquished by them in 1844.
The modern work is now undertaken for the Montreal district and the Province of Quebec by the Sisters of Providence at Longue Pointe and the Protestant Insane Asylum at Verdun. The history of each is interesting.
The care of the insane was undertaken by the Providence Nuns on the proposition of the Quebec government to them in 1873. In 1889, Mother Theresa of Jesus visited the principal insane asylums of Europe and America. She declared that the method of dividing the asylum into annexed pavilions should be adopted in the classification of various cerebral diseases, which was accordingly done. At present, two rows of pavilions cover five acres of land. Nine acres will be required to complete the Asylum and the other detached dwellings which have been erected on the 500-acre farm. On the first storey is an electric tramway which operates over its 3,000-foot corridor, and is for the use of the personnel of the Asylum. A railroad, 15,000 feet long, owned by the Community, is used for transportation of goods, coal, wood, lumber, etc., from the quays on the St. Lawrence to the main building. The institution was visited by a disastrous fire in 1890. Nevertheless, the Asylum prospered, and today it compares favorably with similar asylums, either in America or Europe. Twelve thousand seven hundred and eighty patients have been admitted from the day it was formally opened. The medical staff is composed of three house and three visiting physicians, three inspectors, appointed by the Government, and a medical superintendent.
VERDUN
The movement for a separate Protestant Insane Asylum originated with Mr. Alfred Perry in 1880, who called a public meeting for the purpose of promotingit. It was not upheld that year but, having called a second meeting on February 21, 1881, a resolution proposed by Mr. Henry Lyman and seconded by the Reverend Dr. Sullivan was carried unanimously after considerable discussion: “That it is expedient and extremely requisite that steps should now be taken looking to the establishment of a Protestant Insane Asylum in the Province of Quebec.”
On June 30, 1881, there was passed a bill entitled “An Act to Incorporate the Protestant Hospital for the Insane.” Mr. Morrice generously defrayed all expenses connected with the securing of this charter.
The Rt. Rev. William B. Bond, LL. D., Lord Bishop of the Diocese of Montreal; John Jenkins, D.D., LL. D.; Gavin Lang; George Douglas, LL. D.; George H. Wells; Henry Wilkes, D.D.; A.H. Munro; W.S. Barnes; William A. Hall, M.D.; Sir Hugh Allan; Andrew Allan; George Macrae, Q.C.; Charles Alexander; Henry Lyman; M.H. Gault, M.P.; Thomas White, M.P.; Peter Redpath; Adam Darling; Hugh McLellan; James Coristine; S.H. May; T. James Claxton; James Johnston; Alex McGibbon; Alfred Perry; Leo H. Davidson, and such other persons, donors or subscribers, as might be or become associated with them and their successors, by this act were constituted a body corporate to found a Protestant institution for the care, maintenance and cure of the insane of the several Protestant denominations in the Province of Quebec.
In accordance with the provision of the act, and pursuant to a notice published in the “Herald” and “Gazette,” as required by law, a meeting of those interested was held in the Y.M.C.A. rooms, on December 20, 1881, Mr. Morrice presiding. At the request of the chairman, Doctor Davidson explained the act of incorporation, and advised that a board of twenty-four governors should be elected by subscribers of $10 each, who thus constituted themselves members of the corporation, this step being necessary to preserve the charter. The majority of those present having paid the required sum, a vote was taken by ballot, and the following gentlemen elected to the Board of Governors: Mr. D. Morrice; Mr. M.H. Gault, M.P.; Rev. Gavin Lang; Dr. F.W. Campbell; Dr. J.C. Cameron; Mr. Charles Alexander; Mr. Henry Lyman; Reverend Dr. Sullivan; Dr. William Osler; Mr. Alfred Perry; Mr. L.H. Davidson; Rev. William Hall; Mr. T.J. Claxton; Mr. Thomas White, M.P.; Rev. A.B. Mackay; His Lordship Bishop Bond; Rev. G.H. Wells; Mr. Warden King; Canon Baldwin; Mr. George Macrae, Q. C; Mr. Peter Redpath; Mr. Adam Darling; Mr. Hugh McLennan; and Mr. A.A. Ayer.
It was not till 1887 that a site was determined upon for the projected asylum. Subscriptions, however, had been obtained which amounted at the end of 1887 to a total of $68,139.82, which includes a gift from the Provincial Government of $7,812.29.
At a meeting of governors held April 14, 1887, it was finally resolved to purchase a portion of the Hadley farm, which had been selected by the site committee in the spring of 1886, for the sum of $18,000. Situated in the Municipality of Verdun (whence the name Verdun Hospital by which the institution is often designated) just at the foot of the Lachine Rapids, the location chosen was an admirable and extremely picturesque one. The mountain rising behind crowned with green woods, its lower slopes dotted with villas, the mighty St. Lawrence, with its timbered islands, stretching in front; and the dancing rapids, with theirmusical roar, in such close proximity, made a prospect of scenic beauty difficult to surpass.
By the spring of 1890, the administration building and west wing were completed, the first patient being received on July 15, 1890, and before the end of the year there had been 139 admissions. The first medical superintendent was Dr. T.J.W. Burgess, who has held the post ever since.
A new wing was added in 1894. On January 24, 1895, the institution was honoured by a visit from their Excellencies, the Governor General Lord Aberdeen and the Countess of Aberdeen.
By 1896 the “Annex” for imbecile and violent patients was begun in the spring and completed in the autumn. The summer of 1897 saw its opening and the erection of an infirmary. On September 11th, the asylum was visited by the psychological section of the British Medical Association that gathered in Montreal on the occasion of the first meeting of the society outside the British Isles.
In 1898 the pathological laboratory, donated by Mr. G.B. Burland, was installed under the direction of Dr. Andrew McPhail. The “East” house in contradistinction to the Annex or “West” house was completed and opened. This summer the asylum was visited by the Medico-Psychological Association, the oldest of American Medical societies then holding its fifty-eighth annual meeting in Montreal.
In 1907 the Hadley farm of sixty acres adjoining the hospital was purchased and donated at the cost of $42,000 by a Canadian gentleman, Dr. James Douglas, of New York. In the same year the addition of a power house and other lighting and water supply improvements cost the establishment about one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.
In 1909 a new annex, known as the North West House, was opened on September 16th. The capacity of the buildings in 1910 was for a population of 680. The institution at the end of its twenty-first year had 366 cases, of which nearly forty per cent have been discharged as cured. The asylum which has acted for the Protestants of the Province has certainly a good record to show.
THE CIVIC HOSPITALS
After the great epidemic of smallpox in 1885, when the sick were isolated or treated in temporary buildings, erected on the old exhibition grounds, the City Council on January 13, 1886, named a commission to choose a site for the erection of a civic smallpox hospital. In consequence of which, on May 25, 1886, the city bought the Robert property situated in the Hochelaga Ward, north of Moreau Street. This hospital was demolished and reconstructed in 1912. It is administered by the hygiene department of the City Hall for smallpox cases.
The steps leading to their erection follow:
Until 1904 there had been only the Civic Hospital on Moreau Street for contagious diseases—a totally inadequate provision in a large city. In 1901, on January 23d, the city council received an offer by Sister Filiatrault, superior general of the Grey Nuns, offering to contribute $50,000 for a contagious disease hospital for Catholics on the condition that the city should contribute a like amount with an annual subvertion of $10,000. A week later the Montreal GeneralHospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital made a similar offer for the general population.
This being accepted, the Catholic hospital, St. Paul’s, at 656 Maisonneuve Street, was in operation by 1904 under the direction of the Notre Dame Hospital, but the Alexandra Hospital, owing to several hitches, was not opened till July 9, 1906, its incorporation being granted in 1903 to James Crathern, Richard B. Angus and Charles F. Smith.
The hospital is erected at the foot of Charron Street and the river bounds it on the south and east.
In 1906 Sir William Macdonald purchased and presented to the hospital the triangular piece of land between it and the river to the east, at a cost of $7,141.35. In 1908 the late Sir R.G. Reid built and equipped a very necessary observatory pavilion at the cost of $12,568.82. A nurses’ home is at present being erected to the west of the administration building, of fireproof construction, at a cost of about $56,000, including equipment, which will bring the total expense of the hospital building up to $360,000. The patients admitted from January 1, 1913, to December 31, 1913, numbered 1,036.
The Hôpital St. Paul, a section of Notre Dame Hospital, receives Catholic and the Alexandra Hospital, Protestant patients. The city pays each one of these institutions annually $35,000 for thirty-five beds a day, and $1.00 a day in addition for each patient above the contracted number.
TUBERCULOSIS DISPENSARIES
The Royal Edward Institute
In this city it is not quite twelve years ago since the first organized effort against the ravages of the “white plague” was initiated by the formation of the Montreal League for the Prevention of Tuberculosis. At a meeting held in the Art Gallery on November 29th, 1902, under the auspices of the Governor General, Lord Minto, resolutions were passed calling for combined effort on the part of the government, the city authorities, and public-spirited citizens to relieve the miseries associated with this infection and to check its spread. A committee was appointed at that time, but not until June, 1903, was work actually commenced in a small room in Bleury Street.
The establishment of a sanatorium in the near neighbourhood for the treatment of incipient cases, and of a hospital for the treatment of the more advanced and hopeless cases, was at first proposed; but after consideration it was felt that the expense of maintaining institutions sufficiently large to cope with the requirements of the city would involve an expense far beyond what the community could be reasonably expected at that time to contribute, so a beginning of work was made by the establishment of a dispensary, November 1, 1904, and the employment of what has been termed the dispensary method for reaching the tuberculous poor. It is a method which has been gradually developed in Edinburgh under the guidance of Dr. R.W. Phillip, and in France by Calmette, and which has been adopted with much success in Philadelphia. The method emphasizes the importance of disseminating a practical knowledge regarding the spread, development, and course of the disease among the poor, and is based upon two facts; first, that it is not necessary for patients in the early stages oftuberculosis to leave their homes to be healed, and, second, that patients can be educated so to comport themselves as to be of little danger to those around them. Montreal is one of the first pioneers in purely tuberculosis clinical institutions, the first established by Doctor Phillip in Edinburgh in 1887, being followed in 1903 by Calmette in Lille, and by New York and Montreal in 1904. Making use of this plan it has been the aim of the executive board not only to attend to the wants of such cases as may apply to the dispensary, but to co-operate with the medical profession throughout the city, both in hospital and private practice. All physicians are invited to report to a central station cases of tuberculosis occurring in their practice which cannot be fully treated by them. These cases are tabulated and arranged according to the district in which they live; each patient is visited at his home by an inspector or nurse; full instructions, both written and verbal, are given regarding the mode of life to be followed to secure the greatest advantage to the patient and the greatest security to those around him.
An interesting exhibition dealing with all phases of the crusade was organized in October, 1908, and was visited by over 50,000 persons, including the older children attending the public schools. Addresses were given by eminent speakers and an attempt was made to reach all clasess of our citizens and interest them in the measures necessary to ensure health, and check the spread of this infection. This movement in public education has led the way to subsequent health exhibitions in the city, notably the Child Welfare Exhibition of 1912.
Later an appeal was made to the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire into the conditions in this province favouring the spread of tuberculosis and to ascertain the best methods of checking it.
With the growing work of the League, the urgent need of more room to meet the necessities of its dispensary work, and the desirability of a large central station, where a resident staff of nurses could be continually in attendance, was forced upon the executive. At this juncture, a philanthropic citizen, the late Lieut.-Col. Jeffrey H. Burland, came forward with his very generous offer of $50,000 from his sisters and himself as a contribution in memory of their father and mother, to be applied towards the purchase and equipment of a suitable building, on the condition that the general public would contribute an equal amount to serve as an endowment sufficient to cover the annual expenses connected with the maintenance of its efficiency. This condition has unfortunately not yet been fulfilled; as only $36,000 has been subscribed, nevertheless, Colonel Burland impressed with the urgency of the League’s need acquired in May, 1909, the very central and commodious detached building, No. 47 Belmont Park. This with much judgment and care he had altered and enlarged to suit the possible requirements of the dispensary work for many years to come, and to serve as the headquarters of the League’s work in Montreal. No dispensary building like this one with its bright sun parlours and large roof garden exists anywhere; and it is hoped that its advantages may not only prove to have much practical benefit for the consumptive patient, but also have an educational value for the general public.
The whole equipment has been very carefully studied and all the arrangements made with the view of securing the greatest efficiency at the minimum of running expense.
By gracious permission of King Edward VII the organization became known as the Royal Edward Institute.
Its work is one that Montreal has become proud of.
THE BRUCHESI INSTITUTE
The Bruchesi Institute is the tuberculosis hospital and dispensary under French-speaking direction for patients of all races and religions. It started humbly when at the request of Dr. Eugène Grenier, granted on October 10th, 1910, the Sisters of Providence Asylum, 369 St. Catherine Street, put aside a couple of rooms for an anti-tuberculosis clinic. Dr. P.E. Bousquet undertook the treatment of the superior respiratory tract, Dr. B.E. Bourgeois that of surgical tuberculosis, and Doctor Grenier, assisted by Drs. J.A. Jarry and Louis Verchelden, that of pulmonary tuberculosis.
The first board of administration was completed on March 9, 1911, as follows: honorary president, the Rt. Rev. Paul Bruchesi, Archbishop of Montreal; president, J. Auguste Richard; vice president, Abbé Tranchemontagne; treasurer, U.H. Dandurand; secretary, Dr. Eugène Grenier; directors, Canon Adam, T. Bastien and Dr. E. Dubé, who greatly promoted its formation. The same names appear in the act of incorporation of the Bruchesi Institute, November 10, 1911. A medical board was also formed at the period, Dr. E. Dubé being elected president, Dr. Eugène Grenier, secretary, the latter being succeeded by Dr. Gustave Archambault.
The dispensary opened on February 27, 1911. On July 24, 1912, this was moved to 340 St. Hubert Street, where the Sisters of Providence placed at its disposition many large rooms. In these new quarters the institute has eleven beds for private tuberculosis persons; 316 have been received and treated in these private rooms from August 18, 1912, to October 31, 1914.
Educational courses for public instruction through lectures and a press campaign, and a post-graduate course for physicians were in operation by July 15, 1913, the opening lectures of the post-graduate course of 1914 being given by Prof. S.A. Knopp, of New York. Thirteen physicians have already followed these special courses on “early diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis.”
With the aid of the Sisters of Providence the Bruchesi Institute opened in 1911 a preventorium at Beloeil, but the lack of financial support on the part of Montreal and the province caused the institute to discontinue this branch of its work, after one year. The Bruchesi Institute receives from the Sisters of Providence the use of the building it occupies, including heating and cleaning, the services of six sister-nurses, etc. It also receives the services of thirty-two attending physicians, from the City of Montreal $3,000, and from the Province of Quebec $3,000, and material financial aid from the public. The institute is affiliated to “The Canadian Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis.”
THE GRACE DART HOME
A supplementary aid for tuberculosis patients is supplied by the Grace Dart Home, which was started about eight years ago as a private institution by Mr. Henry J. Dart in memory of his daughter, Grace Dart. Friends became interestedand a provincial charter of incorporation was obtained. About two years ago the former house of Sir Francis Hincks on St. Antoine Street was purchased and extensions made so that between thirty and forty patients are provided for.
CIVIC ASSISTANCE TO THE ANTI-TUBERCULOSIS MOVEMENT
The city has come to the relief of the tuberculosis movement. Its assistance of recent years is as follows:
Amount paid for the maintenance of tuberculous patients in 1913, $6,276.45. In 1912 the amount was $6,147.55.
The amount voted in 1913 for the treatment of cases of tuberculosis amounted to $14,300.00, and the same was apportioned as follows:
Hospital for incurables, $7,500.00; Royal Edward Institute, $3,300.00; Grace Dart Home, $500.00; Bruchesi Institute, $3,000.00. In 1912 it was $13,300.00 and in 1911, $11,300.00.
Supplementing the hospitals are the dispensaries connected with the convents and the milk stations. One of the oldest now existing is the Montreal Dispensary, established in 1853, the Dispensaire of the Sisters of Providence being opened on June 1, 1863.
THE CHILDREN’S MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
Of recent years the special hospital treatment of children has been marked. The greatest development in infant care is to be dated to the rise of the Children’s Memorial Hospital on Pine Avenue. Not only is this institution to be credited with efficiency in its general treatment of infants, but it especially deserves the credit of being the pioneer in Canada of special clinical treatment and the special vocational education for crippled and deformed children in the school latterly erected on its grounds and completed in September, 1914. This will be treated later.
The first meeting of the committee for the founding of the Children’s Memorial Hospital, of Montreal, was held on November 25, 1902. Nearly a year went by, however, before the committee deemed it advisable, or even practical, to make tangible advancement in this great undertaking.
November, 1903, marks a memorable epoch in the history of the child cripples throughout Canada, for it was then—nearly a year after their first meeting—that the committee procured temporary quarters in the private dwelling, 500 Guy Street, where they practically launched their noble enterprise, thus bringing into being one of Canada’s greatest and long-felt needs, an institution especially adapted for the treatment of deformities of children and of the many diseases accruing from these deformities.
To those temporary quarters children were brought from the East and West, from the North and South of the Dominion to receive surgical and medical treatment. In that small building, though the accommodations were woefully limited, many and remarkable cures have been effected.
The Children’s Memorial Hospital of today was opened April 6, 1909, its beautiful location and handsome and well equipped buildings making it a credit to the city and to the Dominion.
From an institution, pitifully hampered at its beginning and during the first five years of its existence, has evolved one resplendent in its environments of sunshine and mountain air; of foliage, flowers and birds. It occupies one of the most delightful sites in or around the beautiful city of Montreal. Situated on the upper slope of Cedar Avenue with the greater height of Mount Royal for its background, the blue waters of the grand St. Lawrence stretching before it, the busy city almost encircling it, the Children’s Memorial Hospital of Montreal stands, not merely an ornament to our city, but a benefit to or land. Its wards, sun-parlors, operating rooms, out-door department, nurses’ apartments, dining room, kitchens, corridors, passages—all bear evidence of the great work carried on in the institution.
It is a general hospital for all children’s diseases, with the exception of those that are contagious, with wards for boys, girls and infants, and there is surgical and medical treatment. The officers from the inception have been: Sir Melbourne Tait, president; Sir H. Graham, first vice president; Mr. G.H. Smithers, second vice president and honorary treasurer; Dr. A. McKenzie Forbes, third vice president and honorary secretary; Dr. H.B. Cushing, fourth vice president and recording secretary; and Mr. George J. Foster, honorary solicitor.
THE HOPITAL STE. JUSTINE
The Hôpital Ste. Justine, which is a corresponding institution to the last named, was established as a hospital and dispensary for children in November, 1907, at No. 740 St. Denis Street, in a house loaned at a nominal price by Mr. Damien Rolland. The next spring it was removed to 820 Delorimier Avenue. Meantime, as the work was of great importance, steps were taken to rear a worthy building which saw its first stone solemnly blessed on St. Denis Street in April, 1914. The building was opened in May, 1914, and towards the end of June the patients were transferred from Delorimier Avenue. The formal blessing of the Hospital by Archbishop Bruchesi took place in November.
The hospital is well equipped with departments for general medicine, surgery, diseases of the eye and skin diseases. For the last three years the religious sisters, “Les Filles de la Sagesse,” have directed the internal arrangements and the nursing department. In connection with the hospital there is a school of nurses for children’s diseases and the hospital is the only body in the Dominion empowered to grant diplomas for such. Arrangements are being made to connect the hospital with the University of Laval as the children’s clinic.
The board of directors is composed of a committee of ladies and medical men, the names of those applying for the charter being: Mesdames Raoul Dandurand, Lady Lacoste, J.R. Thibaudeau, F.L. Beique, A.A. Thibaudeau, F. D. Monk, D. Rolland, L. Beaubien, F.X. Choquet, Jules Hamel, A. Berthiaume, F. Bruneau, J.A. Leblanc, Gérin Normand, R. Masson, Henri Gerin-Lajoie, L. de G. Beaubien, Mademoiselles Euphrosine Rolland, May Boyer, Blanche Lareau and Thais Lacoste, and the following doctors: Joseph G. Dubé, Zephyrin Lachapelle, R.G. Hervieux, Louis Joseph Gatelien Cleroux, Telesphore Parizeau, Seraphin Boucher, Joseph Charles Bourgoin, Benjamin Georges Bourgeois, Zephir Rheaume, Irma Levasseur, Edouard Etienne Laurent and Raoul Masson.
OTHER HOSPITAL ADJUNCT ASSOCIATIONS
Among the other supplemental hospitals in the city are: The Samaritan Hospital for Women, the Montreal Foundling and Baby Hospital, the foundling department of the Grey Nuns, the Montreal Maternity Hospital, the Hôpital de la Miséricorde, the Women’s Hospital, the St. Margaret’s Home, the various dispensaries, the Association for Affording First Aid, the Pure Milk Depots orgouttes de lait, the Créches, etc.
Nursing work in the homes of the people is carried on mostly by the Victorian order of Nurses and the Soeurs de l’Esperance.
Several of these will be treated in the section on General Humanitarian work, or in other places.
THE MONTREAL DISPENSARY
The Montreal Dispensary deserves special notice as it dates its foundation to 1853. Its work has been progressively useful.
During the past twelve months the total number of applications for advice and treatment made to the medical staff of the dispensary by the sick poor of the city was 23,240.
These were classified as to their religions as follows: Roman Catholics, 10,808; Protestants, 10,329; other creeds (mostly Jews), 2,103.
This total may be again subdivided under the different departments in which these patients were treated, viz.: General department (medical), 7,250; general department (surgical), 1,170; department for diseases of eye, 1,768; department for diseases of women, 1,404; department for diseases of ear, nose and throat, 1,521; department for diseases of the skin, 1,989; department for diseases of children, 7,334; department for diseases of tuberculosis, 804.
A careful consideration of the above figures will impress one with the fact that an institution which supplies free advice and treatment to such numbers of poor people must of necessity be doing a good work.
THE MONTREAL MATERNITY HOSPITAL
The Montreal Maternity Hospital was established in 1843, with forty-three patients, the first physician being Dr. Michael McCulloch and its first directress Mrs. W. Lunn. It was incorporated in 1853. In 1913 its patients numbered 1,293. The hospital provides a training school in obstetrics for McGill University medical course and for nurses for the English hospitals. Among the directresses succeeding have been: 1844-55, Mrs. W. Lunn; 1855-66, Mrs. D. Ross; 1866-75, Mrs. J. Molson; 1875-82, Mrs. R. MacDonnell; 1882-85, Mrs. McCulloch; 1885-87, Mrs. W. Gardner; 1887-88, Mrs. MacDonnell; 1888-89-91-93, Mrs. W. Gardner; 1893-95, Mrs. W.R. Miller; 1895-96, Mrs. Labatt; 1896-97, Mrs. R. MacDonnell; 1897-98, Mrs. W.R. Miller; 1908-1913, Mrs. R.W. Reford; 1914, Mrs. J.L. Cains.
INCURABLES
There is also a Home for Incurables at Notre Dame de Gràce. In 1898 several young ladies of the city inaugurated the work. Their efforts eliciteduniversal admiration, receiving especially the assistance of Archbishop Bruchesi. In 1904 the former Monastery of the Precious Blood was fitted up in the Hospital by its new possessors, the Sisters of Providence. From the date of establishment over two thousand persons have been cared for.
ST. MARGARET’S HOME
Another subsidiary hospital adjunct is the St. Margaret’s Home for Incurables, under an Anglican sisterhood, which was incorporated in 1890, although its foundation occurred several years previous to that date. The head home is at Grinstead, England, and its American headquarters are at Boston, Massachusetts. The work of the home was originally of a charitable nature and it has continued such in part to the present time, caring for about twelve free patients continuously. However, it has taken on more of the nature of an hospital for chronic incurables, and as such deserves mention in this department.
The pressing need for a convalescent home for Montrealers has been met to some extent for about forty years by the Convalescent Home at Murray Bay, situated at the Lower St. Lawrence. It may, however, be ranked as a city charity for it is directed and supported by Montrealers, its present president being Mr. Sergeant P. Stearns, and the admission of patients being regulated by the Charity Organization Society of Montreal. Last year, 1913, the home received 121 cases, 13 from Quebec, 2 from Murray Bay and the remainder from Montreal.
CONVALESCENT HOMES
The latest addition to the hospital service of the city is the care of convalescents overflowing from the busy hospital wards. This has been found an important need and has only been met spasmodically till the present year, when the Loyola Convalescent Home to receive patients of all denominations was formally opened on April 25th, at 26 Overdale Avenue, under the auspices of the “Ladies of Loyola Club.”
NOTE
MEDICAL BODIES
THE MONTREAL MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY
On Saturday, September 23, 1843, nineteen medical men met at the house of Dr. James Crawford, on Little St. James Street, and resolved to found a society “for the purpose of communicating together on subjects connected with their profession.” The founders were:
A.F. Holmes, O.F. Bruneau, J.B.C. Trestler, Archibald Hall, Henry Mount, William McNider, J.G. Bibaud, James Crawford, George W. Campbell, C.S. Sewell, William Sutherland, Francis Badgley, Arthur Fisher, David D. Logan, William Fraser, C.A. Campbell, M. McCulloch, F.C.T. Arnoldi, Peter Munro.
The name chosen for the society was “The Medico-Chirurgical Society of Montreal,” and at a meeting held the following week, a code of by-laws was adopted providing for the holding of fortnightly meetings from the first of October until the first of May, and for monthly meetings during the rest of the year.
The officers consisted of a secretary-treasurer—Dr. Francis Badgley for the first year—and a committee of management of three, elected annually. The members, in the order in which their names appeared on the roll, presided at the meetings and the president for the evening was also expected to provide the principal part of the programme.
In July, 1845, the constitution was altered to provide for a president, two vice presidents, secretary-treasurer, and a committee of management of three, and in August, Dr. A.F. Holmes was elected the first president. During the autumn of the same year an attempt was made to form an association of all the licensed practitioners of the provinces of Canada, and delegates from Toronto, Niagara, Quebec, Three Rivers and Montreal, met in Montreal, but failed to come to any agreement.
A tariff of professional charges was adopted by the society in February, 1846. All patients were divided into two classes and the twenty-four hours were divided into three portions. Day visits, 7 A.M. to 8 P.M.; evening visits, 8 P.M. to 10 P.M.; night visits, 10 P.M. to 7 A.M.
In March, 1852, the meetings ceased to be held, but from what cause is not now evidenced by the minutes.
Thirteen years later an attempt was made to carry on the society, and a meeting of thirty French and English medical men organized themselves into a society bearing the old name. Dr. G.W. Campbell, dean of the faculty of medicine of McGill University, was elected president. Two vice presidents, one French and one English, were appointed, and two secretaries, who kept the minutes, French and English, on opposite pages of the minute book, a system which evidently did not prove successful, the society lasting less than two years on this basis. Dr. W. H. Hingston was president during the second year.
Four years later, on November 5, 1870, the old society was again reorganized with twenty-five members; Dr. G.W. Campbell was again chosen president and Dr. T.G. Roddick secretary-treasurer, a position which he held for five years. Meetings were held every alternate Saturday in the Natural History Society’s rooms.
From the date of the second reorganization the society has grown rapidly and has now become established on a firm footing financially, and exercises an ever increasing influence on all matters, pertaining to medical science. The fiftieth anniversary of its foundation was celebrated by a banquet at the Windsor Hotel, on November 23, 1893. The meetings of this society are at present held at 112 Mansfield Street.