RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A light on medical practice in 19th-century Canada: the medical manuscripts of Dr. John Mackieson of Charlottetown
JF Canadian Medical Association Journal
JO CMAJ
FD Canadian Medical Association
SP 253
OP 257
VO 159
IS 3
A1 DAE. Shephard
YR 1998
UL http://www.cmaj.ca/content/159/3/253.abstract
AB During his long career as a physician in Charlottetown, Dr. John Mackieson (1795-1885) compiled 4 medical manuscripts: 2 sets of case records, a synopsis of the medical conditions that were common in his day and a formulary. As primary sources, these documents provide information about medicine in 19th-century Canada and augment our knowledge of the problems of medical practice in that era. They illustrate aspects of the work of Dr. Mackieson, a generalist with interests in surgery and obstetrics, and they facilitate an understanding of the rationale underlying the treatments that he and his contemporaries used. Although 150 years old, the case records can be appreciated for their relevance to the art of medicine. Two excerpts from the case records, presented in this article, provide a sense of Dr. Mackieson's writings and introduce a discussion on the significance of these manuscripts in relation to the ideas on disease and treatment that governed medical practice, both in Prince Edward Island and elsewhere in Canada, in the 19th century.