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Medical services in Vancouver, 1886-1920 : a study in the interplay of attitudes, medical knowledge, and administrative structures

University of British Columbia

The establishment of the City of Vancouver coincided with the development of new types of medical treatment made possible by bacteriologically-based scientific medicine. This thesis describes the development of medical services in Vancouver from 1886, the date of its incorporation, to 1920 and thereby exposes the process in which applications of scientific discovery were incorporated into ordinary life. It comprises an examination of the environment in which Vancouver's medical services grew, of the nature and development of some specific medical services, and of the interaction of services during the 1918-1919 influenza epidemic. The specific services studied are: medical attendance, the city's principal hospital, nursing services provided by a voluntary association, and the public school hygiene program of the period. As medical science and its parallel technology grew in scope and complexity, medical services proliferated and became increasingly specialized, institutionalized, and subject to the direction of medical experts; laymen lost control over the development of medical services and the treatment of their own bodies. Although revolutionary in effect, those changes occurred easily in the period's growing climate of faith in medicine and the commitment of its purveyors to healing. That faith was encouraged by medical personnel, in Vancouver building upon a favourable disposition toward health projects established in the city's early days by speculators who had envisoned the city which was to make their fortunes peopled with a healthy citizenry. Popular acceptance of the new structure of medical services is evidenced by increased demand for medical care and by a growth of mechanisms for spreading its cost widely enough to support an increased supply. The resulting availability of medical service contributed to the relatively good state of health which prevailed.

Text

2010-03-09

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/21711

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University of British Columbia

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