PROCEEDINGS FOR 1920 V 



he should be asked by Sir John A. Macdonald, Prime Minister, to 

 introduce the first Bill in the House of Commons, which led to the 

 building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was a well-merited 

 distinction. That was in 1872; but it is interesting to observe that 

 he had prophesied the construction of such a transcontinental railway 

 from Atlantic to Pacific, in an address in 1860 to the old Mechanics' 

 Institute (later the Ottawa Literary and Scientific Society), the object 

 of which would be "to strengthen the very fibre of our country, and 

 to promote, as far as possible, trade and commerce for the advantage 

 of our people," to quote from his Empire Club address in Toronto, on 

 December 2, 1915. He rose to be the leading physician of the capital, 

 and came in contact with the various men of Imperial eminence, 

 who held the office of Governor-General, being physician at Govern- 

 ment House from Lord Monck's time until 1905. He valued highly 

 the friendships thus formed, and he continued on terms of intimacy 

 with the Duke of Argyll, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Earl Dufferin, 

 and others. 



In spite of his busy professional duties, he found time to write 

 over sixty articles and addresses, mainly in the chief medical journals 

 of England and this continent. One remarkable contribution appear- 

 ing in the columns of the British Medical Times and Gazette in 1863 

 might have led to an epoch-making discovery, viz.: Serum-Therapy; 

 but Sir James did not pursue his skin-disease experiment further, and 

 it was left for German bacteriologists to scientifically establish the 

 treatment. While at Queen's University, Kingston, he gave much 

 tutorial instruction, and when passing through his medical course at 

 McGill University later he delivered systematic lectures to students 

 on the Nervous System, a subject which he dealt with, it is interesting 

 to note, in the last series of lectures he ever delivered, viz., a course to 

 hospital nurses in Ottawa two or three years ago. 



Born in Inverness in 1831, he was always proud of his Scottish 

 ancestry, and, arrayed in Highland dress, he was an impressive figure 

 at St. Andrew's Day festivals. During his long career he held many 

 prominent offices, and met a great number of the more notable men 

 and women of this continent and the Empire. He was President of 

 the Canadian Medical Association, and of the College of Physicians 

 and Surgeons of Ontario, and at the great International Medical 

 Congress was chosen Vice-President for Canada, a high distinction, 

 while the British Medical Association elected him an honorary mem- 

 ber. He valued greatly the position of President of the Canadian 

 Tuberculosis Association, which he had been mainly instrumental in 

 organizing, and he was President of the International Congress of 



