706 



QUEBEC, PROVINCE OF. 



cities and towns, 43 dioceses, and 13 mission- 

 ary jurisdictions. 



Building Fund. The American Church Build- 

 ing Fund Commission was established by the 

 General Convention in October, 1880. It con- 

 sists of all the bishops, one clergyman, and one 

 layman from each diocese, and twenty mem- 

 bers appointed by the presiding bishop. It 

 aims to raise a fund of $1,000,000 by annual 

 offerings from the several congregations in the 

 Church, and by individual gifts. It renders in- 

 valuable service by investigating titles to church 

 property, and adding to its security. It makes 

 loans on favorable terms for church-building 

 wherever it is needed. It has its headquarters 

 in New York. 



General Condition. During the year 1885 two 

 of the bishops died Bishop Lay, of Easton, 

 Md., and Bishop Young, of Florida and sixty- 

 three others of the clergy were removed by 

 death during the same time. Three new bish- 

 ops have been consecrated: William Paret, 

 Bishop of Maryland; George Worthington, 



Bishop of Nebraska; and Samuel D. Fergu- 

 son, Missionary Bishop of Africa. In addition 

 to the statistics given above, there are numer- 

 ous other societies and organizations existing 

 for carrying forward church- work and fulfill- 

 ing the mission of the Episcopal Church in 

 these United States ; such as the Church Tem- 

 perance Society, the Free Church Association. 

 the Fund for the Relief of Widows and Or- 

 phans of Deceased Clergymen, the twelve sis- 

 terhoods and the Order of Deaconesses, the 

 Bible and Prayer-Book Society, and the League 

 in Aid of the Mexican Branch of the Church. 

 This Church has under its control nine colleges 

 in different parts of the country, and sixteen 

 seminaries and divinity schools. There are 

 nine weekly church papers and five monthly 

 magazines, which are devoted to the promul- 

 gation and enforcement of Scripture truth as 

 this branch of the Catholic Church holds it in 

 her creeds and standards of faith and practice. 

 P1TBIAS, KNIGHTS OF. See KNIGHTS OF 

 PYTHIAS. 



Q 



QUEBEC, PROVINCE OF. Government The 



Lieutenant-Governor is Louis Francois Rode- 

 rigue Masson. Executive Council: Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture and Premier, J. J. Ross; 

 Provincial Treasurer, J. G. Robertson ; Attor- 

 ney-General, Q. O. Taillon; Provincial Secre- 

 tary, J. Blanchet ; Commissioner of Railways, 

 E. J. Flynn. 



Small-pox. An outbreak of small-pox in 

 Montreal this year carried off upward of 3,000 

 victims in that city alone, and a much larger 

 number in the suburban municipalities. The 

 disease also extended to scores of villages in 

 the Province of Quebec, but the extent of its 

 ravages in the rural districts can never be even 

 approximately estimated. The history of the 

 epidemic in Montreal tends to strengthen the 

 theory that small-pox is "the most controllable 

 as well as the most contagious of all contagious 

 diseases." The record also furnishes some in- 

 teresting evidence on the subject of vaccina- 

 tion. Out of 3,164 deaths, only 96 occurred 

 among Protestants, and the average age of the 

 Protestant decedents was much higher than 

 that of the Catholics. This disproportion was 

 very freely ascribed to "the dirty habits of the 

 French Canadians." But nothing could be fur- 

 ther from the truth ; scrupulous cleanliness is 

 one of the chief characteristics of the French- 

 Canadian homes. The normal death-rate of the 

 city is certainly high, but this is due principally 

 to defective drainage and a general lack of ap- 

 preciation of sanitary science by the civic au- 

 thorities. The high birth-rate also necessarily 

 involves a high death-rate. The chief cause of 

 the peculiar susceptibility of the French Cana- 

 dians to small-pox is unquestionably a prejudice 

 against vaccination. During the past twenty 

 years r, vigorous anti-vaccination crusade has 



been preached in Montreal. The movement 

 was led by a French-Canadian physician in 

 good standing, and has been so successful that 

 4,911 persons died in Montreal from small-pox 

 in the nine years from 1872 to 1880. Until 

 April, 1885, Montreal enjoyed immunity from 

 the disease, when it was brought to the city by 

 two Pullman-car porters from Chicago. One 

 of these was treated at a private house and 

 isolated. None of the subsequent cases were 

 traced to connection with this one. The other 

 porter was sent to the H6tel Dieu. All the 

 cases that occurred in the earlier stages of the 

 epidemic were traced to connection with this 

 one. Besides the anti-vaccination prejudice, 

 many French Canadians entertain an equally 

 strong prejudice against isolation. There is a 

 fatalistic spirit among them : if a man is des- 

 tined to have la picotte, he will have it ; and 

 it is better to have it when young if one is des- 

 tined to have it at all. In such a community, 

 the difficulties in the way of enforcing the 

 regulations generally relied upon for the sup- 

 pression of small-pox are great. Vaccination 

 was offered and declined. The infected houses 

 were placarded, and the placards were torn 

 down, not only by the inhabitants but by 

 strangers, who resented the placarding as an 

 interference with the liberty of the subject. 

 Isolation was ordered, and the sanitary police 

 found mothers visiting the bedsides of small 

 pox patients with their children in their arms 

 Healthy infants were brought to sleep witl 

 infants suffering from small-pox, so that t 

 might catch the disease and have done with 

 in infancy. The epidemic found Montreal witi 

 an inefficient sanitary department and a civi 

 Board of Health but little disposed to do any- 

 thing offensive to popular prejudices. 



