MEDICAL MEN

[ Group portrait: group of doctors visiting Dr. Bell at his farm at Saraguay ]

Unknown, McGill University Archives, McGill University, PR023853; Photo includes Dr. Bell and Dr. Roddick, Prominent physicians such as Dr Bell and Dr Roddick were associated with McGill University

Square Mile medical men play an important role in the tragedy and in the social life of the Redpath family. Square Mile doctors were at the forefront of medical progress, usually through association with the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. Perhaps most important to the story is Cliff and Ada’s family doctor, Thomas Roddick. Roddick was associated with the introduction of aseptic surgery, the founding of the Royal Victoria Hospital, the McGill Faculty of Medicine (Dean 1901-1908) and the Canada Medical Act (1906).

Other doctors associated professionally with the family include specialists such as “oculist and aurist” Frank Buller (1844–1905, the first professor of ophthalmology and otology at McGill University). Finally, Peter was assessed by noted clinician Henri Amadée Lafleur, first resident physician at the Johns Hopkins Medical School established by William Osler.