RG Ferguson: Crusader Against Tuberculosis

Cynthia R. Comacchio is an assistant professor of History at Wilfrid
Laurier University in Waterloo.

This biography is part of a series under publication by the Hannah
Institute for the History of Medicine, which seeks to commemorate
oft-forgotten contributors to the broadly defined medical history of
Canada. Houston, a Saskatchewan physician like his subject, was
personally acquainted with Ferguson “as a young and impressionable
lad”; his mother had trained under Ferguson at the Fort Qu’Appelle
Sanatorium. He sees himself as a medical historian of the traditional
school, with its emphasis on “a history of progress brought about by
individuals.” Houston’s frank admiration for Ferguson is directly
and openly declared and he has taken care to consult with family members
and to examine private papers that would not otherwise be accessible to
archival researchers.

Born in North Dakota, Ferguson studied medicine at the University of
Manitoba, graduating in 1916. Although the establishment of the
Saskatchewan Anti-Tuberculosis League (1911) and the building of the
Fort Qu’Appelle Sanatorium (1916-17) predated his arrival as the
latter’s acting superintendent in July 1917, it was just this arrival,
argues Houston, “that planted the Saskatchewan anti-tuberculosis
program on the road to success as the first grass-roots, one-disease
organization in Saskatchewan.” Houston portrays the “crusader” as
self-sacrificing (he declined electrical power in his new residence for
the first winter and offered to use coal-oil lamps instead to save
money); having a deep and abiding religious faith derived from his
Methodist upbringing; and sincerely committed to the Christian ethic of
service. He notes that the new province of Saskatchewan, impoverished
and largely populated by struggling recent immigrants, was “a most
improbable place for programs destined to lead North America.” Yet, in
large part due to Ferguson’s personal drive and ability, he managed to
lead the province on a “visionary” course, building more sanatoria
beds per patient and more beds per tuberculosis deaths than any other
jurisdiction.

Although definitely celebratory and lacking in the kind of context that
social historians of medicine would like to see in such biographies
(more discussion might have been offered, for example, of the class,
gender, and culture links between health, illness, and health care, and
of the relationship between health-care delivery and the state),
Houston’s account of Ferguson’s life and work hints at the social
impact of the early-twentieth century conjuncture of middle-class
reformism, scientific advance, and medical professionalization.