Rockefeller Foundation Funding and Medical Education in Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax

Alan Belk is a sessional instructor in the Philosophy Department at the
University of Guelph.

At the beginning of the 20th century, medicine in Europe and North
America became both scientific and professional. Canada’s particular
problem was lack of medical service for its sparse population outside
the major urban centres. In the 19th century, medical education was
variable, with private schools turning out doctors. These schools were
self-supporting, with income derived primarily from students’ fees.

Toward the end of the century, many private schools had become
associated with universities in places such as Toronto, London, and
Montreal because the science of medicine created pressure for research
and laboratories that the economics of fee-paying support could not
sustain. However, lack of money was a constraint on the development of
medical education in the universities, too, and in 1919 the Rockefeller
Foundation disbursed five million dollars to encourage growth in the
medical schools of the universities of Toronto, McGill, and Dalhousie.
This money had two major effects: it allowed the development of medical
professionalism and specialization, and it increased the universities’
commitments to fundraising.

This is a scholarly work that shows a lot of original, painstaking,
thorough, and detailed research. The book’s appeal would be broader if
it told a story. There are stories in it, but the reader has to extract
them, and this means that the book lacks a certain unity. For example,
one issue surrounding charitable donations is how much control the donor
should exert over the spending of the money. This is particularly
important when the donor is foreign because it brings in issues of
colonialization and national identity. The elements of that issue are in
this book, but it is left to the reader to weave them into a coherent
story.