Secondary Sources in the History of Canadian Medicine: A Bibliography, Vol. 2

Cynthia R. Comacchio is an associate professor of history at Wilfrid
Laurier University. She is the author of Nations Are Built of Babies:
Saving Ontario’s Mothers and Children.

This bibliography constitutes a much-needed updating of the similarly
titled first volume, published in 1984, with references to the growing
literature on the history of Canadian medicine which has come into print
since that year. It is also an important expansion of its predecessor,
in that the editors have uncovered much material published prior to 1984
that was not included in the first volume, and have also undertaken—as
the addition of Jacques Bernier’s bibliographic skills to those of
Charles Roland attest—to enlarge the content of French-language
material. The two volumes complement each other admirably, and, taken
together, represent the most comprehensive listing of secondary sources
in Canadian medical history currently available, in both print and
electronic form.

Like the first volume, this one considers a wide scope of materials,
including books, chapters, journal and magazine articles, pamphlets,
brochures, and theses. The definition of “Canada” takes in New
France, British North America, and the Hudson’s Bay Company
territories, while “Canadian” encompasses all relevant activity by
Canadians both inside and outside the country, as, for example, in the
case of medical missionaries overseas. Likewise, the term “medical”
is broadly delineated, but the editors note that they have listed only a
few general works on such cognate fields as dentistry, physiotherapy,
and pharmacy—rather a curious omission given that the historical
analysis of these fields is itself fairly limited.

The above is merely a quibble, however, and the work of Roland and
Bernier, as this volume testifies, will do much to encourage the further
development of Canadian medical historiography. All further
bibliographic efforts pertinent to the maintenance and expansion of this
database will henceforth be conducted by noted medical archivist Barbara
Craig at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information Studies,
so that we can look forward to ongoing, timely updates.