A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
History
A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
having passed his examination before the Faculty of Physicians and
Surgeons of Glasgow, he returned to Dundee and married Margaret
McDonald, the only daughter of Duncan McDonald, a well-known
manufacturer of that town, and Margaret Rose, his wife. To Miss McDonald
he had been betrothed for several years. He then became house surgeon in
the Dundee Royal Infirmary, and having filled this position for about
two years, gave it up, and entered into private practice, his office
being in the same house in which he was born and married. In 1843 Dr.
Wanless, accompanied by his wife, mother, brother, and sisters, with
their husbands, emigrated to Canada, and ultimately settled in London,
Ontario. While in this city the doctor built up a good practice, and as
coroner for the city of London and county of Middlesex he was highly
spoken of by the press for the luminous and logical way in which he
presented evidence to his jurors. In 1849 he received his license from
the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Lower Canada. One day, in
1859, as he was walking along a street in London to visit a patient, he
observed Dr. Bull, a homœopathist, give some pellets to a man who had
fallen out of a two-story window. Having a prejudice against homœopathy,
he accosted Dr. Bull in these words, “Don’t you think shame of yourself
in giving that useless trash to a man in that condition?” Dr. Bull rose
up, in a defensive attitude, and said, “I have always taken you for a
sensible man, and instead of acting as you have done in your
persecutions of us, why don’t you try to test our remedies according to
the law of cure? I will give you some of our books to read, and also
some of our medicines for that purpose.” Dr. Wanless accepted the offer,
and took the books and medicines, thinking that he would be able to
expose what he then thought was a humbug. After studying the principle
of homœopathy for some time he gave the medicines to some of his
patients, strictly according to the principles of homœopathy, beginning
with some cases which had resisted the allopathic treatment under his
own care, and that of some of the ablest men in the country, keeping a
strict account of the symptoms and disease, and the symptoms and
pathogenesy of what the medicine would produce on the healthy body, and
after carefully testing this method of practice for nearly two years, he
found that, instead of persecuting the homœopathists, he would have to
become a homœopathist himself. After thorough conviction of its benefits
to his patients, like Paul with the Christians, and in order to carry
out the practice of homœopathy with more efficiency, he ceased from
practice in London, and devoted himself to renewed study at the age of
fifty years, and obtained the degree of Bachelor of Medicine from the
University of Toronto in 1861, and the degree of Doctor in Medicine from
the same University in the following year, 1862. He then, in order to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account