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Montréal au temps du grand fléau
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
321 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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55 people want to read
About the author
Michael Bliss
38 books22 followersMichael Bliss was a Canadian historian. He was an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a member of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 6, 2023
In this volume first published in 1991, Michael Bliss, one of Canada’s most respected historians (1941-2017), provides a fascinating and detailed history of the last great smallpox epidemic in Canada. It is written in a way that feels more like a story than a dryly presented history of the terrible epidemic that broke out in Montreal in the mid-1880s. It holds many lessens, especially as we grapple with today’s challenges of new emerging viruses such as COVID-19.
In describing this slice of history, Bliss uses the clear, very precise language of an historian, with extensive notes, footnotes and a bibliography to ground his narrative. What emerges are the common problems societies face as they attempt to prevent the spread of communicable disease: the case for and against mandated vaccinations, the issue of precautions and whether they can be enforced, and the policies for workplaces, travel, schools and common gathering spaces. His work also points out how this outbreak, in a province with a rapidly growing city in which two different cultural populations were already living together uneasily, were affected differently. English Canadians and French Canadians reacted differently to the outbreak and that resulted in long standing societal and political ramifications in the years that followed.
Bliss begins the work by describing Montreal in the 1800s. The streets that surrounded the gentle slope of Mount Royal housed many of the wealthy mostly Protestant Anglophones. To the South, the thriving ports on the river housed the working poor, filled for the most part, with Catholic French Canadians who lived in overcrowded tenements. At this time, the French were a clear majority in the city and their voters dominated Montreal politics, while commerce, the press and the arts were dominated by the English. To outsiders, the city itself was as English as it was French, and many who lived in the city lived comfortably without ever having to speak French. Most of Montreal’s French and Irish were Roman Catholic, while the English were split among several Protestant denominations. The Catholics and Protestants each had their own schools, hospitals, asylums and cemeteries.
Montreal was a large commercial metropolis, with a busy port serving international markets and busy downtown offices, but it was also dirty and smelly, especially in summer. Many of the streets were not yet cobblestoned or paved, just dirt paths that became noxious mud when it rained as the city was not well drained. Animal excrement, human feces and garbage lay everywhere in the dirt lanes, alleys and vacant lots. The river was also used as a convenient spot to get rid of household trash and factory refuse. Yet this was a progressive time and Montreal was considered a commercial and industrial giant within Canada, while out in the far reaches of Canada’s western frontier, a Metis rebellion led by Louis Riel was in progress. Riel was a potent symbol for French Canadians, a French speaking, French blooded and Catholic rebel who fought his oppressors. Bliss suggests that the execution of Riel and the smallpox epidemic were two phenomena that drove English and French Montrealers apart and had far wide political implications later in Canadian history.
The smallpox plagued that occurred in Montreal in the mid-1880s, raged over a period of approximately nine months. Bliss describes how the city was forced through a transition as modernity challenged tradition. The French, already armed with a healthy mistrust of their colonial authorities, remained indifferent to the dangers of contagion and resisted vaccination and isolation. It deteriorated into a riot in September of 1885, when the city tried to impose compulsory vaccinations. A mob of over 2,000 began a rampage through the streets, smashed windows of pharmacies carrying the vaccine and damaged the homes of physicians who supported vaccination. The rioters then moved on to City Hall and hurled rocks at the windows, while used clubs and shots were fired. The mob was not put down until the early hours of the morning, leaving two dead, hundreds injured and thousands of dollars of property damage.
The outbreak had begun in February of 1885, when a porter on the Grand Trunk Railroad arrived in the city from Chicago and sought treatment in the city. By the time the spread of the disease ended, it had taken the lives of at least 3,000 in the city, another 3,000 in the suburbs and disfigured thousands. Most of the deaths were French Canadians and more than half were children under the age of six. It was a disease that was fatal and hopeless to treat, but could be controlled by vaccination, a long held and widespread practice originally developed by Edward Jenner in England in 1796. While most of the English-speaking population rushed out to be vaccinated, many French Canadians, either because of fear, ignorance or fatalism, refused vaccination and when their children died, accepted it as the will of God.
Bliss fills in the details of how medical knowledge was challenged by religious ideology, ethnic nationalism and the closed minds of those who did not believe in science. He describes the evolution of a public health disaster, giving detailed descriptions of the horrific conditions in the small pox hospitals and the dilapidated small homes where the poor lived in large families with little sanitation and guarded their diseased family members from being removed by sanitation workers.
Some believe Bliss’s theory of why the French were affected more than the English as oversimplified and misplaced. Their view is that the poor, mostly French Canadians, had for years been voicing concerns about sanitation in the city. Waste disposal and sewer management presented prominent health hazards, but health authorities had showed little concern for housing conditions in working class neighborhoods. French Canadians already harbored distrust of their city government, over-represented by the English, and were angry these long-standing problems were not addressed. Their distrust of public health preceded the arrival of small pox in the city and their rejection of vaccination. Those backing this theory believe it was because French Canadians did not have the resources to fight the disease, that they were more vulnerable and represented a greater proportion of the deaths.
The wariness of many French Canadians came from their broader distrust of government and the English-speaking elites. Some believe this entire piece of Quebec history holds the roots of the separatist movement, most prevalent in Quebec from 1950-2000. It is a thought-provoking theory as English and French had long struggled to maintain a state of uneasy co-existence.
This is an insightful and well-informed look at an historic event that took the lives of many and could have been prevented. The epidemic turned French against English, Protestants against Catholics and the rich against the poor. It clearly shows the parallels between that epidemic and our current struggle with the coronavirus, tackling the issues of forced quarantine, mandatory vaccinations, paid sick leave, limits on travel, the delayed opening of schools and an inability to enforce public health measures. Although religion is less a factor in modern times, it appears the media has replaced it in fueling fear and keeping the controversy front and center. So many years later, what we now call “vaccine hesitancy” rather than “refusal to vaccinate” is still present, with issues of class and religion, ethnic and racial identity, the competing cultures of the various news media, the claims of science and the counter claims of charlatans.
This was an engaging read, as Bliss is able to bring his meticulous research to life with a narrative that makes this book easy to read. As an interesting aside, many will recognize the names of prominent Canadians throughout the book.
In describing this slice of history, Bliss uses the clear, very precise language of an historian, with extensive notes, footnotes and a bibliography to ground his narrative. What emerges are the common problems societies face as they attempt to prevent the spread of communicable disease: the case for and against mandated vaccinations, the issue of precautions and whether they can be enforced, and the policies for workplaces, travel, schools and common gathering spaces. His work also points out how this outbreak, in a province with a rapidly growing city in which two different cultural populations were already living together uneasily, were affected differently. English Canadians and French Canadians reacted differently to the outbreak and that resulted in long standing societal and political ramifications in the years that followed.
Bliss begins the work by describing Montreal in the 1800s. The streets that surrounded the gentle slope of Mount Royal housed many of the wealthy mostly Protestant Anglophones. To the South, the thriving ports on the river housed the working poor, filled for the most part, with Catholic French Canadians who lived in overcrowded tenements. At this time, the French were a clear majority in the city and their voters dominated Montreal politics, while commerce, the press and the arts were dominated by the English. To outsiders, the city itself was as English as it was French, and many who lived in the city lived comfortably without ever having to speak French. Most of Montreal’s French and Irish were Roman Catholic, while the English were split among several Protestant denominations. The Catholics and Protestants each had their own schools, hospitals, asylums and cemeteries.
Montreal was a large commercial metropolis, with a busy port serving international markets and busy downtown offices, but it was also dirty and smelly, especially in summer. Many of the streets were not yet cobblestoned or paved, just dirt paths that became noxious mud when it rained as the city was not well drained. Animal excrement, human feces and garbage lay everywhere in the dirt lanes, alleys and vacant lots. The river was also used as a convenient spot to get rid of household trash and factory refuse. Yet this was a progressive time and Montreal was considered a commercial and industrial giant within Canada, while out in the far reaches of Canada’s western frontier, a Metis rebellion led by Louis Riel was in progress. Riel was a potent symbol for French Canadians, a French speaking, French blooded and Catholic rebel who fought his oppressors. Bliss suggests that the execution of Riel and the smallpox epidemic were two phenomena that drove English and French Montrealers apart and had far wide political implications later in Canadian history.
The smallpox plagued that occurred in Montreal in the mid-1880s, raged over a period of approximately nine months. Bliss describes how the city was forced through a transition as modernity challenged tradition. The French, already armed with a healthy mistrust of their colonial authorities, remained indifferent to the dangers of contagion and resisted vaccination and isolation. It deteriorated into a riot in September of 1885, when the city tried to impose compulsory vaccinations. A mob of over 2,000 began a rampage through the streets, smashed windows of pharmacies carrying the vaccine and damaged the homes of physicians who supported vaccination. The rioters then moved on to City Hall and hurled rocks at the windows, while used clubs and shots were fired. The mob was not put down until the early hours of the morning, leaving two dead, hundreds injured and thousands of dollars of property damage.
The outbreak had begun in February of 1885, when a porter on the Grand Trunk Railroad arrived in the city from Chicago and sought treatment in the city. By the time the spread of the disease ended, it had taken the lives of at least 3,000 in the city, another 3,000 in the suburbs and disfigured thousands. Most of the deaths were French Canadians and more than half were children under the age of six. It was a disease that was fatal and hopeless to treat, but could be controlled by vaccination, a long held and widespread practice originally developed by Edward Jenner in England in 1796. While most of the English-speaking population rushed out to be vaccinated, many French Canadians, either because of fear, ignorance or fatalism, refused vaccination and when their children died, accepted it as the will of God.
Bliss fills in the details of how medical knowledge was challenged by religious ideology, ethnic nationalism and the closed minds of those who did not believe in science. He describes the evolution of a public health disaster, giving detailed descriptions of the horrific conditions in the small pox hospitals and the dilapidated small homes where the poor lived in large families with little sanitation and guarded their diseased family members from being removed by sanitation workers.
Some believe Bliss’s theory of why the French were affected more than the English as oversimplified and misplaced. Their view is that the poor, mostly French Canadians, had for years been voicing concerns about sanitation in the city. Waste disposal and sewer management presented prominent health hazards, but health authorities had showed little concern for housing conditions in working class neighborhoods. French Canadians already harbored distrust of their city government, over-represented by the English, and were angry these long-standing problems were not addressed. Their distrust of public health preceded the arrival of small pox in the city and their rejection of vaccination. Those backing this theory believe it was because French Canadians did not have the resources to fight the disease, that they were more vulnerable and represented a greater proportion of the deaths.
The wariness of many French Canadians came from their broader distrust of government and the English-speaking elites. Some believe this entire piece of Quebec history holds the roots of the separatist movement, most prevalent in Quebec from 1950-2000. It is a thought-provoking theory as English and French had long struggled to maintain a state of uneasy co-existence.
This is an insightful and well-informed look at an historic event that took the lives of many and could have been prevented. The epidemic turned French against English, Protestants against Catholics and the rich against the poor. It clearly shows the parallels between that epidemic and our current struggle with the coronavirus, tackling the issues of forced quarantine, mandatory vaccinations, paid sick leave, limits on travel, the delayed opening of schools and an inability to enforce public health measures. Although religion is less a factor in modern times, it appears the media has replaced it in fueling fear and keeping the controversy front and center. So many years later, what we now call “vaccine hesitancy” rather than “refusal to vaccinate” is still present, with issues of class and religion, ethnic and racial identity, the competing cultures of the various news media, the claims of science and the counter claims of charlatans.
This was an engaging read, as Bliss is able to bring his meticulous research to life with a narrative that makes this book easy to read. As an interesting aside, many will recognize the names of prominent Canadians throughout the book.
August 10, 2022
It’s a good book, a great book even, but using the phrase “People not far from stone-age cultures…” in 1991 kills it for me.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews