Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T02:39:58.519Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“To Create a Strong and Healthy Race”: School Children in the Public Health Movement, 1880–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Neil Sutherland
Neil Sutherland*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

BETWEEN THE 1880s and the 1920s a growing band of English Canadians created and began to test a new consensus on the situation of the child in their society. In the four major dimensions of their enterprise they worked to change the nature and improve the quality of family life, to establish new systems of child and family welfare, to transform Canadian education, and to organize child and family health care. Of these reform efforts the public health movement had the most immediate, the least ambiguous, and the most accurately measurable positive effects on the lives of Canadian children.

Type
The Child, the Family, and the State
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 12 , Issue 3: Education and Social Change in English-Speaking Canada. , Fall 1972 , pp. 304 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 by New York University 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. I examine this reform movement as a whole in my forthcoming Ph.D. dissertation, “Children in English-Canadian Society: Framing the Twentieth Century Consensus” (Minnesota, 1973). See also my article “The Urban Child,” History of Education Quarterly, 9 (Fall 1969): 305–11.Google Scholar

2. Bryce, Peter H., “History of Public Health in Canada,“ Canadian Therapeutist and Sanitary Engineer 1 (June 1910): 278–91.Google Scholar

3. Ibid., p. 290; see also Bryce, Peter H., “The Story of Public Health in Canada“ in A Half Century of Public Health: Jubilee Historical Volume of the American Public Health Association, ed. Ravenel, Mazÿck P., (New York, 1921), pp. 56–66.Google Scholar

4. Defries, R. D., ed., The Development of Public Health in Canada: A Review of the History and Organization of the Public Health in the Provinces of Canada, with an Outline of the Present Organization of the National Health Section of the Department of National Pensions and National Health, Canada (Toronto, 1940), pp. 15, 35, 49, 56, 67, 90, 101, 115, 131. For the background to the Ontario legislation, see Bryce, “History of Public Health,” pp. 287–90, and Splane, R. D., Social Welfare in Ontario, 1791–1893: A Study of Public Welfare Administration (Toronto, 1965), p. 199. For an account of the English Public Health Act of 1875, see Frazer, W. M., A History of English Public Health, 1834–1939 (London, 1950), pp. 114–25.Google Scholar

5. Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1883, p. xlvi.Google Scholar

6. Ibid., 1891, p. 38.Google Scholar

7. See, for example, Victoria Colonist, April 13, 1897, p. 8, and May 14, 1897, p. 8.Google Scholar

8. Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1898, pp. 68–75; Toronto Globe, May 2, 1900, p. 7, and May 4, 1900, p. 12.Google Scholar

9. Jost, A. C., “The Conservation of Child Life,“ P.H.J., 11 (November 1920): 503–12.Google Scholar

10. Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1887, pp. iii–v.Google Scholar

11. New Westminster British Columbian, March 14, 1885. See also Victoria Colonist, October 17, 1891, p. 1, British Columbian May 11, 1894, p. 3, Colonist, January 8, 1900, p. 4, and Toronto Globe, June 19, 1900, p. 12.Google Scholar

12. Ontario, Board of Health, Report, 1885, pp. 29–34.Google Scholar

13. Ibid., 1887, p. v; ibid., 1888, pp. iv–vi.Google Scholar

14. British Columbian, June 3, 1892, p. 4.Google Scholar

15. P.H.J., 2 (April 1911): 184.Google Scholar

16. Ibid., 2 (May 1911): 221; ibid., 3 (May 1912): 249–55.Google Scholar

17. Saskatchewan Bureau of Public Health, Report, 1919–1920, p. 8. For an account of the legal status of compulsory vaccination, see Bargen, Peter Frank, The Legal Status of the Canadian Public School Pupil (Toronto, 1961), p. 79.Google Scholar

18. See, for example, Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1882, pp. 168–76; ibid., 1883, pp. xlv, 400–8.Google Scholar

19. See, for example, ibid., 1883, pp. xlvi, 242–43; ibid., 1890, pp. xiii–xvi, lxxxix–xcvii; British Columbian, April 9, 1892, p. 4.Google Scholar

20. Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1883, pp. 242–43.Google Scholar

21. Rosen, George, A History of Public Health (New York, 1958), pp. 344–403.Google Scholar

22. Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1892, p. 19; ibid., 1891, p. 1.Google Scholar

23. Ibid., 1892, p. 19.Google Scholar

24. Privy Council Medical Research Council, Diphtheria: Its Bacteriology, Pathology and Immunology (London, 1923), pp. 44–63, 126–29, 232–35; Winslow, C.-E., The Life of Hermann M. Biggs: Physician and Statesman of the Public Health (Philadelphia, 1929), pp. 102–30; Rosen, History of Public Health, pp. 319–20, 333–36; and Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1890, pp. lvii–lxii.Google Scholar

25. Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1901, p. 8.Google Scholar

26. Ibid., 1890, p. lxxviii; Defries, Development of Public Health in Canada, pp. 77–88.Google Scholar

27. Medical Research Council, Diphtheria, pp. 61–62.Google Scholar

28. Biggs, Hermann, “The Development of Research Laboratories,“ New York Department of Health, Monthly Bulletin 1 (March 1911): 54–56.Google Scholar

29. See, for example, Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1899, p. 12.Google Scholar

30. Mullin, R. H., “Recent Advances in the Control of Diphtheria,“ Canadian Medical Association Journal 14 (May 1924): 398–406.Google Scholar

31. Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1903, p. 46.Google Scholar

32. Ibid., 1901, p. 93.Google Scholar

33. Ibid., 1903, p. 48.Google Scholar

34. In a crude comparison of home versus hospital treatment Bryce demonstrated this fact as early as 1903. Ibid., 1903, p. 52. See also the much more accurate confirmation of the efficacy of hospital treatment in Toronto between 1912 and 1919 in Mullin, “Recent Advances.”Google Scholar

35. Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1920, pp. 37–38; Defries, Development of Public Health in Canada, pp. 77–88.Google Scholar

36. Saskatchewan Bureau of Public Health, Report, 1917–1918, p. 17.Google Scholar

37. Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1920, p. 167.Google Scholar

38. Medical Research Council, Diphtheria, pp. 349–61.Google Scholar

39. See, for example, Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1921, p. 204.Google Scholar

40. Ibid., 1920, p. 37.Google Scholar

41. Urquhart, M. C. and Buckley, K. A. H., eds., Historical Statistics of Canada (Toronto, 1965), p. 45.Google Scholar

42. Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1901, pp. 110–11.Google Scholar

43. Ibid., p. 6; see also ibid., 1899, pp. 72–74.Google Scholar

44. Rosen, , History of Public Health, p. 365.Google Scholar

45. Frazer, , English Public Health, p. 257.Google Scholar

46. Ibid., pp. 256–58, 323–24.Google Scholar

47. Rosen, , History of Public Health, p. 366.Google Scholar

48. Winslow, , Biggs, p. 157.Google Scholar

49. Ibid., p. 186.Google Scholar

50. Struthers, Lina Rogers, The School Nurse: A Survey of the Duties and Responsibilities of the Nurse in the Maintenance of Health and Physical Perfection and the Prevention of Disease Among School Children (New York, 1917), pp. 17–18.Google Scholar

51. Winslow, , Biggs, p. 193.Google Scholar

52. Ibid., pp. 214–15.Google Scholar

53. Ibid., p. 215; for a more detailed account of the work of the Division of Child Hygiene, see “Division of Child Hygiene,” New York Department of Health Monthly Bulletin 1 (January 1911): 14–16, and Lederle, Ernst J., “The Needs of the Department of Health,“ ibid., 1 (October 1911): 236–37.Google Scholar

54. Russell Sage Foundation, What American Cities are Doing for the Health of School Children: Report Covering Conditions in 1038 Cities (New York, 1911). The report was summarized for Canadians in P.H.J., 2 (September 1911): 433.Google Scholar

55. Ontario, , Sessional Papers, 1907 no. 62, pp. 23–26; Kerr, James and Wallis, E. W., eds., Transactions of the Second International Congress on School Hygiene, London, 1907, 3 vols. (London, 1908); Maloine, A., ed., Ille Congrès International D'Hygiene Scolaire, Paris, 2–7 Aout, 1910, 3 (Paris, 1911), p. 9.Google Scholar

56. Auden, George A., “School Inspection and the Public Health Service,“ P.H.J., 2 (May 1911): 207–10. See also Guest, L. Haden, “Poverty and School Clinics,” ibid., 2 (July 1911): 317–19; Guest, L. Haden, “School Clinics,” ibid., 4 (May 1913): 272–77.Google Scholar

57. International Congress of Women, Report of the International Congress of Women, held in Toronto, Canada, June 24–30, 1909, 2 vols. (Toronto, 1910), 2:57.Google Scholar

58. Commission of Conservation, Report, 1910, p. 132.Google Scholar

59. P.H.J., 2 (June 1911): 276.Google Scholar

60. Adams, J. G., Bryce, to P. H., February 10, 1896, quoted in National Council of Women [hereafter cited as N.C.W.], Yearbook, 1896, p. 463; Webster, A. E., “Status of Dentistry,” Dominion Dental Journal [hereafter cited as D.D.J.] 22 (December 1910): 571–607.Google Scholar

61. N.C.W., Yearbook, 1896, pp. 35, 41–42, 457–70; Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1896, pp. 76–82; Colonist, July 25, 1896, p. 8.Google Scholar

62. Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1896, pp. 80–82.Google Scholar

63. N.C.W., Yearbook, 1896, p. 459.Google Scholar

64. Ibid., pp. 49–50, 457–60, 469–70.Google Scholar

65. Ibid., p. 467.Google Scholar

66. Vancouver School Board, Report, 1903, p. 17.Google Scholar

67. Laberge, J. Edouard, “Inspection médicale des maisons d'éducation,“ Bulletin Sanitaire 9 (1909): 117–24.Google Scholar

68. P.H.J., 5 (February and March 1914): 91–98, 150–60.Google Scholar

69. While the P.H.J. did not list William, Fort, the National Council of Women's Public Health Committee in 1911 noted it as one of a number of communities where medical inspection was under way (N.C.W., Yearbook, 1911, pp. 43–47).Google Scholar

70. See also Ravenhill, Alice, “The Health of Public School Children in British Columbia,“ The Child 4 (June 1914): 697–99.Google Scholar

71. N.C.W., Yearbook, 1910, pp. i–ii.Google Scholar

72. Steven, Edward Miller, Medical Supervision in Schools: Being An Account of the Systems at Work in Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Germany, and Switzerland (London, 1910), pp. 182–83.Google Scholar

73. Ibid.Google Scholar

74. Wood, Alfred, “The Largest Sick Children's Hospital in the World,“ Canadian Magazine 12 (February 1899): 314–18; Toronto Evening Telegram, December 20, 1909, p. 18; Toronto Globe, June 1, 1918, pp. 5, 7; “Robertson, John Ross, “ in Middleton, J. E., The Municipality of Toronto: A History (Toronto and New York, 1923), pp. 57–58.Google Scholar

75. Evening Telegram, January 14, 1910, p. 18; Globe, January 28, 1910, p. 14.Google Scholar

76. Globe, February 25, 1910, p. 16; Evening Telegram, February 25, 1910, p. 10.Google Scholar

77. Carter, Bruce N., “James L. Hughes and the Gospel of Education: A Study of the Work and Thought of a Nineteenth-Century Canadian Educator“ (Ed.D. diss., University of Toronto, 1966), p. 360.Google Scholar

78. P.H.J., 2 (December 1911): 588–89.Google Scholar

79. Browne, Jean, “School Nursing in Regina,“ P.H.J., 5 (February 1914): 91–92; “Medical Inspection of Schools in the Middle West,” ibid., pp. 94–95; “Medical Inspection of Schools in Ontario,” ibid., 5 (March 1914): 159–60.Google Scholar

80. “Medical Inspection of Schools in Nova Scotia,” P.H.J., 5 (February 1914): 98.Google Scholar

81. N.C.W., Yearbook, 1912, p. 102; Heagerty, John J., Four Centuries of Medical History (Toronto, 1928), pp. 226–45.Google Scholar

82. Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1910, pp. 148–50.Google Scholar

83. Struthers, , The School Nurse, pp. 132–43; see also Ayres, Leonard P., Open Air Schools (New York, n.d.).Google Scholar

84. Hockin, Daniel, “The Rotary Clinic,“ Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Rotary Club of Vancouver, Canada: 1913–1938 (Vancouver, 1938), pp. 14–15.Google Scholar

85. See, for example, Canada, Department of Health, Handbook of Child Welfare Work in Canada for the Year, March 31, 1922 [hereafter cited as Handbook], ed. MacMurchy, Helen, (Ottawa, 1923), p. 56.Google Scholar

86. P.H.J., 5 (March 1914): 160.Google Scholar

87. Browne, , “School Nursing in Regina,“ pp. 91–93.Google Scholar

88. “Medical Inspection of Schools in British Columbia,” ibid., 5 (March 1914): 150.Google Scholar

89. Ibid., p. 153.Google Scholar

90. Struthers, , The School Nurse, pp. 1–4.Google Scholar

91. “Medical Inspection in Quebec,” P.H.J., 5 (March 1914): 156.Google Scholar

92. Struthers, , The School Nurse, p. 40.Google Scholar

93. P.H.J., 4 (February 1913): 94.Google Scholar

94. “Complimentary dinner to Dowd, John W. by the Toronto Dental Society, Nov. 22, 1910,” D.D.J., 22 (December 1910): 570–600.Google Scholar

95. “Editorial Notes,” D.D.J., 22 (October 1910): 511–12.Google Scholar

96. Dowd, John W., “The Mouth and the Teeth as Factors in Public Health,“ D.D.J., 22 (December 1910): 573.Google Scholar

97. P.H.J., 2 (May 1911): 221.Google Scholar

98. For the origin and development of the oral hygiene crusade, see Hicks, E. B., “Free Examination of School Children's Teeth: What Oral Hygiene Means to Them,“ D.D.J., 22 (October 1910): 460–66; Day, Arthur, “What is Being Done Outside of the Dental Office for the Improvement of the Human Mouth,” P.H.J., 3 (May 1912): 235–39; Dieck, Professor Dr., “The Care of the Teeth of School Children in Germany,” ibid., 4 (June 1913): 366–69, and McCluggage, Robert M., A History of the American Dental Association: A Century of Health Service (Chicago, 1959), pp. 248–53. For what dentists saw as the social implications of their work see the talk by Thornton, Dr. A. W., Toronto, to the Canadian Public Health Association's 1912 meeting entitled “The Dentist as Social Worker,” P.H.J., 3 (September 1912): 524; and Cowan, W. D., “Dental Caries in School Children and Dental Inspection,” ibid., 4 (November 1913): 602–5.Google Scholar

99. See, for example, Stuart, James, “Public School Medical Inspection,“ Canadian Therapeutist 1 (August 1910): 379–81.Google Scholar

100. P.H.J., 3 (April 1912): 222; see also, Kennedy, C. P., “Report on the Mouths and Teeth of the Children in Two Public Schools of Toronto,” D.D.J., 22 (December 1910): 571–72, and Webster, A. E., “Dental Inspection of Two Schools in Toronto,” ibid., pp. 600–4.Google Scholar

101. See, for example, Struthers, The School Nurse, pp. 141–42, 205–25, and Browne, “School Nursing in Regina,” p. 93.Google Scholar

102. British Columbia Board of Health, Report, 1920, p. 15.Google Scholar

103. Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Historical Statistical Survey of Education in Canada (Ottawa, 1921), p. 110.Google Scholar

104. International Congress of Women, Report … 1909, 2:58.Google Scholar

105. P.H.J., 3 (April 1912): 222.Google Scholar

106. Handbook, p. 153.Google Scholar

107. Ibid., pp. 81–82.Google Scholar

108. Vancouver School Board, Report, 1919, p. 39.Google Scholar

109. Ontario Board of Health, Report, 1921, p. 317.Google Scholar

110. Handbook, p. 40.Google Scholar

111. Ibid., p. 78.Google Scholar

112. Brown, Alan, “Problems of the Rural Mother in the Feeding of Her Children,“ P.H.J., 9 (July 1918): 297.Google Scholar

113. See “Children in English-Canadian Society,” pt. 2.Google Scholar