{"title":"L'abaissement de la cataracte : analyse des temporalités de la fin d'une pratique chirurgicale.","authors":"Corinne Doria","doi":"10.3138/cjhh.747-042025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhh.747-042025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article analyzes developments in cataract surgery in France during the 18<sup>th</sup> and 19<sup>th</sup> centuries. It examines the various phases that led to the abandonment of the traditional technique of couching the crystalline lens in favor of extraction. This study questions the role of French surgeon Jacques Daviel (1696-1762) and argues that the shift away from the traditional method was driven not by the superiority of the new technique, but by its association with the emancipation of surgery from medicine in the eighteenth century and the challenges surrounding the recognition of ophthalmology as a medical specialty in the following century.</p>","PeriodicalId":520244,"journal":{"name":"Canadian journal of health history = Revue canadienne d'histoire de la sante","volume":"43 1","pages":"1-29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149229706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Temps, gestes et mots à l'Hospice Gamelin : une histoire de la relation de soin aux personnes âgées (Montréal, 1894-1921).","authors":"Sophie Richelle","doi":"10.3138/cjhh.745-042025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhh.745-042025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In Quebec during the 19<sup>th</sup> and 20<sup>th</sup> centuries, care for the elderly was predominantly provided by Catholics. This observation is not new, but it requires further clarification. What experiences of old age can be discerned through the care relationships between the elderly and the nuns who cared for them? What moments, actions, and words characterize this relationship? What aspects specific to Quebec emerge from it? Through a case study of the Hospice Gamelin at the turn of the 19<sup>th</sup> and 20<sup>th</sup> centuries (1894-1921), this article aims to enrich our understanding of the history of old age and its care in Quebec. It also reaffirms the heuristic value of focusing on the concept of care in the history of health and aging.</p>","PeriodicalId":520244,"journal":{"name":"Canadian journal of health history = Revue canadienne d'histoire de la sante","volume":"43 1","pages":"66-92"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149229709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"L'émergence de la télécuriéthérapie comme stratégie d'innovation à la Fondation Curie dans les années 20-30.","authors":"Camilla Maiani","doi":"10.3138/cjhh.748-042025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhh.748-042025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>At the Fondation Curie, during the 1920s and 1930s, a new cancer treatment technique emerged: telecurietherapy. At the crossroads between research and treatment, it is considered emblematic of the organization of the fight against cancer conceived by Claudius Regaud, director of the <i>Fondation Curie</i> and the radiophysiology laboratory at the Radium Institute of Paris. The emergence of this technique crystallized the political and economic stakes of a search for medical innovation, aimed at placing the <i>Fondation Curie</i> at the forefront of the fight against cancer in France. In the 1920s, telecurietherapy in medicine required the establishment of complex relationships with industry, public authorities, and patrons. Regaud had to become all the more scientific and diplomatic since telecurietherapy would compete with another technique for the treatment of deep-seated cancers: roentgen therapy. How did he justify this? What context allowed the development of this technique? Did it meet Regaud's expectations?</p>","PeriodicalId":520244,"journal":{"name":"Canadian journal of health history = Revue canadienne d'histoire de la sante","volume":"43 1","pages":"126-156"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149229679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Cure for Heat: Environmental Pathologies and Technological Empiricism in British India.","authors":"Dustin Valen","doi":"10.3138/cjhh.731-112024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhh.731-112024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article discusses the co-evolution of nineteenth-century environmental medicine and climate control in British India, as fear of climatic changes spurred technological empiricism and the medicalization of building interiors. Rather than alleviating Europeans' fear of hot climates, a suspected source of disease according to environmental theories of morbidity, architectural-medical technologies imposed strict bodily and building regimes in their stead. Thermantidotes are a case in point. Combining fans with wetted, woven mats to produce evaporative cooling, thermantidotes were championed by medical writers for their ability to mitigate the effects of hot climates. However, when the technology failed to curb the spread of contagions among white settlers, medical writers responded by identifying new threats and prescribing strict behaviour to prevent exposure to climatic changes. These bodily habits were reflected in colonial building culture, whose darkened rooms and labour needs highlight the instrumentality of medical technologies in solidifying and spatializing imperial authority.</p>","PeriodicalId":520244,"journal":{"name":"Canadian journal of health history = Revue canadienne d'histoire de la sante","volume":"43 1","pages":"30-65"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149229735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Erika Dyck, Jim Clifford, Derek Cameron, Patrick Chassé, Fionnuala Braun, Nazeem Muhajarine
{"title":"Pandemic Politics: Developing Vaccines in Canada's Anti-vax Heartland.","authors":"Erika Dyck, Jim Clifford, Derek Cameron, Patrick Chassé, Fionnuala Braun, Nazeem Muhajarine","doi":"10.3138/cjhh.726-102024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhh.726-102024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The COVID-19 pandemic in Saskatchewan is a story of extremes. Through most of 2020, low case numbers, effective policy, and broad agreement among government officials, health care workers, and the public sustained a consensus that strict measures and vaccination offered the best responses; however, that consensus collapsed. The province shifted from a focal point for Canadian vaccine development to a staging ground for an anti-vaccine movement that took root on social media and then in street protests. Premier Scott Moe moved from a pro-vaccine, pro-consensus stance to a confrontational position questioning federal policies, public health measures, and vaccines. Combining traditional news sources, social media, and interviews with residents and VIDO-InterVac researchers, we track this shift. We argue that the pandemic fostered unmoderated social media discourse that overwhelmed collective responses, shaped health policies, and politicized vaccines as pro-government. Influencers inflated the movement's threat and aligned vaccine uptake to trust in science, with significant political consequences.</p>","PeriodicalId":520244,"journal":{"name":"Canadian journal of health history = Revue canadienne d'histoire de la sante","volume":"43 1","pages":"157-187"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149229725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Aspirin in Canada: The First Quarter-Century.","authors":"Jan McTavish","doi":"10.3138/cjhh.687-022024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhh.687-022024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Aspirin (ASA) was a state-of-the-art prescription drug introduced in 1899 by Bayer of Germany that also became a very popular household remedy. Bayer owned the trade name and could sue for infringement. When World War I started, Canadians hoped to produce ASA locally and call it aspirin, but Ottawa would not cancel the trademark. In the United States, American law gave the trade name to the public after the patent expired (1917), because there was no other name for the public to use. By the end of the war, the US factories were making \"aspirin\" freely and selling it to Canada, where aspirin production was stillborn. The Canadian trademark was cancelled (1923), but the Supreme Court, honouring priority of ownership, restored Aspirin to Bayer in 1924. The career of Aspirin and the dispute over its names foreshadow the trajectory of the pharmaceutical industry in this country: Canada became and has largely remained a producer of generic drugs and host to subsidiaries of companies headquartered elsewhere -including Bayer, which is once again a German firm. It is why we spell Aspirin with a capital A.</p>","PeriodicalId":520244,"journal":{"name":"Canadian journal of health history = Revue canadienne d'histoire de la sante","volume":"43 1","pages":"93-125"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149229676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Letters of Jean Jefferson Penfield and Wilder Penfield: Two Readings.","authors":"Annmarie Adams, Delia Gavrus","doi":"10.3138/cjhh.702-062024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhh.702-062024","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":520244,"journal":{"name":"Canadian journal of health history = Revue canadienne d'histoire de la sante","volume":"42 2","pages":"396-398"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145829758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Au-delà de la maternité sociale : les femmes médecins de Chine du Sud et la redéfinition du modèle professionnel féminin au début du XX<sup>e</sup> siècle.","authors":"Kim Girouard","doi":"10.3138/cjhh.697-052024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhh.697-052024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>By examining the path taken by the graduates of the Hackett Medical College for Women in Guangzhou, this article reveals that the experience of Chinese women doctors in the early twentieth century goes beyond the model of social motherhood. Although their professional career was framed by gendered norms, which oriented their medical practice towards the field of maternal and child health, as well as towards the private sector, they did not necessarily turn their back on marriage and family to devote themselves to the care of others. Rather, they approached medicine in a way that reconciled their professional and personal aspirations, perhaps even capitalizing on their status as wives and mothers to establish their authority and develop their practice. They have thus reshaped the female professional model supposed to define and justify their presence in the public space and within the medical profession.</p>","PeriodicalId":520244,"journal":{"name":"Canadian journal of health history = Revue canadienne d'histoire de la sante","volume":"42 2","pages":"319-336"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145829765","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mothercraft, \"Clean\" Midwifery, and Child Care: \"Scientific\" Motherhood Advice at Health Exhibitions in Colonial Bengal.","authors":"Ranjana Saha","doi":"10.3138/cjhh.705-062024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhh.705-062024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study examines \"scientific\" mothercraft child healthcare advice from public health exhibitions (child welfare, baby week, and health week) in colonial India, with a particular focus on Bengal, mainly Calcutta. I analyze \"expert\" advice about mothering and midwifery given by famous figures such as the Bengali nationalist <i>daktar</i> Sundari Mohan Das at the Health and Child Welfare exhibition in colonial Calcutta in 1920, as well reports from public health exhibits in the region. The first section of this paper shows how baby and health week exhibitions directed public health education particularly to mothers and upheld the middle-class values on which both mothercraft and nationalism were predicated. The following two sections examine child feeding, hygiene, and midwifery. I argue that in colonial India engagement with Western medicine did not solely objectify the colonized but also allowed their agency and identity formation. These public health exhibitions can offer historians a significant entry point into transnational child health histories, illustrating how ideas and practices circulated widely in the early twentieth century and were taken up locally in specific ways.</p>","PeriodicalId":520244,"journal":{"name":"Canadian journal of health history = Revue canadienne d'histoire de la sante","volume":"42 2","pages":"362-395"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145829783","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unearthing Mother-Midwives: Black Women's Hidden Legacy in Canadian Maternal Care.","authors":"Hirut Melaku, Karen Flynn, Karline Wilson-Mitchell, Emily McPherson","doi":"10.3138/cjhh.711-072024","DOIUrl":"10.3138/cjhh.711-072024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Scholarship on Black women in the Americas has articulated the historical importance of maternal newborn care and reproductive healthcare as crucial factors shaping the experiences of women and pubescent girls. As part of the \"economics of slavery,\" Black women were forced into childbearing and were denied the opportunity to mother their children. Some enslaved women were forced to breastfeed the children of their enslavers, helping to raise them. Some mothers also witnessed their children being sold, tearing their families apart. Enslaved and free Black women on and off plantations acquired midwifery skills informally because their families were often denied access to medical care. Despite Black women's presence on traditional Indigenous territories for centuries in what became Canada, midwifery, maternal, and overall holistic care work performed by Black women is rarely documented. Indeed, when Black women's relationship with babies and children is discussed, it is often as domestic workers caring for middle-class white women's children during the beginning and the middle of the twentieth century. The central question guiding this article is this: Based on the paucity of sources, what do we know about Black women's maternal experiences and midwifery skill set in the Canadian context? Drawing on Black Canadian feminist theorizing and cultural theorist Saidiya Hartman's notion of \"critical fabulation,\" this paper seeks to explore how maternal healthcare and midwifery skills served as sites of racially gendered oppression and simultaneously how Black women's healing and midwifery skills served as vital familial, community, and racialized resistance from the colonial period to the beginning of the twentieth century.</p>","PeriodicalId":520244,"journal":{"name":"Canadian journal of health history = Revue canadienne d'histoire de la sante","volume":"42 2","pages":"254-294"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145829793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}