COMMUNITY H EALTH

DOCTORS, NURSES, AND MIDWIVES

The most highly respected citizens of rural Prince Edward Island included the country doctors. When serious illness occurred, day or night, the doctor was sent for. The territory they covered was large, and travelling conditions, parti- cularly in the winter were poor. The doctor often travelled many miles under

adverse conditions to assist at a difficult birth or to perform an operation on the kitchen table.

To follow the call of a doctor’s life required great dedication. The general practitioner was expected to be a skilled physician, surgeon, and sometimes pharmacist. The closest hospital was in Charlottetown and although apothecaries were situated in Souris and Montague, the doctor often formulated his own medicines with mortar and pestle.

Preventive medicine was not widely practiced. The doctor often faced dealing with a wild fire epidemic sweeping the countryside. During these times the doctor got little or no rest as he tended to his patients. Elizabeth Stewart, Mon- tague recalled that during the flu epidemic of the winter of 1905, Dr. Morris was forced to travel through storms and deep drifts so severe that he had to change to a fresh horse every four or five miles. The first Doctor in our area was Dr. Thomas C. Clay who arrived about 1850.

The country doctor remembered most vividly by the older people of the communities seems to be Dr. Daniel E. Morris. He located in Dundas in 1896 and was said to be successful to an unusual degree as a doctor. He served central Kings County and is still referred to with great respect by his patients. Although he was not, as was any country doctor, paid with cash, he certainly had his income supplemented with high regard of his consideration for people. This is perhaps best documented in the poem written by Mrs. Dan Morris, Poplar Point. Verse three was an incident related by James N. Banks, Poplar Point, and verse four by Joseph A. Morrison, Launching.

The Doctor Man

There came to us a doctor-man whose story i will tell;

His name was Dr. Daniel Morris, ’Twas in Dundas he did dwell.

He tended sick both day and night, He ne’er refused a call.

He labored forty years for us Because he loved us all.

in every house for miles around We all became his care;

He ushered all the babies in And helped the old folks bear

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