Andrew Fernando Holmes, M.D., LL.D.
1798-1850

The Montreal Medical Institution owed its origin to the Medical Staff of the Montreal General Hospital, which was opened to patients in May, 1822. At that time there were no opportunities in Canada for the obtaining of medical education. Realising the existing and urgent need for such training, certain members of the Hospital Staff gave courses of lectures to students during the winter of 1822-1823. Later, a memorial was forwarded to the Lieutenant-Governor setting forth the necessity for the foundation of a permanent school of medical education, and outlining plans for the establishment and incorporation of the proposed Medical Institution. The reply to this memorial stated that an endeavour would be made to give assistance to a Medical School, and as a result the Montreal Medical Institution was organised. It was opened in October, 1824. Efforts were then made to secure its incorporation, and in 1826 a Charter was drawn up and forwarded through the Lieutenant-Governor to the Solicitor-General for opinion or approval. A delay of several months followed, and it was not until 1828 that a reply was received. The reply was not favourable to the Institution. The Charter was refused for the reasons that the School was not connected with any Seminary of Learning, and that it had no foundation or endowment. No degrees could therefore be conferred and the Institution had no standing in law. Meanwhile the Privy Council had given judgment in favour of the Royal Institution in the first Desrivières suit in connection with the Burnside Estate, as already recorded, and it was clear that a similar judgment in the second suit in connection with the endowment fund was but a question of time. The establishment of McGill College was assured, and arrangements for its opening had already been announced. It naturally occurred to those interested in the Medical Institution that their problems of University connection and of endowment referred to by the Solicitor-General could be solved by “engrafting” the Institution on the proposed McGill College. They accordingly forwarded a memorial to the Government, suggesting that the Lecturers in the Institution be appointed “professors of the University to be established at Burnside near the city.” The Government referred the suggestion to the Board of the Royal Institution to whom formal application was then made by the Medical body. A committee of the Board was appointed to consider the question. The Medical Institution pressed for a decision, and on February 16, 1829, the Secretary wrote to Dr. Holmes, of the Hospital Staff, stating, “The Committee to whom was referred the communication from the Montreal Medical Institution have not, I am sorry to say, yet made their report; but I trust the business will be proceeded in very shortly, and I shall not fail to inform you of the result without delay. Of this be assured that there is every desire on the part of the Board to meet the wishes of the Institution as far as it may be found practicable to do so.”

The Board had in 1824 appointed Dr. Fargues of Quebec Professor of Medicine, but he expressed his willingness to resign in order to leave the Board free to negotiate with the Medical Institution. On April 10th, 1829, the decision of the Board was conveyed to Dr. Holmes, in the following letter:

“Referring to a former communication upon the subject, I lose no time in transmitting to you the following Extract from the Report of a Committee of the Royal Institution, to whom it was referred to consider what measures it may be necessary for the Board to take, on having now obtained possession of the Estate of Burnside.

“The Medical Institution at Montreal, connected at present with the Montreal Hospital, having solicited the aid and protection of the Royal Institution, and expressed a desire to become a branch of McGill College, it is conceived that the gentlemen of that Institution might be willing (in consideration of being so associated with a legally constituted establishment) to execute gratuitously the duties of one or more Professorships in the College, connected with the Faculty of Medicine. The Professorships being limited to four, it is obvious that there can be only one Medical Professor, and I am happy to inform you that Dr. Fargues, having been solicited to resign, has consented to do so with the utmost readiness, and it is accordingly open to the gentlemen of the Montreal Medical Institution to recommend for the consideration of the Governors of the College any one of their members, being a graduate in Medicine, as his successor.”

As a result of this decision the Governors of the College agreed to appoint one of the Lecturers in the Montreal Medical Institution to the Professorship of Medicine vacated by the resignation of Dr. Fargues. Meanwhile there was a misunderstanding between the Governors and the Board over the number of Professors already appointed in 1824. The Charter provided for a Principal and four Professors; the Governors made these appointments, but also made the Principal Honorary Professor of Divinity. The Board contended that five Professorships had thus been created and filled, contrary to the provisions of the Charter. On April 22nd, 1829, Dr. Stephenson wrote to the Board on behalf of the Medical Institution urging that the number of Professorships in the College be increased to enable all the Medical Lecturers to be attached to McGill College. The Secretary replied on May 19th, 1829, as follows:

“Your letter of the 22nd ult., was duly submitted by me to the Board of the Royal Institution, and I am directed to inform you in reply, that the Board having carefully considered the subject, are of opinion that, as the matter actually stands at present, it is not in their power to procure an augmentation of the number of professorships. They conceive, however, that the Medical Professor of the University might deliver Lectures in one particular branch of the Science, and that the other Departments might be conducted by gentlemen, who should be named Lecturers in the College, as is the case with respect to the different branches of Learning and Science, which are taught in the Colleges of the Universities at home. The words of the Charter are evidently restrictive. The College shall 'consist of a Principal and four Professors,' and in this view of the subject the Board are supported by high legal authority. This limitation, for which it is difficult to assign an adequate reason, is much to be regretted. The Governors of the College have committed an oversight in some way or other. It had not escaped the previous notice of the Board. The Bishop, the Archdeacon and myself intend visiting Montreal next month, when we shall have an opportunity of discussing the subject at full length. I have only now to add that we all of us, both as a body and as individuals, feel interested in the success of the Montreal Medical Institution, and that we shall be most happy if it can be in any way promoted by a connection with McGill College.”

After the College was formally opened it was necessary for the Governors and the Board of the Royal Institution to wait for the final decision of the courts on the possession of the endowment fund, which was still held by the Desrivières heirs. No money was available for salaries; no building on the estate was suitable for classes. It was therefore considered impossible, for the present at least, to undertake actual teaching in the College. But meanwhile the Montreal Medical Institution had received from the Royal Institution the “aid and protection” it required, and it continued to carry on its work and to give instruction to students as before, but with a definite connection with the University as one of its Faculties. Pending the securing of the endowment fund which would make possible the putting in operation of the College proper, as provided for in the will, the Governors of the College therefore decided to appoint, temporarily, and without remuneration, the lecturers in the newly formed Medical Faculty to the four professorships at their disposal, in order that degrees in at least one department of the University could be conferred. To make this possible the Professors who had already been appointed in the Faculty of Arts, and whose duties could not yet begin, willingly consented to resign. But before degrees could be granted it was necessary, under the terms of the Charter, to draw up statutes for the government of the University, such statutes to receive the approval of the Crown. The Statutes, Rules and Ordinances for the Medical Faculty were agreed upon by the Governors; and were submitted to the Colonial Office by Lord Aylmer on March 8th, 1832. The Royal approval was forwarded to the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province in a despatch dated May 2nd, 1832, together with the confirmation of the appointment of William Caldwell, John Stephenson, Andrew F. Holmes and William Robertson of the Medical School to the four University professorships, “without specifying at present the precise nature of each Professorship.” They received no remuneration from the College. Later, Dr. Stephenson acted for a brief period as supervisor of the Burnside Estate.

The Home Government's knowledge of the exact circumstances and terms and even the making of the Montreal Medical Institution into a Faculty of McGill seems afterwards to have been somewhat hazy. On August 20th, 1834, the Colonial Office wrote to Lord Aylmer, the Lieutenant-Governor, saying, “It would appear from Sir James Kempt's Despatches of 1830, that it was contemplated to incorporate with the College an association of Medical Practitioners but that difficulties arose as to the selection of the Governors ... but I do not gather from your despatch whether the incorporation of this association is still desired.” He asked for a report on the question—a question that had been decided five years before. It was pointed out in reply that the Montreal Medical Institution no longer existed independent of the College and that the several Lecturers in that school now occupied all the four Professorships provided for by the Charter. There was misunderstanding, too, as we shall see, between the Governors of the College and the Royal Institution with reference to the temporary or the permanent nature of the above appointments, three of which the latter Board had never ratified, and of which they were apparently not informed. For several years the tradition of a distinct Institution, as it had already been known, continued. The Medical Faculty carried on its work more or less independently of the College, although it was incorporated with it and was legally a part of it, but because of tradition it was not always regarded as an integral part of the University. It was looked upon as a well established teaching body now linked up with the new College. The Rules and Ordinances of the University did not apply to the Medical Faculty, and for several years after the actual erection and opening of the College buildings the students of the Medical School were not included in the statement of enrolment annually sent to the Home Government by the Visitor to the University.

On the 24th of May of 1833, four years after the opening of the College, the first University degree awarded was conferred in the Faculty of Medicine on William Logie. On May 7th, 1833, Dr. J. Stephenson, Secretary of the Medical School, wrote to Principal Mountain with reference to the conferring of this degree: