schooner. He was practically captain, for the man who should have discharged the duties was nearly always drunk. In the spring and summer following he served under Captain the Hon. John Elmsley. After eighteen months' service in connexion with the temporary navy, he commenced the study of medicine in the office of Dr. George Grasett, and at the Military Hospital, which he was permitted to attend as a special favour to the son of the Garrison chaplain. He graduated in the United States, in 1843, soon after which he obtained his Provincial license. In 1844, he commenced the practice of his profession at St. Catharines, as there was a large field for surgery among the vast body of Irishmen then engaged in the enlargement of the Welland Canal. Dr. Mack was the first man in this country who commenced the treatment of female ailments surgically. As has so often happened, two minds were pursuing the same studies with the same results. At the time Dr. Mack was working out important medico-surgical problems, Dr. Simpson, of Edinburgh, was similarly employed, and both arrived at the same conclusions. Like every man of original views, Dr, Mack had to face the storm which the ignorant, the envious, and the interested raise up against those who seek to serve mankind in a better way than by going in the old rut. Very soon after going to St. Catharines, he saw the benefit that might be derived from the saline waters of the place, which were then in the hands of a mere quack, one Dr. Chase, a distiller and store-keeper. The well was first excavated, for the purpose of supplying the soldiers and the inhabitants with salt, when an embargo was placed on that article by the Americans in 1812. Witness the needs of the times in the "salt-licks" along the Twelve-mile Creek. Two wells were dug, that at the Stephenson Hotel, now in the hands of the Hon. W. P. Howland, and the well connected with Springbank. When the property, on which the Stephenson House now stands, came into the hands of A. W. Stephenson, he went to Dr. Mack, begging him to introduce his water, and promising him that there should be no quackery if he would take the matter up. It is the only mineral water with which quackery has not been associated. Dr. Mack communicated with his friends in the United States, and wrote upon the SALINE SPRINGS AT ST. CATHARINES. 601 subject in the leading medical journals, placing the merits of the waters fairly and scientifically before the public. The result was unexampled success. The Town of St. Catharines was so crowded that private houses had to be thrown open, and some of the pilgrims of health slept in carts. The profession endorsed the work, and everything went as the sanguine and honest could desire, until the cupidity of the hotel-keepers almost ruined the beneficent interprise. Seeing the way things were going, Dr. Mack determined to build an hotel and sanitarium, where he could carry out his own. plans, and bring the administration of the waters to perfection. But the business has been so damaged that it will take half a century to bring it up to what it was. Dr. Mack has, from the first, been faithful to those waters on which, directly, but indirectly on humanity, his generous heart and noble professional enthusiasm have led him to sacrifice wealth and alluring prospects. Fourteen years ago, he was offered a large and lucrative practice in Boston, where he would have been backed up by the leading members of the profession, particularly in his surgical specialty. But instead of accepting that offer, he built Springbank, in which he has sunk over $140.000. At that time a great honour was conferred on him. He was asked to fill the chair of Materia Medica, at the University of Buffalo, which he did for three years. Buffalo University has turned out such men as Dalton, the two Flints, and others. Dr. Mack was offered the permanent charge, but, feeling unable to go over there twice a week, declined the appointment. Prior to this offer being made to him, he spent eight months in Europe, where he had the pleasure of meeting all the leading men of the profession in England, in France, and in Italy, to whom Sir James Simpson gave him letters of introduction. All showed him the greatest kindness. In 1860, he commenced a work which he has recently brought into a more complete state, a work for which he deserves to be ever held in honour. He raised a six penny contribution among the lake mariners for the establishment of a marine hospital in some central place on the lakes. Five years he struggled in this truly humane cause. Here, too, he received opposition. The opposi tion, however, in this case, came mainly from Lower Canada. The Lower Canada medical men thought his project would interfere with the Marine Hospital of Lower Canada. St. Catharines, a point by which all the vessels passed, was specially suited for an hospital; here they could be treated and sent on their way healed, up or down the lakes. Dr. Mack pressed the case on the Government. But finding that he could get no aid from them, he fell back on his own efforts, and on those of the ladies. He determined to unite with the marine hospital a general department for the benefit of St. Catharines. By his activity, and the assistance of the ladies, many of them belonging to the United States, he kept the hospital going for two years, after which time the Government came to his aid, in 1862. We need not wonder that the party to which he belonged desired to bring him into public life, or that he was nominated as a candidate. But he, doubtless, remembered Paul's great words," This one thing I do," and chose the better part of exclusive devotion to his profession. The Dominion Government made him a grant of $500 for the marine department, while Mr. Charles Rykert obtained a larger grant from the Ontario Government. The hospital has now become an institution of which, according to Mr. Langmuir, the place has just reason to be proud. I went over the hospital, and can endorse what Mr. Langmuir says. The maternity wing, which is now being added, will make it still more complete. In 1874, Dr. Mack established the first training school for nurses ever established in British America. It has been a decided success, and a blessing to the neighbourhood. Mack has always identified himself with the rise and progress of the place. During the last twenty years there must have been from $80,000 to $100,000, a year, spent in St. Catharines through his instrumentality. His own professional income was for a long time from ten to twelve thousand dollars a year. For many years all his energy has been devoted to making Springbank an institution for the successful treatment of chronic disease, and all the ailments prevalent in the country; rheumatism, gout, and diseases of malarious origin. Dr. Mack was the first man in Canada to use Dr. Chapman's ice bags applied to the spine for nervous and other diseases, and he has found them as efficacious here as they have, to my knowledge, been found in London. A great cure has been effected within the last few months by means of spinal ice bags. A lady in a very bad condition has been brought from the confines of that pitiful world, where reason is not. "I have found them highly useful" says Dr. Mack, in reply to a question concerning those ice bags," in the treatment of diseases of a nervous origin." Some of the most brilliant, able, and best educated journalists in every city of Canada are Irishmen, or of Irish extraction. Mr. M. J. Griffin, of Halifax, is not only a journalist of first-class power, but a literary man, who bids fair to carve out for himself a great reputation. In Kingston, we have Mr. J. Johnston, an able writer. Mr. Fahey, formerly of the Hamilton Spectator, and known as Rupert" to the readers of the Mail, edits the Stratford Herald with great ability. Mr. Tyner, of the Hamilton Times, is known for his brilliancy as a journalist throughout the whole Dominion. In Toronto, Mr. Edward Farrer's humour, invective, eloquence, all bear the stamp of native ability. In Montreal, there are at least four men of great literary power, Mr. Meany, Captain Kirwin, Mr. White, the proprietor and editor of the Gazette, and Mr. Reade, one of the editors of that paper. It is only the other day that the Rev. Father Murphy's beautiful English, redolent of Tennysonian studies, was delighting and elevating the readers of the leading Roman Catholic newspaper of Montreal. Mr. John Reade, who was born at Ballyshannon, County Donegal, and educated partly there and partly at Enniskillen, and Belfast, is a poet of which the country of Moore and Goldsmith may be proud. A critic speaking with the responsibility of a first class magazine, says of "The Prophecy of Merlin and Other Poems," that it is a volume in every way worthy of the land of the Lakes, well written, well printed and well bound. "The author in his verses unites power with sweetness. He is a disciple of Tennyson, whose writings he has studied with earnestness and care. The longest poem, 'The Prophecy of Merlin,' is thoroughly readable, and though modelled on the Idylls,' is in no degree an imitation. That Mr. Reade is capable of selecting a subject and treating it effectively, his poem on 'Vashti' is ample evidence. The local colouring of some of the poems gives the book an especial interest for colonial · readers. Every page in it is worth perusal."* "The translations in the volume are good. In 'Andre Chenier's Death-Song,' MrReade has attained a success which reminds the reader of the spirited translations of Beranger, by Father Prout.”† Mr. C. H. Mackintosh, the publisher and editor of the Ottawa Citizen, is Canadian-Irish. He was born in London, Ontario. Having studied law for some time he entered on a journalistic career in 1862. His father William Mackintosh, was the son of Captain Duncan Mackintosh, of the British army, whose wife was a niece of the Earl of Dysart. Captain Duncan Mackintosh settled in the County of Wicklow, where he bought landed property, and where his son William was born. This gentleman having been educated at Dublin, and having married, came to Canada, where he was connected with the Ordnance Department, at London and Kingston. Subsequently he was engaged in the survey of the Great Western Railway, from Hamilton to Chatham. He was afterwards for many years county engineer for Middlesex. His widow is still living, together with several sons and daughters. The able editor of the Irish Canadian, Mr.Patrick Boyle, is so well known that it would be superfluous to seek to give my readers any idea of his personality or abilities. Mr. Bailey, the editor of the Orange Sentinel, is an enterprising North of Ireland man, of whom I can say that he entertains liberal desires respecting the friendly relations which should exist between all classes of his countrymen. A passing reference has been made to the Honourable Mr. Justice Gwynne. He is the son of the Rev. Dr. Gwynne, of Castle Knock, Dublin. Mr. Gwynne was educated at Trinity College, which he left without taking a degree. He came to Canada in 1832, and commenced to study law with Thomas Kirkpatrick. In the same year, his brother, Dr. Gwynne, came to Canada, and established himself in Toronto as a medical man. In the following year, his eldest brother, the Rev. George Gwynne, and his second eldest brother, Mr. Hugh Nelson Gwynne, both scholars of Trinity College, came out. But the Rev. George Gwynne soon returned to Ireland. Hugh Nelson Gwynne remained here and became a master in Upper Canada College. His connexion Dublin University Magazine. + New York World. |