For “the Honor and Dignity of the Profession”: Organized Medicine in Colonial New Brunswick, 1793-1860

This article discusses the several attempts to organize and regulate the medical profession in New Brunswick, Canada, between 1793 and 1860. It examines medical legislation during the colonial era, culminating in the creation of the Medical Faculty of New Brunswick in 1859. Also, it explores the desire within the profession itself for increased protection and recognition. This desire inspired the formation of several medical societies in the years following 1827. A central figure in professional organization was Robert Bayard (1788-1868), who graduated from Edinburgh in 1809. The article examines his relationship with his colleagues, notably Thomas Paddock, John Boyd, and Alexander Boyle, to identify personal tensions affecting the development of the medical profession. The article concludes that the medical profession acquired a significant degree of authority in New Brunswick only following the enlistment of legislative support. The search for greater authority stemmed from the advent of sectarian doctors in the province. Although sectarian practitioners never flourished in New Brunswick, the law of 1859 gave the province's regular doctors a sense of identitiy that facilitated the establishment of medical societies and the province's first general public hospital, in Saint John.