Kitchen-table medicine
CMAJ 1999;160:22
Catharine Dewar's article1 [full text] is a fascinating and well-written reflection on the contrasts between the medicine of today and that of 80 years ago, as well as a testimony to the impressive diagnostic and treatment skills of the physician in the case, Dr. William Hamilton. Dr. Hamilton was my great-uncle, the youngest brother of my grandfather, Rev. James Hamilton. He was born William Thompson Hamilton in Motherwell, Ont., near Stratford, on July 22, 1875, the youngest of 7 children.
William became a general practitioner surgeon in the east end of Toronto. His office was in his home on Broadview Avenue, and meals were often interrupted by the needs of patients. He was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, but as far as I know he was not certified by the Royal College. During World War II he had a practice in the Medical Arts Building on Bloor Street and was on staff at the Toronto Western Hospital. When the physicians with academic medical staff appointments returned from war service, he had to move to another office on Bloor Street, where he finished his professional career.
When I was a medical student at U of T in the late 1940s and early 1950s, I often went to the home of Bill and his wife, Edith, for Sunday dinner. By that time, Uncle Bill was semiretired, but he remained interested in what was happening in medicine.
Was he an influence in my choosing medicine as a career? Perhaps not a direct influence, but certainly an example. The last time I saw Dr. William Hamilton was just before I moved to Thunder Bay as an internist in 1958, when he was about 83.
George H. Morrison, MD
Chief of Staff
Thunder Bay Regional Hospital
Thunder Bay, Ont.
 |
Send a letter to the editor Envoyez une lettre à la rédaction |
Reference
- Dewar C. Balloon pneumoplasty, 1926. CMAJ 1998;159(1):61-2.
