The Emergence of naturopathy in two Canadian Provinces: British Columbia and Ontario, 1920-1970

Histoire Sociale

Volumn 47, Issue 96, 2015, Pages 215-244

  Adams, Tracey L ^a   Etherington, Nicole ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO   (Canada)

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EID: 84929661714     PISSN: 00182257     EISSN: 19186576     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/his.2015.0010     Document Type: Article

References (199)

1. Holly J. Hough, Catherine Dower, and Edward H. O’Neil, “Profile of a Profession: Naturopathic Practice” (Center for the Health Professions, University of California, 2001)
2. Donald E. Larsen, “The Education and Regulation of Naturopaths in Ontario” (Ontario Committee on the Healing Arts Commissioned Study, 1968) p. 7.
3. In 1966 the medical profession recommended to Ontario’s Committee on the Healing Arts that naturopaths be deregulated and forced to stop practising. In its final report, the committee supported this recommendation but advised that those then in practice be allowed to continue. The first draft of revised legislation produced in 1972 included a clause deregulating naturopathy, but naturopaths successfully lobbied to remove this clause. A subsequent legislative review reached the same conclusion in the mid-1980s. See Ontario, Striking a New Balance: A Blueprint for the Regulation of Ontario’s Health Professions (Toronto: Queen’s Printer, nd [c. 1987]), p. 10
4. Report of the Committee on the Healing Arts, vol. 2 (Toronto: Queen’s Printer, 1970), pp. 487-488
5. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, “Brief Submitted to the Commission on the Healing Arts,” part 1, 1966
6. Ontario Naturopathic Association, “A Supplementary Brief Respecting Naturopathy in the Province of Ontario,” September 1967
7. David Scheich, “From Nature-cure to Naturopathic Medicine: The Institutionalizing of Naturopathic Medicine in Ontario (PhD dissertation, University of Toronto, 2005)
8. Hans Baer and Stephen Sporn, “Naturopathy in Canada” in Naturopathy Around the World (New York: Nova Science Publishers 2009), pp. 359-360.
9. Hans A. Baer, “The Drive for Legitimation in Australian Naturopathy: Successes and Dilemmas,” Social Science & Medicine, vol. 63, no. 7 (2006), pp. 1771-1783
10. M. J. Verhoef, H. Boon, and D. R. Mutasingwa, “The Scope of Naturopathic Medicine in Canada: An Emerging Profession,” Social Science & Medicine, vol. 63, no. 2 (2006), pp. 409-417
11. Sandy Welsh, Merrijoy Kelner, Beverly Wellman, and Heather Boon, “Moving Forward? Complementary and Alternative Practitioners Seeking Self-regulation,” Sociology of Health & Illness, vol. 26, no. 2 (2004), pp. 216-241
12. Hans A. Baer, “The Sociopolitical Status of U.S. Naturopathy at the Dawn of the 21st Century,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly, vol. 15, no. 3 (2001), pp. 329-346
13. Scheich, “From Nature-cure to Naturopathic Medicine”
14. Baer and Sporn, Naturopathy Around the World.
15. James C. Whorton, Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002)
16. George William Cody, “The History of Naturopathic Medicine, Part I: The Emergence of an American School of Healing” in J. E. Pizzorno Jr. and M. T. Murray, eds., Textbook of Natural Medicine (St. Louis: Churchill Livingstone Inc., 2006), pp. 41-65.
17. Information on the history of naturopathy in Ontario is discussed in Elaine H. Gort and David Coburn, “Naturopathy in Canada: Changing Relationships to Medicine, Chiropractic, and the State” in J. K. Crellin, R. R. Anderson, and J. T. H. Connor, eds., Alternate Health Care in Canada (Toronto: Canadian Scholar’s Press, 1997), pp. 143-170
18. Schleich, “From Nature-cure to Naturopathic Medicine,” p. 8
19. Baer and Sporn, “Naturopathy in Canada,” pp. 73-84.
20. Magali Sarfatti Larson, The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977)
21. Keith M. Macdonald, The Sociology of Professions (London: SAGE, 1995)
22. Marie Haug, “The Sociological Approach to Self-Regulation” in R. D. Blair and S. Rubin, eds., Regulating the Professions (Lexington: D. C. Heath and Company, 1980), pp. 61-80.
23. Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine (New York: Basic Books, 1982)
24. S. E. D. Shortt, “Physicians, Science, and Status: Issues in the Professionalization of Anglo-American Medicine in the Nineteenth Century,” Medical History, vol. 27, no. 1 (1983), pp. 51-68
25. Eliot Freidson, Profession of Medicine: A Study of the Sociology of Applied Knowledge (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1970)
26. R. D. Gidney and W. P. J. Millar, Professional Gentleman: The Professions in Nineteenth-Century Ontario (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994), pp. 91-100
27. Terrie M. Romano, “Professional Identity and the Nineteenth-Century Ontario Medical Profession,” Histoire sociale/ Social History, vol. 28, no. 55 (May 1995), pp. 55-98
28. Ranier Baehr, “The Medical Profession in Upper Canada Reconsidered: Politics, Medical Reform, and Law in a Colonial Society,” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, vol. 12 (1995), pp. 101-124.
29. Haug, “The Sociological Approach to Self-Regulation,” pp. 61-80.
30. Here we build on previous research that explores inter-professional conflict and regulatory outcomes. See Andrew Abbott, The System of Professions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988)
31. Veryl Margaret Tipliski, “Parting at the Crossroads: The Emergence of Education for Psychiatric Nursing in Three Canadian Provinces,” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, vol. 21, no. 2 (Winter 2004), pp. 253-280
32. Tracey L. Adams, “The Rise and Fall of Osteopathic Medicine in Ontario,” Histoire sociale / Social History, vol. 45, no. 89 (May 2010), pp. 49-77
33. “Inter-professional Relations and the Emergence of a New Profession: Software Engineering in Canada, the U.S. and the UK,” Sociological Quarterly, vol. 48, no. 3 (2007), pp. 507-532.
34. These include city directories published every year for Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia (Vancouver Public Library, www.vpl.ca/bccd/index.php), and Toronto and London, Ontario, between 1920 and 1970. City directories for Kitchener and Ottawa, Ontario, were also examined at five-year intervals. Legislative records used include the Journals of the Legislative Assembly for British Columbia and Ontario, especially for those years when bills were before the legislature, as well as draft bills and acts of the legislature of BC and Ontario pertaining to drugless practice, naturopathy, chiropractic, and other related professions. Newspaper articles from the Toronto Star, The Globe, the Vancouver Sun, and the Victoria Times-Colonist pertaining to legislative debates, naturopathy, and drugless practice were also utilized, as were genealogical records on practitioners obtained through Ancestry.ca. Records from the BC Chiropractic Association (available through the British Columbia Archives), journal publications of the Canadian medical profession, and some government records in Ontario were also valuable sources of information.
35. Avi Sharma, “Medicine from the Margins? Naturheilkunde from Medical Heterodoxy to the University of Berlin, 1889-1920,” Social History of Medicine, vol. 24, no. 2 (2011), pp. 334-351.
36. Iva Lloyd, The History of Naturopathic Medicine in Canada: A Canadian Perspective (Toronto: McArthur & Company, 2009).
37. Louisa Stroebele Lust was born in Germany and received training in natural therapies in London, England, before immigrating to the United States to establish a practice treating women in the 1890s. See Friedhelm Kirchfeld and Wade Boyle, Nature Doctors: Pioneers in Naturopathic Medicine (Portland: NCNM Press,1994), pp. 162-165.
38. National College of Natural Medicine, “History of Naturopathic Medicine,” http://www.ncnm.edu/ academic-programs/school-of-naturopathic-medicine/about-the-medicine.php?searchresult=2&sstring=history#history (accessed 5. December, 2014).
39. Whorton Nature Cures, pp. 194-195.
40. Kirchfeld and Boyle, Nature Doctors, pp. 162-182.
41. Whorton, Nature Cures
42. Norman Gevitz, ed., Other Healers: Unorthodox Medicine in America (Baltimore, NC: John Hopkins University Press, 1988).
43. George William Cody and H. B. Hascall, “The History of Naturopathic Medicine, Part II: Decline and Rejuvenation – Politics and Professionalization” in Pizzorner and Murray, eds., Textbook of Natural Medicine, pp. 76-77.
44. Whorton, Nature Cures, p. 195.
45. National College of Natural Medicine, “History of Naturopathic Medicine.”
46. Donald L. Mills, Royal Commission on Health Services: Study of Chiropractors, Osteopaths, and Naturopaths in Canada (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1966), pp. 213-215.
47. There were only three osteopaths located in BC in 1916. See The Honourable Mr. Justice Hodgins, Report and Supporting Statements on Medical Education in Ontario (Toronto: King’s Printer, 1918), p 28 (also published in Ontario Sessional Papers, No. 57, Part IX, Volume L).
48. Donald Mills estimated that there were 25 to 30 chiropractors in BC in 1925 (Royal Commission on Health Services, p. 210).
49. This definition has been taken from several bills, including “An Act respecting Chiropractic,” British Columbia, Bills (Victoria: King’s Printer, 1922), No. 28. Bills in 1930, 1931, and 1932 use almost identical language.
50. Whorton, Nature Cures
51. Gevitz, Other Healers
52. Patricia Jasen, “Mind, Medicine, and the Christian Science Controversy in Canada, 1888-1910,” Journal of Canadian Studies, vol. 32, no. 4 (1997/1998), pp. 5-22.
53. The name of the latter organization was in flux over the succeeding 15 years. Lesley Biggs provides this title, but by 1922 draft legislation (and Chiropractic Association meeting minutes) refers to it as the “British Columbia Association of Sanipractic Physicians” and a few years later as the “Association of Sanipractic and Naturopathic Physicians.” See British Columbia Archives [hereafter BCA], Chiropractors’ Association of British Columbia, MS-2536, vol. 15, box 7, C. Lesley Biggs, “No Bones About Chiropractic? The Early Struggle for Licensing of Chiropractors in British Columbia” (BC Studies Conference, November 7, 1986); British Columbia, Bills (Victoria: King’s Printer, 1923), No. 17. See also A. W. Dennis, untitled history of naturopathy in British Columbia, reprinted in Lloyd, The History of Naturopathic Medicine, pp. 115-116.
54. The split gradually expanded in the early 1900s, but erupted into a full organizational “schism” between 1924 and 1926. See C. Lesley Biggs, “No Bones about Chiropractic: The Quest of Legitimacy by the Ontario Chiropractic Profession 1895-1985” (PhD dissertation, University of Toronto, 1989), pp. 19-23
55. David Coburn and C. Lesley Biggs, “Limits to Medical Dominance: The Case of Chiropractic,” Social Science and Medicine, vol. 22, no. 10 (1986), pp. 1035-1046.
56. According to Lesley Biggs, the break may have “centred on the zealousness of [the straight] Palmer graduates” (“No Bones about Chiropractic? The Early Struggle for Licensing,” p 9).
57. Physical culture was a movement originating in the nineteenth century that sought to promote health through exercise and strength training. See David S. Churchill, “Making Broad Shoulders: Bodybuilding and Physical Culture in Chicago, 1890-1920,” History of Education Quarterly, vol. 48, no. 3 (2008), pp. 341-370.
58. Dennis, untitled history, pp. 115-116.
59. Profile of Arthur William Dennis in Lloyd, The History of Naturopathic Medicine, pp. 301-303.
60. In the business listings of the 1936. Vancouver city directory, Wright appears as an ND, DO, and DSS. See The British Columbia and Yukon Directory 1936 (Vancouver: Sun Directories Ltd., 1936), p. 1886.
61. The bill itself does not seem to have survived. Both quotations are taken from an account of the bill published in the Abbotsford Post (“Drugless Physicians Act is Introduced in the House,” Abbotsford Post, March 11, 1921, p. 4). The variety of therapies mentioned is revealing of the breadth of “drugless practice” in this era. The drive for legislation in BC at this time may have been influenced by developments south of the border: drugless practitioners in Washington state successfully lobbied for an act in 1919
62. Baer and Sporn, Naturopathy Around the World, p. 13.
63. British Columbia, Journals of the Legislative Assembly (Victoria: King’s Printer, 1921), pp. 68, 71, 133-135.
64. Mr. M. MacDonald, “Second Report of the Select Committee,” Journals of the Legislative Assembly for the Province of British Columbia (1921), pp. 133-135.
65. Hodgins, Report and Supporting Statements on Medical Education
66. MacDonald, “Second Report of the Select Committee,” p 133.
67. Biggs, “No Bones about Chiropractic? The Early Struggle for Licensing.”
68. BCA, Chiropractors Association of British Columbia, MS-2536, Association Minute Books, vol. 1, January 6, 1923. The situation did not immediately change. By 1929, no chiropractors had been licensed under the medical act, because none had been able to meet medicine’s standards (“Chiropractors Act Amended,” Vancouver Sun, February 27, 1929, p. 2).
69. BCA, Chiropractic Association of BC, MS-2536, Minute Books, vol. 1, October 6, 1925. Although dominated by straight chiropractors, the organization did not have a formal “anti-mixer” stance before this time.
70. BCA, Chiropractic Association of BC, MS-2536, Minute Books, vol. 1, April 3, 1926, and June 5, 1928.
71. BCA, Chiropractic Association of BC, MS-2536, Minute Books, vol. 1, May 5, 1928.
72. The addition of a basic science exam for entry to practice in 1927 spurred the decline of sanipractic in Washington State (Baer and Sporn, Naturopathy Around the World, pp. 13-14).
73. Vancouver and Victoria City Directories, 1925-1950, www.vpl.ca/bccd/index.php.
74. British Columbia, Bills (Victoria: Kings Printer 1923), No. 17, s. 2.
75. British Columbia, Bills (Victoria: Kings Printer 1932), No. 29, s. 2.
76. Most listed chiropractor as their occupation at some point: of 27 people who listed themselves as “naturopaths” in Vancouver and Victoria city directories, 18 had previously called themselves chiropractors. For this analysis, all practitioners listed as “naturopaths” or “sanipractors” at any time between 1920 and 1955 in city directory business listings were traced across the entire period and their occupational trajectories were mapped.
77. Mayell was not the only blind man known to practise naturopathy in this era. Andrew Hammond of London, Ontario, also turned to naturopathy after being blinded in his thirties. Information on Mayell and Hammond were obtained through city directories and Ancestry.ca, including the following: World War 1, Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force attestation for Betram Mayell (Regina, Saskatchewan); Detroit Border Crossings, Andrew Hammond, September 6, 1919.
78. Denmark-born Craig practised in Vancouver for roughly 25 years, first working as an electrotherapist at W. J. Downie’s sanatorium and subsequently establishing her own practice as a sanipractor (1926-1928), then naturopath (beginning in 1929). Frances Joslyn practised in Vancouver between 1930 and 1948, when she retired and moved to the Coast Capilano region. Born Ethel Frances Scholte in 1894 in the United States, she grew up on a farm in Manitoba. Frances worked as a hairdresser prior to receiving training as a chiropractor, and she practised both before and after her husband’s death. Data on these practitioners’ lives was obtained from Vancouver city directories (www.vpl.ca/bccd/index.php) and genealogical documents obtained through Ancestry.ca: Border Crossings From Canada to US 1895-1956; New York Passenger Lists 1820-1957 (for June 1947, June 1935); 1911. Census of Canada, Provencher Manitoba, page 8, family # 64.
79. This pattern would make them similar to, but slightly less prosperous than, the fathers of Ontario osteopaths in the 1920s and 1930s, as identified by Adams (“The Rise and Fall of Osteopathic Medicine,” pp. 59-60), and significantly lower in socioeconomic status compared to students entering the professions of medicine, dentistry, and engineering in the 1920s and 1930s. Millar, Heap, and Gidney find that fathers of most of the latter students were in business and professional occupations, while a significant minority worked as farmers or in skilled trades. See Wyn Millar, Ruby Heap, and Bob Gidney, “Degrees of Difference: The Students in Three Professional Schools at the University of Toronto, 1910 to the 1950s” in R. Heap, W. Millar, and E. Smyth, eds., Learning to Practise (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2005), pp. 155-187.
80. Report of the Royal Commission on Chiropractic and Drugless Healing (Victoria: King’s Printer, 1932).
81. Biggs recounts a flurry of prosecutions in 1922-1923, followed by a lull. Because prosecutions were costly and generated poor publicity, the medical profession was reluctant to prosecute between 1923 and 1930 (“No Bones about Chiropractic? The Struggle for Early Licensing,” pp. 14, 18).
82. British Columbia, Bills (Victoria: King’s Printer, 1924), No. 17; the quotation is taken from Section 5, subsection 5.
83. British Columbia, Bills (1923), No. 17.
84. “Report of the Select Standing Committee on Private Bills and Standing Orders,” Journals of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (Victoria: King’s Printer, 1924), pp. 128-129.
85. British Columbia, Bills (Victoria: King’s Printer, 1930), No. 54.
86. “Drugless Healers and Chiropractors are to be Authorized to Practice their Callings,” Vancouver Sun, March 3, 1930, p. 1. According to the newspaper report, Walter Sturdy, long-time president of the BC chiropractors’ association, and W. E. Gallant, president of the Sanipractic and Naturopathic Practitioners Institute, met with the government to reach a compromise with the medical doctors.
87. “Drugless Bill Monday: Medical Men Renew Battle for Monopoly,” Vancouver Sun, March 15, 1930, p. 24.
88. The speaker of the house made the ruling on the grounds that the bill was similar to the Drugless Physicians’ bill rejected earlier in the session. The Sun reported that many legislators were frustrated by “the tactics of the medical group” and voiced their frustration by amending the medical act to allow Christian Scientists to practise with little debate or discussion (“Drugless Healers’ Bill Killed,” Vancouver Sun, March 20, 1930, p. 2).
89. “Drugless Healers Again File Bills in Legislature,” Vancouver Sun, February 25, 1931, p. 3
90. British Columbia, Journals of the Legislative Assembly (Victoria: King’s Printer, 1931).
91. British Columbia, Bills (Victoria: King’s Printer, 1931), No. 33.
92. “Chiropractors’ and Healers’ Bills Dropped,” Vancouver Sun, March 27, 1931, p. 12.
93. The focus of the commission was initially controversial. Murphy had been directed to investigate the regulation of chiropractic and drugless practice, but medicine sought (and failed to achieve) an investigation of their scientific validity. See Report of the Royal Commission on Chiropractic and Drugless Healing, pp. 3-4.
94. Report of the Royal Commission on Chiropractic and Drugless Healing.
95. “Drugless Healers’ Bill Thrown Out,” Vancouver Sun, April 19, 1932, p. 1.
96. Tolmie’s position was that other provinces had already regulated chiropractors; while “he did not understand or agree with their methods he thought they should be regulated so long as they were put in their proper stall” (“Chiro Bill Gets Second Reading on Close Vote,” Vancouver Sun, April 8, 1932, p. 1).
97. “Chiros Triumph after 17. Years,” Vancouver Sun, March 27, 1934, p. 8
98. “Chiropractic Bill Favored,” Daily Colonist [Victoria], March 27, 1934, p. 3.
99. British Columbia, Statutes, 1934, 24. Geo. V, c. 12.
100. “Chiros Triumph After 17. Years,” Vancouver Sun, March 27, 1934, p. 8.
101. “Chiropractors Win Medical Freedom,” Vancouver Sun, March 29, 1934, p. 4.
102. Report of the Royal Commission on Chiropractic and Drugless Healing, p. 9. Forty-six of the Institute’s 72 members (64 per cent) utilized chiropractic treatment methods.
103. Physical culture specialist and naturopath Frank Dorchester, himself a chiropractor by training, was quoted extensively. See BCA, Chiropractors Association of British Columbia, MS-2536,Vol. 10, Walter T. Sturdy scrapbook. The date and source of the article are not provided.
104. “B.C.’s Chiropractic Code,” Vancouver Sun, December 28, 1934, p. 7.
105. “Healer on Trial,” Vancouver Sun, October 19, 1935, p. 5.
106. BCA, BC Chiropractic Association, MS-2536, Minute Books, vol. 2, July 15 and October 14, 1936.
107. BCA, BC Chiropractic Association, MS-2536, Minute Books, vol. 2, October 14 and 31, 1936, and March 1937.
108. Entries in the chiropractic association minute books reveal efforts to monitor and investigate several active naturopaths (BCA, BC Chiropractic Association, MS-2536, Minute Books, vol. 2).
109. British Columbia, Journals of the Legislative Assembly (Victoria: King’s Printer, 1936)
110. “New Bills in Legislature,” Daily Colonist [Victoria], March 21, 1936, p. 1.
111. “Naturopath’s Bill,” Vancouver Sun, March 30, 1936, p. 14.
112. Although the Journals of the Legislative Assembly reveal some debate on the bill (see, for example, pp. 119, 129, 134, 140), no record exists of the content of that debate in either the journals or the newspaper accounts of legislative events. While the chiropractors’ legislative efforts were often front-page news, the naturopaths’ efforts did not garner much attention.
113. Among the restricted titles originally granted to naturopaths was “physiotherapy” (British Columbia, Statutes, 1936, 1. Edw. VIII, c. 42, s. 11).
114. In 1939, Joseph Wright, then president of the Naturopathic Physicians Association, vowed to stop naturopaths from practising chiropractic to halt the chiropractic board’s investigations and prosecutions (BCA, BC Chiropractic Association, MS-2536, Minute Books, vol. 2, April 29, 1939).
115. Hough, Dower, and O’Neil, “Profile of a Profession”
116. Baer and Sporn, Naturopathy Around the World, pp. 15-20.
117. Schleich, “From Nature-cure to Naturopathic Medicine,” p. 24
118. Baer and Sporn, Naturopathy Around the World. The Portland school was a main source of training for BC naturopaths in the 1930s and 1940s.
119. Schleich reports that the sole naturopathic college in the United States graduated only two naturopaths in 1965 and had only six students in total in 1969 (“From Nature-cure to Naturopathic Medicine,” p. 359).
120. There were likely more naturopaths practising in BC in other centres, and others practising under another job title. Mills estimates that there were 31 naturopaths in BC in 1962 (Royal Commission on Health Services, pp. 71-73, 215). Further, historians suggest that the commitment of BC naturopaths helped to keep the Portland naturopathy school afloat during the 1960s and 1970s
121. Baer and Sporn, Naturopathy Around the World.
122. Jasen, “Mind, Medicine, and the Christian Science Controversy.”
123. Mills, Royal Commission on Health Services, pp. 208, 221
124. Hodgins Report and Supporting Statements on Medical Education, pp. 17, 32.
125. Barbara Clow, “Mahlon Locke: ‘Toe Twister’,” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History , vol. 9 (1992), pp. 17-39.
126. Mills, Royal Commission on Health Services, p 213.
127. A review of Toronto and London city directories between 1920 and 1970 (inclusive) was conducted. Kitchener and Ottawa directories were reviewed during the same period at five-year intervals.
128. Biggs, “No Bones about Chiropractic: The Quest of Legitimacy,” p. 138. Archives of Ontario [hereafter AO], RG 55-27. B226900, Company Hold-up files, Drugless Physicians Association of Canada, October 1915.
129. The Hodgins Commission (1914-1917) investigated ten distinct health care groups, most of which had not previously been regulated: chiropractic, Christian Science, dentistry, homeopathy, medicine, midwifery, nursing, optometry, osteopathy, and physical therapy. “Drugless practice” was not identified as a separate entity. See Hodgins, Report and Supporting Statements on Medical Education.
130. Canadian-born MacFie was trained at the Ross Chiropractic College and claimed a Doctor of Osteopathy (DO) degree as well. He set up practice in London in the 1910s and practised steadily in the city until 1935, when he moved to Toronto to fulfil his duties as the Secretary of the Board of Regents until his death in 1945 (London City Directories, 1918-1935; “Archie W. Macfie Chiropractor, Dies,” Toronto Star, December 3, 1945, p. 2).
131. Annual Toronto City Directories, 1920 through 1970, Toronto Central Reference Library.
132. No record exists of Cottam leaving London in the early twentieth century to obtain formal training either in the United States or elsewhere in Canada. Cottam’s occupational history was traced through London City Directories between 1901 and 1929, census records, and border crossing records from Ancestry.com (Detroit Border Crossings and Passenger Crew Lists, 1905-1957, October 9, 1929).
133. T. C. Routley, “Routley’s History of the O.M.A,” Ontario Medical Review, vol. 32 (1965), pp. 38-43.
134. Routley’s historical account is particularly valuable since he was one of three medical men at the heart of legislative negotiations. The quotation is taken from page 39.
135. Routley, “History of the O.M.A.,” p. 40.
136. Ontario, Statutes, 1923, 13. Geo. V c. 35
137. Routley, “History of the O.M.A.,” pp. 41-42.
138. OMA president E. R. Secord declared the act “the most important forward step in the history of medicine in this province” in his “President’s Address,” CMA Journal, vol. 13, no. 8 (August 1923), p. 555; see also AO, E. C. Drury Correspondence, RG-3-4-0-290, Letter from A. W. MacFie to E. C. Drury, April 26, 1923.
139. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), Pamphlet on medical registration and examination (1938), p. 21. Talks with some chiropractic groups were successful, but talks with osteopaths broke down.
140. Peter Oliver, G. Howard Ferguson: Ontario Tory (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977).
141. AO, Attorney General Files, RG 4-32, B248107, Law Clerk’s Office Memorandum, March 12, 1925.
142. “Osteopaths Protest, Call New Act Absurd,” Toronto Star, April 2, 1925, p. 2
143. “Drugless Healers Act Subject of Conference,” Toronto Star, April 6, 1925, p. 1. A lawyer for the Ontario Chiropractic Association claimed that he had been promised an audience with the government, but one was never granted (“Declares Osteopaths are Dominating Board,” Toronto Star, December 11, 1925, p. 11).
144. The act was also heavily influenced by medical leaders, including John Ferguson who explained to his confreres, “[I]n the securing of this Act, the Joint [CPSO, OMA] Advisory Committee was very active, and rendered a signal service to the public and the medical profession.” See John Ferguson. History of the Ontario Medical Association, 1880-1930 (Toronto: Murray Printing Co., 1930), p. 92.
145. Ontario, Statutes, 1925, 15. Geo V, c 49, s. 2 (b).
146. One of the forces behind the act, Dr. John Ferguson, had publicly denied that there were any meaningful distinctions among drugless practitioners. See “Dr. John Ferguson on How Others Treat: President of Academy of Medicine is Severe before Commissioner,” The Globe [Toronto], May 12, 1917, p. 9;
147. Ferguson, History of the Ontario Medical Association.
148. The failure to specify membership of the regulatory board was contentious among osteopath and chiropractic leaders. See “Osteopaths Protest, Call New Act Absurd,” Toronto Star, April 2, 1925, p. 2
149. “Chiropractors Protest,” Toronto Star, April 24, 1925, p.16.
150. This Medical Amendment Act also repealed the 1923. Medical Amendment Act (Ontario, Statutes, 1925, 15. Geo V, c. 48).
151. Adams, “The Rise and Fall of Osteopathic Medicine,” pp. 73-74; AO, Premier Ferguson Correspondence, RG-3-6, Ref Code: 3-6-0-616, Letter from A. W. MacFie to Premier Ferguson, April 20, 1925.
152. “Drugless Healers have to Register, Act Now in Force,” Toronto Star, January 22, 1926, p. 19.
153. “Declares Osteopaths are Dominating Board,” Toronto Star, December 11, 1925, p. 11
154. “Drugless Practice and Regulations Fully Considered,” Toronto Globe, December 11, 1925, p.11.
155. It is not clear whether these five groups were the intended targets of the act all along. No evidence exists that chiropodists were consulted about the act (indeed they were not organized at this point), but they had been exempted from the provisions of the 1923. Medical Act.
156. “Drugless Healers have to Register, Act Now in Force,” Toronto Star, January 22, 1926, p. 19.
157. The number of chiropractors and drugless therapists in the province dropped between 1926 and 1930 by about 100 (from 481 to 379). See Gort and Coburn, “Naturopathy in Canada,” p. 148.
158. The osteopaths were disdainful of the chiropractors (Adams, “The Rise and Fall of Osteopathic Medicine”), and there were hostilities between the Drugless Practitioners’ Association and some of the other chiropractic associations.
159. “Women’s Police Court: Charge Mrs. Elliott is Without License,” Toronto Star, May 15, 1926, p. 2.
160. “Girl is Investigator,” Toronto Star, October 5, 1929, p. 3. As the article title suggests, this flurry attracted attention because the investigator employed by the CPSO was female.
161. Cottam listed his occupation as “Physician” and indicated he was moving to Detroit to live permanently (Ancestry.com, Detroit Border Crossings and Passenger Crew Lists, 1905-1957, October 9, 1929). Cottam may have been one of the drugless practitioners investigated by the CPSO.
162. Gort and Coburn, “Naturopathy in Canada,” p. 148.
163. “Chiropractic Club,” Toronto Star, February 14, 1927, p. 21.
164. “Drugless Practitioners Apply for Recognition,” Toronto Star, April 2, 1931, pp. 1-2.
165. “Merger is Proposed of Drugless Healers,” Toronto Star, October 26, 1933, p. 25. This merger was preceded by mergers of the different straight chiropractic associations
166. Biggs, “No Bones about Chiropractic: The Quest of Legitimacy,” p. 191.
167. As a united front (and at times joined by osteopaths), they unsuccessfully sought legislative change to enable them to use the designation “Dr.” Several bills were introduced, but failed to pass: AO, Original Bills, RG 49-39, B228037, 1934, No. 86 and No. 87; AO, Original Bills, RG 49-39, B229063, 1938, Bill No. 27, “An Act respecting the Ontario Academy of Osteopathy and the Associated Chiropractors and Drugless Therapists of Ontario.”
168. Biggs, “No Bones about Chiropractic: The Quest of Legitimacy,” p. 196. Roebuck was Attorney General between 1934 and 1937.
169. Ontario, Legislative Assembly, “Past and Present MPPs,” www.ontla.on.ca/web/members.
170. Biggs, “No Bones About Chiropractic: The Quest of Legitimacy,” pp. 195-199.
171. Straight chiropractors’ Toronto school closed in 1928, unable to thrive under the higher matriculation standards created by the Drugless Practitioner Act regulations.
172. Biggs, “No Bones about Chiropractic: The Quest of Legitimacy,” p. 197.
173. Gort and Coburn, “Naturopathy in Canada,” p. 148-149.
174. “Dr. James Allen, Spinal specialist and physiotherapist” [advertisement], Toronto Star, June 15, 1921, p. 13.
175. Biggs, “No Bones about Chiropractic: The Quest of Legitimacy,” p. 28. Thus Ontario drugless therapists were similar in background to their counterparts in BC, although they were more likely than the latter to be Canadian-born.
176. Further, as Larsen has shown, these numbers included people not practising in the province. For example, Larsen explains that, of 109 people registered with the BDDT in 1967, 23 (or one-fifth) actually lived in the United States (“The Education and Regulation of Naturopaths in Ontario,” p. 9).
177. Biggs, “No Bones about Chiropractic: The Quest of Legitimacy,” p. 250.
178. Larsen, “The Education and Regulation of Naturopaths in Ontario”
179. Schleich, “From Nature-cure to Naturopathic Medicine.”
180. The Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College was a joint venture between chiropractors in Western Canada (where straight chiropractic dominated) and Ontario. The influence of the Western Canadian chiropractors over the curriculum of the school was substantial (Biggs, “No Bones About Chiropractic: The Quest of Legitimacy”).
181. Larsen, “The Education and Regulation of Naturopaths in Ontario,” p. 10.
182. Gort and Coburn, “Naturopathy in Canada,” p. 161.
183. Baer and Sporn, Naturopathy Around the World, p. 74.
184. Larsen, “The Education and Regulation of Naturopaths in Ontario,” p. 98
185. Schleich, “From Nature-cure to Naturopathic Medicine,” p. 26.
186. Larson, The Rise of Professionalism
187. MacDonald, The Sociology of Professions.
188. Haug, “The Sociological Approach to Self-Regulation,” pp. 61-80.
189. David Coburn, G. M. Torrance, and J. M. Kaufert, “Medical Dominance in Canada in Historical Perspective: The Rise and Fall of Medicine?” International Journal of Health Services, vol. 13 (1983), pp. 407-432
190. David Coburn, “Professionalization and Proletarianization: Medicine, Nursing, and Chiropractic in Historical Perspective,” Labour / Le Travail, vol. 34 (1994), pp. 139-162
191. Adams, “The Rise and Fall of Osteopathic Medicine.”
192. Tracey L. Adams, “Regulating Professions in Canada: Interprovincial Differences across 5 provinces,” Journal of Canadian Studies, vol. 43, no. 3 (2009), pp. 194-221
193. “Professional Regulation in Canada: 1868-1961,” Social Science History, vol. 33, no. 2 (2009), pp. 217-243.
194. Baer and Sporn, Naturopathy Around the World;
195. Schleich, ‘From Nature-cure to Naturopathic Medicine”
196. Verhoef et al., “The Scope of Naturopathic Medicine in Canada”
197. Welsh et al., “Moving Forward? Complementary and Alternative Practitioners Seeking Self-regulation”
198. Gort and Coburn, “Naturopathy in Canada”
199. Lloyd, The History of Naturopathic Medicine in Canada.