Early medicine and surgery in Calgary.
The medical history of the Calgary area can be divided into three periods: the early period before the coming of the North West Mounted Police in 1874, the middle period from 1875 to 1905, during which Fort Calgary was built and the first surgeons settled in the West, and the third period from 1905 to the present. George Alexander Kennedy was the first surgeon of the middle period. He encouraged proper sanitation, fresh air, and avoidance of cold, damp and dirt. He recommended special treatment for various systemic diseases, used chloroform in October 1880 and was known to have treated skull fractures, extradural hemorrhages, prostatic obstruction, postabortion hemorrhage, ascites and pleural effusion. Henderson, Brett, Lindsay, Rouleau, Lafferty and Mackid were the other six pioneer surgeons of the middle period. Mackid's son Ludwig took over his father's practice after studying in Europe and the United States. When he died in November 1975 at the age of 93, the last link with the pioneer surgeons of Calgary was broken.
D000416:Alberta; D013502:General Surgery / Q000266:history*; D006666:History of Medicine