Memo from the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, dated 10 October 1918 and prepared by Chief Surgeon and Medical Officer H.A. Beatty, on precautionary measures to prevent further spread.
Source: MC2476/MS2/3: Crouse Family fonds.
Unlike smallpox or typhoid, there was no vaccine developed at the time to protect against influenza. During the pandemic, scientists had not yet realized influenza was a virus (Lam and Lee, Flu Pandemic and You, 46; 62). However, the large death toll and volume of influenza patients left both medical professionals and the public desperate for a cure. This category explores the demand for a cure and pseudo-scientific treatments marketed over the course of the pandemic in New Brunswick.
To prevent misinformation and alarm, medical professionals frequently communicated their advice for preventing the spread of the flu while also responding to public anxiety. In fact, one of the Department of Health’s strategies in mitigating the influenza outbreak was publishing their notices in newspapers across the province.
Memo from the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, dated 10 October 1918 and prepared by Chief Surgeon and Medical Officer H.A. Beatty, on precautionary measures to prevent further spread.
Source: MC2476/MS2/3: Crouse Family fonds.
List of rules to limit the spread and avoid contraction of influenza. Notable advice includes wearing gauze masks, isolating patients, and adopting caution without becoming anxious.
Source: RS136-L5d3.3: Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
Various advice for caretakers on tending to influenza patients without becoming infected themselves, recommending recipes and disinfectants.
Sources: RS136d3-2.2 / RS136-L5d3.5 and RS1365d3-2.1. / RS136-L5d3.4: Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
"Well, it wasn’t as hard on the men, more often it was the pregnant women who died of it, more often it was the pregnant women who died of it, they took care of themselves by drinking alcohol. The doctors didn’t know the remedies that could be given."
Mme Hélène Nadeau
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Instructions concerning the care of influenza patients, with advice on how caretakers can avoid becoming infected themselves. Also includes list of disinfectants to keep on hand.
Source: RS1365d3-2.1. / RS136-L5d3.4: Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
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Six recipes to ease influenza symptoms, followed by a creative method of discreetly feeding fussy patients, endorsed by a doctor.
Source: RS136d3-2.2. / RS136-L5d3.5: Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
Correspondence between military doctor George T. O’Donnell and Minister of Health William F. Roberts concerning a possible immunization against the flu, dated February 1920.
Sources: RS136-L5d6-B5a & b: Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
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14 February 1920 inquiry from Dr. G.T. O’Donnell to Dr. William F. Roberts concerning a possible inoculation against the flu. O’Donnell wishes to provide locals in Debec with protection against the epidemic raging nearby in Houlton, Maine.
Source: RS136-L5d6-B5b: Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
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Dr. William F. Roberts’s 19 February 1920 reply to Dr. O’Donnell’s inquiry, apprising the latter there is no medically-approved inoculation against the flu.
Source: RS136-L5d6-B5a: Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
Desperation was high and New Brunswick citizens were willing to try all kinds of supposed treatments to ward off infection—no matter how dangerous.
"They gave us all kinds of things, there were compresses and mustard plasters; in the old days they would provide care with natural medicines, well with the doctor too, but they didn’t give needles like they do today."
Mme Elodie Caron
When discussing how his mother fell ill while pregnant with his sibling:
"It was a priest who cured her. The priest came in the night and there were women, her sisters, and aunts who were there. They rubbed her with salt. The priest prayed in the house. It really seemed that it was the priest, they gave the priest credit for saving her."
Mlle Alexina Rioux
At the time, use of alcohol was one cure that divided medical professionals. Many featured letters in this section describe alcohol, typically gin or whisky, prescribed as a treatment for influenza. During the entirety of the Spanish influenza outbreak, New Brunswick was under prohibition. The New Brunswick Liquor Act of 1916 banned all alcohol consumption, except for liquor served for religious or medical uses (Grant, When Rum Was King, 59). Alcohol was a common prescription issued by doctors for numerous afflictions, outside of influenza (Grant, When Rum Was King, 123).
"They had us drink alcohol when you could get it because it took a prescription to get alcohol, it took a prescription from the doctor."
M. Mme Albany Long
"Remedies in those days were alcoholic beverages, they hauled bottles of wine, bottles of liquor, and well there weren’t other remedies. Well, it warmed them up, I don’t know what it did to them."
Mme Émile Bonfant
To read more about Prohibition in New Brunswick, please consult B.J. Grant’s When Rum Was King: The Story of The Prohibition Era in New Brunswick.
Article, from 17 October 1918 issue of Saint John’s The Daily Telegraph and The Sun, discussing how New Brunswick’s Prohibition laws would not be abandoned in light of popular liquor treatments against influenza.
Source: MC1687: Daily Telegraph fonds, F13272.
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Letter from Thomas Brideau of Riviere du Portage, dated 13 April 1982 to author Eileen Pettigrew, whose doctor advised Brideau to treat his three bouts of influenza with bed rest and six spoons of gin a day.
Source: MC3682/Box 5/File 1: Eileen Pettigrew fonds.
Letter from Mildred A. Swim, dated 24 February 1982 to author Eileen Pettigrew, reflecting on her experiences with influenza as a young woman from Doaktown who studied in Fredericton. Swim mentions how her cousin, a medical professional, prescribed whiskey to treat influenza patients.
Source: MC3682/Box 5/File 1: Eileen Pettigrew fonds.
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Letter from Dorothy Branscombe, dated 30 June 1982 to author Eileen Pettigrew, describing a mix-up of cider and vinegar when she was too sick with the flu to notice the mistake. Branscrombe’s father, Dr. O.E. Morehouse, was a county doctor who served an area eighteen miles outside of Fredericton and ordered whiskey from drugstores for his patients.
Source: MC3682/Box 5/File 1: Eileen Pettigrew fonds.
Captain Donald F. Taylor’s recollections of the Spanish influenza as a student at Mount Allison University in Sackville. Writing to author Eileen Pettigrew on 13 April 1982, Taylor describes how a fellow student, desperate to avoid the flu, drank hydrogen peroxide to destroy germs.
Source: MC3682/Box 5/File 1: Eileen Pettigrew fonds.
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Due to the strain on workers from illness and restrictions preventing large groups of customers in businesses, the pandemic was cause for financial concern. However, certain industrious individuals used the pandemic to their advantage. Advertisements featured here show alleged cures and treatments against the Spanish influenza, highlighting the public’s desperation to ward off the flu and businesses’ aptitude for turning crises into profits.
F. E. Decker of Rusagornis Station writing to Dr. William F. Roberts on 23 February 1920 with a business proposition to market Decker’s alleged flu remedy.
Source: RS136-L5d6: Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
Advertisement for Wampole’s Paraformic Lozenges to “guard yourself against Spanish influenza” in the 23 October 1918 issue of Fredericton’s Daily Gleaner. Directly below is an advertisement for funeral services.
Source: MC1474: The Daily Gleaner fonds: [1889-2008], F02946.
J.P. Farrell’s The Royal Store advertisement proclaiming retail therapy is a cure against influenza-induced stress in the 30 October 1918 issue of Fredericton’s Daily Gleaner.
Source: MC1474: The Daily Gleaner fonds: [1889-2008], F02946.
Advertisement for “Riga” purgative water to safeguard against the flu in the 18 October 1918 issue of Saint John’s Daily Telegraph.
Source: MC1687: Daily Telegraph fonds, F13272.