Over a century later, lesson not learned
What’s changed over 135 years in Montreal? Libraries are filled with such knowledge. In the age of COVID-19, we find one shameful phenomenon in Quebec that apparently hasn’t changed in over a century: denial and refusal of science by some in the population when faced with a public health crisis. The year of 1885 saw a plague in Montreal. The city had successfully dealt with smallpox outbreaks prior to 1885, primarily through vigorous vaccination campaigns. But this time was different.
This post—including the images—was formed from the detailed account of the 1885 smallpox epidemic in Montreal written by historian Michael Bliss in his book Plague. Published in 1991, it is now out of print and not easy to find, but is well worth the asking price if you seek it out.
Who died in the 1885 plague in Montreal?
The recorded death toll for the 1885 plague was 3,234 Montrealers. This doesn’t sound devastating if we don’t take population size into consideration. In 2020, as of the first day of September, COVID-19 deaths on the island came to 3,471. However, this is out of some 2 million people who live on it today. Conversely, in 1885, plague deaths accounted for nearly 2% of the population of Montreal. The twist in the story is that francophones accounted for 91% of the deaths in 1885. The smallpox death rate for French-Canadians was more than 8 times the rate of other Montrealers. Why?
It’s impossible to understand why without having historical context. We can oversimplify the situation by agreeing that many anglophones — driven in part by business / economic concerns — promoted the idea of widespread vaccination, while many French-Canadians perceived vaccination as another form of English oppression. But persistent animosity between anglophones and francophones, which at the time was also often a proxy for economic disparity, was only part of the equation.
Advertisement for an almost assuredly ineffective prophylactic “odoriferant” against smallpox.
La picotte was the Quebec term for smallpox.
Why was the 1885 plague in Montreal so deadly?
Smallpox vaccine had, by 1885, been already successfully used for the better part of a century. The vaccine was responsible for helping to keep the virus in check throughout Canada in that era. Anti-vaccination crusaders and those they confused were central to the failure of preventing the fiasco of 1885. Alexander Milton Ross, M.D., was one such fanatic who catalyzed the spread of smallpox via his spread of anti-vaccination propaganda. The man would have adored social media platforms of the 21st century.
Scores of children in Montreal have been poisoned with a loathsome disease by vaccination. Don’t allow your children to be poisoned with the vile putrescence of a beast, or the syphilitic poison of unclean men.”
— A.M. Ross
In fairness, he did promote sanitation and hygiene, which were important considerations in addressing the pox. The tragedy of A.M. Ross was certainly the havoc he wrought via the misinformation he spread, but we can see now too the tragedy of how close he came to being remembered entirely fondly by history. He was a physician, a reformer, a naturalist who collected and classified Canadian flora and fauna, and an active abolitionist who participated in the Underground Railroad.
In the interest of history, you can view / download his “evidence” such as this catalog record. His earnest but misleading propaganda can also be found in the NIH’s National Library of Medicine. Keep in mind that the 135 years since then have proven vaccines extremely useful as a foundation for public health.
An example of A.M. Ross propaganda from August 1885, complete with inflammatory artwork, a Bible verse, and claims that physicians only wanted to make money from vaccinations. The more things change, the more they stay the same…
Deplorable Failure: Then and Now
One of the most dangerous SARS-CoV-2 failures in the “United” States was how the plague became deeply political, making a uniform public response nearly impossible. The failures of 2020 and 1885 have some similarities. The municipal plague in Montreal was aggravated by the animosity between anglophones and francophones, which was a “political” divide of the time that in some sense still lingers today.
Similar to the embarrassment felt amongst Americans in 2020 due to the expansive, potent failure of Mr Trump and his followers to take the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic seriously, many Montrealers were embarrassed in 1885 by the failure of too many other Montrealers to participate in public health. In the Montreal Witness, an English-language Protestant newspaper published in Montreal from 1845 to 1938, sentiments such as this were expressed during the pox:
We feel intensely the shame of being regarded by the world as contaminated, and of being open to the charges of tolerating a loathsome disease and of endangering a whole continent by breeding and disseminating a pestilence.”
Resistance to scientific knowledge in 2020 is not terribly different from what was documented over a century ago. In 1885, you would find some mothers in poorer neighborhoods not hesitating to visit a neighbor with smallpox. A belief in “the will of God” triumphed over concerns about spreading a disease that infected believers and non-believers alike.
With that level of denial, it is especially understandable why mothers might be highly resistant to their children being taken away to hospitals for quarantine and (optimistically) for recovery. A major difference between this municipal smallpox plague and today’s COVID-19 is that in 1885, nearly 86% of the deaths were children under 10 years of age, with 66.5% under 5 years old. Back then, freedom could actually be taken away, whereas today we hear wounded cries of oppression due to not being able to visit a hairdresser.
Anti-vaccination mobs
Imagine vaccination riots happening today. We need only wait until 2021 to determine if history will repeat here in this respect. In 1885, mobs smashed up and into pharmacies that sold vaccinations. When the French-Canadian press needed a scapegoat for riots against public health measures, communists were blamed. Responses from the communists were appropriate, given the absurdity of the charge: “To start an anti-vaccination riot composed of little boys is a business that a Communist laughs at”, and “We are in favor of it. I have done my utmost all along to persuade my French-Canadian customers to be vaccinated and they are now seeing the necessity of it.” (While today communism is still a favorite bogeyman in the “United” States, at least this foolishness is not the case in contemporary Quebec).
Catholic confusion
The plague in Montreal posed a dilemma for churchmen. Wouldn’t prayer and procession be needed more than ever during a plague? How could it be that churchgoers would worsen the plague by congregating? At least one Catholic priest assessed the situation as a punishment that Montrealers had earned. Protestants were more likely to blend nature and science into their theology. But it should be noted that the Catholic church repeatedly spoke in favor of vaccination, and mostly complied with civic authorities in 1885.
The plague in Montreal: Will history repeat?
As of September, the response in Montreal to the current pandemic has been both a success and a failure. A success in that some significant counteractive measures were taken when appropriate, and a failure in that despite this, Montreal came to be known as the epicenter of the pandemic in Canada. But the true test for Montrealers is yet to come. The approaching flu season on top of schools again populated with students introduce new challenges in facing the pandemic. Perhaps of more import than additional cases in 2020: How many in the city will refuse a vaccine in 2021?
The apathy or antipathy about wearing masks is a troubling predictor of what could happen when other variables in Montreal are even less favorable towards success against the virus. Conspiracy theories, anti-vaccination misinformation, and other anti-science leanings are poised to create a public health crisis in 2021. Will it be like 1885? Not in most ways. Comparing smallpox to SARS-CoV-2 is like comparing apples with oranges. But the concept of thousands of preventable deaths is a timeless one, and the effects of a death in the family today probably remain similar to 135 years ago.