Maternalism and the Homeopathic Mission in Late-Victorian Montreal

The author examines the interaction between homeopathy and material values by examining the Montreal Homeopathic Hospital, which opened in 1894. Through an analysis of women's diverse roles within the institution, she demonstrates the variety of ways in which maternalism found expression. She argues that the maternal ideology was particularly compatible with homeopathy’s self-proclaimed mission to the poor, the emphasis it placed upon inculcating familial values within the homeopathic community, its appeal to women as patients, its claim to reduce child mortality, and the image it cultivated of the special role of the homeopathic mother. In 1951, the Montreal Homeopathic Hospital changed its name to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. In 1996 the hospital became a not-for-profit ambulatory health care centre.

Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin canadien d’histoire de la médecine

vol. 16

no. 2

293-315

1999

en