Dr William Osler and the Pictou County cattle disease

摘要

Rural physicians are sometimes called upon to treat or offer an opinion on a sick animal. They carry on a noble tradition; the great Canadian physician of the late 19th and early 20th century, William Osier, was also not just a single-species doctor. Never one to leave an area of inquiry unrecorded, he published at least 13 articles on veterinary topics. Among the topics Dr Osier would study was a mysterious disease that for decades had been afflicting cattle in Pictou County on the Northumberland Shore of Nova Scotia.