Community 99

farm kitchen, Dr. Gus sewed the ankles and bound the legs using barrel staves as splints. He hoped when he returned the following day that the boy’s mother would be ready to accept the inevitable. But, when he felt the boy’s feet, they were warm. The blood was circulating.

The boy recovered and learned to walk again, with some difficulty at first. But the day arrived when he was able to accompany his parents to Souris, walk into the Doctor’s Office and present him with a brown lustre jug. Dr. Gus never received a payment he treasured more. Shortly before he died in 1970, he returned the jug to the McCormack family.

The young boy, always called A.J., grew up, taught school for a few years and farmed in the parish ofSt. Margaret’s until his death in 1975. When the parents tried to express their thanks, Dr. Gus‘ reply was, “Don’t thank me. My hand was guided by a higher power.”16

In 1968, Governor General Roland Michener made a special trip to Souris to invest Dr. Gus, then age 94, in the Order of Canada. Many of the 4,300 babies the Doctor had brought into the world were in attendance to honour a devoted physician and friend.17

Smallpox

Even when doctors were available, there was little they could do to com~ bat the epidemics of contagious diseases that swept over the Island from time to time. The epidemics usually arrived by way of the sea. It was the schooner, Mary, from Miramichi that brought the smallpox that prevented Governor Ready from inspecting the militia at Naufrage on his trip in 1825. The disease was highly contagious and the victim, if he survived, was left badly scarred for life. Although inoculation against the disease had been proven successful as far back as the mid 1700s, there were strong religious and superstitious objections to the procedure for many years. As a result, as late as 1885 Islanders were still dying of the disease.”

. . . . . [; . ~ , . _ ) . , Souris Marlne Hospltal ”mm b) mm A [curd (uurtesy l’tuuns of the I ma M lulrdn