l as resident
house officer; in 1899 he occupied a similar post at Johns Hopkins. Then
he came to McGill University as fellow in pathology and pathologist to
the Montreal General Hospital. In time he was appointed physician to the
Alexandra Hospital for infectious diseases; later assistant physician to
the Royal Victoria Hospital, and lecturer in medicine in the University.
By examination he became a member of the Royal College of Physicians,
London. In 1914 he was elected a member of the Association of American
Physicians. These are distinctions won by few in the profession.

In spite, or rather by reason, of his various attainments John McCrae
never developed, or degenerated, into the type of the pure scientist.
For the laboratory he had neither the mind nor the hands. He never
peered at partial truths so closely as to mistake them for the whole
truth; therefore, he was unfitted for that purely scientific career
which was developed to so high a pitch of perfection in that nation
which is now no longer mentioned amongst men. He wrote much, and
often, upon medical problems. The papers bearing his name amount to
thirty-three items in the catalogues. They testify to his industry
rather than to invention and discovery, but they have made his name
known in every text-book of medicine.

Apart from his verse, and letters, and diaries, and contributions to
journals and books of medicine, with an occasional address to students
or to societies, John McCrae left few writings, and in these there is
nothing remarkable by reason of thought or expression. He could not
write prose. Fine as was his ear for verse he could not produce that
finer rhythm of prose, which comes from the fall of proper words in
proper sequence. He never learned that if a writer of prose takes care
of the sound the sense will take care of itself. He did not scrutinize
words to discover their first and fresh meaning. He wrote in phrases,
and used words at second-hand as the journalists do. Bullets "rained";
guns "swept"; shells "hailed"; events "transpired", and yet his
appreciation of style in others was perfect, and he was an insatiable
reader of the best books. His letters are strewn with names of authors
whose worth time has proved. To specify them would merely be to write
the catalogue of a good library.

The thirteen years with which this century opened were the period in
which John McCrae established himself in civil life in Montreal and in
the profes