The Climate of Canada and Its Relations to Life and Health

Sir William Hales Hingston (1829 – 1907) was a Canadian physician, politician, banker, and senator. Not only was an innovative surgeon, he was an excellent teacher, and wrote many medical articles during a career that spanned over 50 years. Active as he was medically, he still found time to serve a term as mayor of Montreal. In the Montreal smallpox epidemic of 1885, during which over 3000 of the 157,000 inhabitants died of the disease, Dr. Hingston was chairman of the newly formed provincial board of health. Besides setting up smallpox "hospitals" and trying to improve the city's sanitation, he was instrumental in instituting compulsory vaccination, using a special police force to drag unwilling citizens to be vaccinated.