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Douglas, James
James Douglas, surgeon (b at Brechin, Scot 20 May 1800; d at New York C, NY 14 Apr 1886). Admitted to the Edinburgh School of Medicine after a 5-year apprenticeship with Dr Thomas Law in Penrith, England, Douglas was admitted to the Edinburgh College of Surgeons in 1819 and to the London College of Surgeons in 1820. After practising in India, he came to Québec City in 1826 and around 1837 was given charge of the Marine and Emigrant Hospital, practising and teaching there.
In 1845 he acquired the first Québec asylum for the mentally ill, the Centre hospitalier Robert Giffard at BEAUPORT. Because of respiratory problems, he spent winters in Italy, Palestine or Egypt and in 1875 moved to Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. He is buried at Mount Hermon Cemetery, Sillery, Québec. The mental asylum of VERDUN is now called the Douglas Hospital.
