- DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Rhona Richman Kenneally, “CAMERON, JAMES CHALMERS,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. See full biography at: https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cameron_james_chalmers_14E.html
- DCB profile notes:
- Physician, professor, and hospital administrator; b. 18 Jan. 1852 in Aultsville, Upper Canada, son of the Reverend James Yeo Cameron and Charlotte Ann Ault; m. 2 Sept. 1880 Elizabeth Jane Dakers in Montreal, and they had one son; d. there 16 March 1912.
- A descendant of United Empire Loyalists on both sides of his family, James Chalmers Cameron attended Upper Canada College in Toronto before entering the medical faculty of McGill College, Montreal, in 1871. His medical training reflected two important foci which would be instrumental in his success as a practitioner and a professor: an extensive, varied, and thorough medical education and a close commitment to the clinical aspects of his profession.
- In April 1884 the chair of obstetrics and diseases of children was offered to him, but he served only a short while. By October 1885 he had announced his wish to resign from the chair as well as from his position as registrar of the medical faculty (which he had held since 1883). He pleaded illness and wanted the freedom to “try a change of climate on short notice.” The change he sought may have been political rather than geographical: in February 1886 he expressed a desire to terminate completely his relationship with Bishop’s – still on the grounds of ill health and despite having been made emeritus professor the previous December – and by May he had accepted the chair of midwifery and diseases of infants at McGill College. McGill had a superior reputation and afforded greater advantages to an ambitious physician.
- Cameron would make important contributions to McGill’s medical faculty, among them a substantial donation of $5,000 along with valuable models and other implements to teach obstetrics. He served on numerous standing committees, including those which administered the medical library and the faculty’s museum. It was in his capacity as professor of midwifery (obstetrics) and therefore as ex officio chief physician of the University Maternity Hospital, however, that his influence was most strongly felt. His stewardship of the hospital, renamed the Montreal Maternity Hospital in 1887, coincided with a period of transformation for obstetrics. From a natural phenomenon guided by a midwife, birth came to be regarded as a medical event increasingly dependent on technology and professional expertise.
- Cameron’s professional achievements included appointments as honorary president of the section on paediatrics at the second Pan-American Medical Congress (held in Mexico City in 1896), as honourable fellow of the American Gynecological Society in 1910, and as a member of the British Medical Association, the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society, and the Montreal Medico-Chirurgical Society.
- Great Grandson of proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=1163
- Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/108117090/james-chalmers-cameron
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