Keys to History

After the Boer War (1899-1902), McCrae returned to McGill to take up his postponed fellowship, working closely with George Adami (1862-1926), McGill University's Professor of Pathology. In 1902 he went on a study trip to Europe and wrote his exams for the Royal College of Physicians in London, England. Afterwards he became a special professor at the University of Vermont, and continued to teach there for six years after completing his fellowship in 1905.

By 1908 John McCrae was a physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Montreal. While working there, he became intrigued by cases diagnosed as scarlet fever, publishing several articles on his findings in the Montreal Medical Journal and the Maritime Medical News.

During the Maritime Medical Conference in 1908, McCrae gave a talk on scarlet fever and described cases from this hospital, including his experience with a three and a half year old child. This unfortunate infant suffered not only from scarlet fever but from a host of other diseases and complications. The physician was still able to make the story a humorous one, as the child went home quite healthy.