iH..- 
 
 / 
 
 NOTES 
 
 ON 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 DR. JOSEPH WORKMAN 
 
 t 
 
 r 
 
 Boy^^, ^A\;»li^ 
 
 •/"■*-• *y~\* 
 
 TORONTO : 
 
 ARBUTHNOT BROS. & CO. 
 
 1894 
 
Dr. Joseph Workman. 
 
 By David Boyle. 
 
 READ BEFORE THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE, 21 ST APRIL, 1S94. 
 
 '& N the death of Dr. Joseph Workman,- the Canadian 
 ^__pf Institute has lost one of its most distinguished 
 8U^ members, and medical science one of its brightest 
 
 ornaments, in his specialty as an alienist and 
 
 neurologist. 
 He was born on the 26th of May, 1805, within a short 
 distance of Lisburn, county of Antrim, Ireland. A somewhat 
 remote ancestor of his was the Rev. Willian Workman, of 
 St. Stephen's Church, in the ancient city of Gloucester, 
 England. This gentleman having publicly made known his 
 opposition to wl it are now-a-d-^.ys known as High Church 
 practices was "silenced" by the celebrated Archbishop Laud, 
 and this virtual deposition from the holy office was suf- 
 ficiently wide in its effects to prevent its subject from earn- 
 ing a Hvehhood even as a pedagogue. His son Wilham 
 became a Roundhead, and entered Ireland with a company 
 of Cromwell's Ironsides. At the close of the warfare he 
 received a gift of land from the Protector, "for helping him 
 to cut Irish throats at Drogheda and elsewhere," to use the 
 language of Dr. W^orkman when referring to this event, but 
 finding himself unable to hold his newly acquired property, 
 for reasons that are not far to seek, he relinquished his 
 claims to it, or, to quote again from Dr. Workman, "The 
 land came from the Devil and it went back to hini." 
 
 Joseph Workman the father, and Benjamin Workman the 
 uncle of the doctor, came to Philadelphia shortly after the 
 
 * Died in Toronto, April 15th, 1894, in his eighty-ninth year. 
 
-.iML, 
 
 close of the x\merican War of Independence. Here they 
 were made acquainted with Benjamin Franklin who was 
 then in the zenith of his fame. Both of the young men 
 were teachers and secured positions in the college that after- 
 wards became the University of Pennsylvania, Joseph as 
 English, and Benjamin as mathematical master. About 1790 
 the latter published a geography which' for m.any years main- 
 tained a high reputation in the schools of the United States. 
 Returning to Ireland after a three years' residence in America 
 the doctor's father married Catharine Goudie, or Gowdie, who 
 belonged to a family from Ayrshire, Scotland. For his mother 
 (who died at the age of 102) the doctor entertained peculiarly 
 affectionate recollections, and invariably spoke of her as his 
 " best and dearest friend." Their family consisted of eight 
 sons and one daughter. Joseph, our doctor, w^as the fourth 
 son. His early opportunities of receiving an education were 
 not of the best. For some time he attended a school taught 
 by his brother Benjamin at Mullacarten, three Irish, or nearly 
 four English, miles from Lisburn, and this distance he used 
 to say he " walked, in all kinds of weather, and thought no- 
 thing of it." Afterwards he was sent for a time to a school 
 kept by a Mr. Charles Shields, in Lisburn, and last of all 
 to the academy of Benj. Neely and Son in the same town. It 
 is quite evident that he made good use of his time at these 
 modest institutions of learning for in 1826, when only a little 
 over twenty-one years of age he was appointed to a res- 
 ponsible position on the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, where 
 he continued to be employed for three years, a period that 
 he always regarded as having afforded him the be^t part of 
 his education. Preceded by five brother^, the rest of the 
 Workman family, including the subject of this sketch, came 
 to Canada in 1829, arriving in Quebec on the 15th day of 
 May, after a fairly rapid passage of five weeks. For some 
 time his eldest brother Benjamin had been conducting the 
 Union School in Montreal, but on the arrival of the family 
 from Ireland he retired from this charge, which was entered 
 upon by the two brothers Joseph and Alexander, the former 
 teaching English, classics and mathematics. During the five 
 
years they continued to be so engaged, Joseph attended 
 medical lectures, frequented the general hospital, and received 
 private instruction from Dr. John Stephenson, of whom he 
 always spoke in high terms, sometimes referring to him 
 as "a warm-hearted, impetuous man." He graduated in 
 McGill University, as M.D., in 1835. He was an active 
 worker during the two fearful out-breaks of cholera which 
 afflicted Montreal during these years, when so frightful was 
 the mortality that not fewer than 3,000 died on the first 
 occasion, out of a total population of 30,000 ! At that time 
 he was one of the few medical men who claimed that the 
 disease was a contagious one. 
 
 In Montreal, Dr. Workman married Miss Elizabeth Was- 
 nidge, of Sheffield, Yorkshire, in 1835, ^^Y whom he had a 
 family of seven sons and three daughters, of whom three 
 sons and two daughters survive both parents. 
 
 On coming to Toronto in 1836 he became engaged as 
 a hardware merchant, succeding his brother-in-law, Mr. W. 
 Wasnidge, who died suddenly as the result of an accident. 
 For some time afterwards the firm was known as that of 
 Workman Brothers, his brother Samuel having become a 
 partner. Their place of business was on King St., opposite 
 St. James' Cathedral. Without any liking for commercial 
 life, and having, all the time he w^as so engaged, kept up 
 his professional reading, besides being an active member of 
 the Medical Society, he retired from business in 1846 and 
 betook himself to professional practice. He was soon ap- 
 pointed to the chair of Obstetrics and Therapeutics under 
 Dr. Rolph in Toronto Schocl of Medicine, and there are 
 yet living scores of doctors, well advanced in years, who 
 recall with pleasure the lectures delivered by^Dr. Workman 
 in those early days. 
 
 On the retirement of Dr. Scott from the superintendency 
 of the Toronto Asylum for the Insane, the Hon. Dr. Rolph, 
 then a cabinet minister, came from Quebec to beg that Dr. 
 Workman would assume charge of the institution until a 
 permanent appointment could be made. Dr. Workman agreed 
 to do so, and was himself permanently appointed on the ist 
 
 1 
 
of July, 1853. He continued to hold this position until July 
 19th, 1875, a period of twenty-two years, and one which 
 might have been lengthened by half as many more at least 
 had he cared to remain. 
 
 As an authority on brain affections he stood in the front 
 rank, and was frequently referred to by European and 
 American professional journals as the " Nestor among stud- 
 ents of mental disease." He was one of the first among 
 those in charge of the insane to suggest and adopt modern 
 and humane methods of treatment, but while kind and 
 tender-hearted as a child to his patients, he was neverthe- 
 less opposed to the indiscriminate freedom allowed by sonic 
 superintendents to those under their care. 
 
 Although he never attempted the role of an author, so 
 far as book-making was concerned, he wrote many valuable 
 original papers for professional journals in Canada and the 
 United States. 
 
 During some of the earlier years of his residence in 
 Toronto he took an active part in political controversy, 
 and was the chief editorial writer for one of the news- 
 papers. He had an excellent command of English, which 
 he could and did use with striking effect in the furtherance 
 of views he advocated, or in the demolition of arguments 
 employed by his opponents. 
 
 As a linguist. Dr. Workman had few equals. In addi- 
 tion to his knowledge of the classics, he was more or less 
 familiar with Scotch, Welsh and Irish Gaelic ; German, 
 Danish, French, Italian, and Spanish, and translation from 
 these to English was a favorite occupation with him for 
 many years, especially after he resigned his superintendency 
 of the asylum, for so conscientious was he in the discharge 
 of his duties, that he allowed nothing to withdraw his atten- 
 tion for a moment from the care of his numerous patients, 
 and the general oversight of the institution. 
 
 His translations were chiefly on medical subjects, more 
 particularly on diseases of the brain, and they appeared 
 from time to time in the best American and Canadian 
 professional magazines. 
 
For fully half a century he was a close observer of 
 meteorological phenomena, and as many of his nctes were 
 made daily for a long time before the establishment of- an 
 observatory in this city, they form a valuable record. The 
 late Henry G. Vennor made a very liberal use of these 
 notes in his study of Canadian weather. 
 
 The pubhc school system of Ontario had no warmer 
 f*-iend than he. About 1841, when trustees were first 
 appointed by government, those who were selected for St. 
 Lawrence ward were Dr. Joseph Workman, Dr. Widmer, 
 and Mr. Wm. Cawthra. He took a very active part in 
 the establishment and management of the pioneer schools, 
 and remained in office until the trustees were made elective, 
 when he became the first chairman of the Toronto Board, 
 a position he held for three or four years, and it is worthy 
 of note that, from the outset, he fought vigorously against 
 all attempts on the part of a good many influential rate- 
 payers to introduce religious teaching, claiming as he did 
 that such a course would inevitably lead to a general de- 
 mand for sectarian schools. 
 
 Dr. Workman had his full share of professional honors, 
 and few men deserved them better. He was president of 
 the Medical Association of Canada, of the Ontario Medical 
 Association (of which he was one of the founders), and for 
 several years he presided over the Medical Society of 
 Toronto, in whose rooms there hangs a fine oil-painted 
 portrait of the doctor, a tribute to his worth, from a few 
 of his friends. 
 
 He was an honorary member of the Italian Societa 
 Freniatra, and of other similar bodies in various European 
 countries, but the highest possible acknowledgement was paid 
 to his professional attainments when he was elected to an 
 honorary membership in the Medico- Psychological Association 
 of Great Britain, an honor which no one in America, and 
 few anywhere else out of Britain had received at that time. 
 
 As a man it may be truly said of him in the words of 
 his countryman, Goldsmith, that " even his failings leaned 
 to virtue's side." He was very fond of children, and took 
 
;) ! 
 
 great pleasure in the company of grown-up young people, 
 unless he detected in any of the latter a tendency to self- 
 assertion or dandyism, qualities to which his aversion was 
 very marked. His attachments were strong, and he would 
 neither say himself, nor permit others to say in his hearing, 
 a word against those who were on his list of friends. He 
 had few enemies, and perhaps no man so long in public 
 life was ever more generally respected. 
 
 Modesty was one of his most characteristic qualities — 
 
 > he made no pretentions to encyclopaedic knowledge — never 
 
 hesitated to confess his ignorance, and was in this respect 
 
 a model for many — for many, indeed, not half so well 
 
 informed. 
 
 A most remarkable feature was his disposition to accept 
 and adopt new, if apparently well-founded, scientific and 
 theological theories, even long after he was in the "sere 
 and yellow leaf.'' ,In the light of modern discovery he had 
 no respect for moss-grown beliefs. 
 
 His memory was a marvellously retentive one. Names, 
 facts, incidents and dates it may truly be said he had at 
 < j his fingers' ends by the thousand. Poetry he could quote 
 
 ^ " extensively, even to within a few minutes of his death, his 
 
 - £ favorite authors being Shakespeare, Moore, Burns and Pope. 
 
 Only an hour or so before he died he assisted in complet- 
 ing a quotation from Scotia's bard, which had been com- 
 menced by one of the two last friends who saw him alive. 
 
 As a parent, physician, scholar, gentleman, and friend he 
 will be sadly missed by the surviving members of his family, 
 and by all whose privilege it was to have formed his 
 acquintance. 
 
 It would be easy to write much in praise of the late 
 Dr. Joseph Workman, though contrary to all his well-known 
 tastes and wishes, but this may be safely said, and to this, 
 he himself, were he living, w^ould take no exception, any 
 more than he would claim a particle of credit for the fact, 
 namely, that throughout a long life-time, acting in many 
 capacities, both private and public, he strove to do hie duty^ 
 and he invariably did it well. 
 
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