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by William Victor Johnston (Author)
Known to his friends as "Vic," and to the world as Canada's 'Mr. General Practitioner," Dr. William Victor Johnston has been called "the epitome of the much revered country doctor."
This is his story. his life, and his career which began in the remote village of Lucknow in 1924. Here he spent thirty years caring for the people of the village and surrounding countryside.
It was a challenging and intense life which encompassed not only Dr. Johnston's concern for his patient's physical complaints, but his deep interest in their worries and frustrations. He had in abundance the qualities we would like to find in our own family physician.
Before the Age of Miracles tells not only the story of Dr. Johnston's life as a family physician deep in the snow belt of Ontario but also of his conviction that if the family physician is to fulfill his proper place in the medical world. Opportunities and incentives must be provided for his continuing medical education. With this in view, Vic Johnston engaged in a personal continuing education program, combining his vacations with study in Detroit, Chicago, and New York.
This, along with his very human qualities, saw him elected to be a distinguished president of the Ontario Medical Association in 1949 where he concentrated on raising standards of practice and availability of medical education. Five years later the beginning of his dream came true when he was instrumental in forming the College of Family Physicians of Canada and became its founding director a post he held for eleven years.
The College has increased immeasurably the standing and prestige of the general practitioner. No longer a vanishing breed, some of today's most brilliant young medical graduates are answering the call for physicians who can look at the whole person, the psychomatic effects of personality, job, family, and so on.
"If the G.P. didn't exist," says Vic Johnston, "it wouldn't be long before we invented him."
Before the Age of Miracles describes vividly how people were treated for their diseases before the coming of the miracle drugs, and of the swift tragic occurrences of illnesses for which there was then no cure. Though it is written with a wry sense of humor, the book clearly reveals how much patients were helped by the presence of this dedicated physician, counsellor and friend.
Since his "retirement" in 1965, Dr. Johnston has served with the Addiction Research Foundation in Toronto. With honors, he is a life member of the Ontario Medical Association. a senior member of the Canadian Medical Association, an honorary Fellow of the Colleges of General Practice of Great Britain and Australia. He has an LL.D. from the University of Western Ontario. He also holds a Fellowship of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, which struck a medal in his honor and established the 'William Victor Johnston Oration.
