Amazing Medical Stories by George Burden Page A

own. (Though Boris Karloff is also a descendant of Anna, we won’t include him as he only
played
Dr. Frankenstein’s very famous patient.)
    Dr. James Fyshe was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on March 8, 1879, the first of six siblings. His father, Thomas Fyshe, was an executive with the Bank of Nova Scotia, and he had married Anna’s daughter Avis in June of the previous year in New York. James was something of a favourite with his grandmother, who shared their Halifax home. His childhood was dominated by this strong-willed woman who regaled him with stories of her adventures in India, Thailand, Russia and other exotic places. Her tutelage was strict, with little time allowed away from schooling and homework. Despite this, his childhood diary indicates James’s lively interest in ponds and trout fishing, proving at least an occasional escape from his grandmother’s watchful eye.
    In 1888, Anna packed up the entire clan, except the children’s poor father, Thomas, for a five-year sojourn in Germany. This was arranged to further her grandchildren’s education and to allow her to attend lectures

----
    Dr. James Fyshe travelled to Siam in the footsteps of his illustrious grandmother, Anna Leonowens. THE FYSHE FAMILY
    on Sanskrit (apparently a waste of time as she turned out to know more Sanskrit than her instructor). While in Europe, she assumed the care of two more grandchildren, offspring of her son Louis, who had becomea prosperous businessman in Thailand. Unfortunately, Louis’ wife, the daughter of a Thai princess, died in her mid-thirties of kidney disease. So he sent the children off to be raised by their grandmother while he pursued an unconventional lifestyle (at least for a Victorian-era Englishman), which included concubines, a harem and troupes of acrobats, boxers, and dancers.
    After the return of his family, now grown in number by two, Thomas, the long-suffering bank executive, was transferred to Montreal. Not long after the family’s arrival, Avis died of “acute gastrointestinal catarrh and congestive heart failure,” and Anna assumed the duty of raising her eight grandchildren.
    James enrolled in Arts at Harvard University, but in 1901 he transferred to McGill, where he earned a BA. By 1904 he decided his future lay in medicine, and he subsequently graduated from McGill Medical School, standing seventh in his class. James did his medical residency at the Montreal General Hospital and afterwards became medical superintendent at the Alexandra Hospital for Contagious Diseases.
    He did not remain there long before he decided to follow in his grandmother’s footsteps and take up the position of Superintendent of the Government Hospital in Bangkok, as well as the title of Assistant Medical Officer of Health. On his arrival in Bangkok in 1907, after a four-month sea journey, his Uncle Louis greeted Dr. Fyshe with great fanfare. A prim and proper Victorian gentleman, thanks to his grandmother’s teachings, James no doubt looked a little askance at his uncle’s notorious activities. He was also faced with a formidable task in reforming the Thai health care system and dealing with the myriad diseases endemic in Southeast Asia. Even with King Chulalongkorn as an ally, the bureaucracy of Siam was slow to make changes, which James must have found extremely frustrating. King Chulalongkorn died of kidney disease in 1910 (one wonders if some hereditary form of renal disease, perhaps polycystic kidneys, ran in the royal family). With the loss of his royal patron’s support, James realized his task was hopeless. He decided to return to Canada in 1911. However, his stay had not been fruitless. While in Thailand, Dr. Fyshe had gained a young bride, Julia Corisande Mattice, from Montreal, known more commonly by her interesting sobriquet, “Zulu.” A son, Thomas, had been born to the couple in 1909, before their departure.
    On his return to Montreal, James became