Ward in the Montreal Hospital, the Hotel-Dieu, anon. circa 1700.
This primitive painting illustrates the religious vocation of the nursing sisters. The institution dates from the earliest days of the missionary settlement at Montreal, and like the H⌠tel-Dieu at Quebec it was funded by wealthy and pious members of the French nobility. Thus the Canadians received services that they could not have provided for themselves. Only those who were able were expected to pay for hospital care. Doctors and surgeons received a yearly salary for treating the charity patients. In addition to the H⌠tel-Dieu there were also Hospitals, or alms houses, again staffed by the clergy, which looked after the aged, the feeble, the insane, the orphans, and the poverty stricken who had no family to support them. The Crown subsidised these institutions and kept a close check on their operation. New France was, in fact, a well organized welfare state.
