Airy Science – Seeking Healthy Places to Summer

Metis’ claim to fame was that it had the clearest and the cleanest air in the province. But it had competitors for this title.

The resort community of Cacouna summoned the help of an expert to buoy its claims. A 1912 guidebook vaunted Cacouna and its pure air:

…Many Southern and Western physicians prescribe a summer residence here to such of their patients as are subject to general debility and lassitude resulting from life in low latitudes. The late Dr. Campbell, of Montreal, in his lifetime Canada’s leading physician, testified that after a careful observation of the effect upon his patients of the different watering places, both of the United States and of Canada, he was thoroughly convinced, that for convalescents Cacouna was immeasurably superior to all others. And he gave a practical illustration of his faith in Cacouna by erecting there the summer residence of his own family.

There was little science to back up the claim of Dr. Campbell. Nor was there any to support rival claims of Metis. Metis attracted a fair share of physicians. Montreal physicians Dr. Patton, Dr. Hugh Burke and Dr. Kemp all made Metis their summer home. Dr. William Hingston, who had led the efforts to combat the smallpox epidemic in Montreal in 1885, was another summer resident.

Tourism flyers sometimes made extravagant claims that the ozone content of Metis air was the highest on the continent. All science aside, the cool air, generous humidity and lack of pollution from local industry make Metis the ideal venue for rest, recuperation and healthy living.