The historical development of French-Canadian anatomic pathology in the 20th century: a tale of two cities with a biographical sketch of two beloved colleagues, Joseph-Luc Riopelle of Montréal and Jean-Louis Bonenfant of Québec

Abstract

I o I The first faculty of medicine founded in the Province of uebec was that of McGill University, an English school, stablished in 1821; the faculty of medicine became opertional in 1829. The first French school, Universite Laval, in uebec City, was founded in 1852. The Universite de ontreal, a second French school, was founded in 1920. A ourth faculty of medicine, the Universite de Sherbrooke, lso French, accepted its first class in 1966. Although rench-Canadian pathologists of great distinction have orked in the first and last mentioned institutions, our focus ere is on the two most long-standing schools in the Frenchanadian tradition, and two of their most distinguished ervants receive special attention. Pierre Masson, the eminent French histopathologist, arived in Montreal in 1927, at age 46, as Director of Anaomic Pathology at Hopital Notre-Dame and Director of the epartment of Pathology at Universite de Montreal. Over he ensuing 32 years, Masson founded and molded a school f Anatomic Pathology, as documented in several biograhies. Masson is well known through his original descripions of pathologic entities, concepts regarding the origins f tumors, novel histological techniques, and textbook “Tueurs Humaines” (or “Human Tumors,” the excellent Enlish translation). Lesser known are the French-Canadian