"Very truly and undisturbedly yours": Joseph Workman and a verdict of malpractice against John Galbraith Hyde.

As superintendent of the Provincial Lunatic Asylum in Toronto from 1853 to 1875, Dr. Joseph Workman came in contact with most of the medical practitioners in Ontario. One of these was Dr. John Galbraith Hyde of Stratford, a fellow Ulsterman with whom Workman appears to have corresponded regularly. Hyde emigrated to Canada from County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1841, having received his license to practise medicine from the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons at Glasgow the previous year. In 1849, after practising for seven and a half years in various backwoods settlements throughout the London District, he settled at Strat, ford. The date of his first acquaintance with Workman is unknown, but Workman mentions having family in Stratford, and it is possible that the friendship arose during Workman's visits with them. It is also interesting to note that when Workman took charge of the asylum in Toronto, the bursar was a James McKirdy. The postmaster at Amiens (where Hyde spent his first year in Canada) also had this name, and it is conceivable that Hyde came to know Workman through this connection as we1l.l