Alexander Milton Ross

Alexander Milton Ross (December 13, 1832 – October 27, 1897) was a Canadian botanist, naturalist, physician, abolitionist and anti-vaccination activist. He is best known as an agent for the secret Underground Railroad slave escape network, known in that organization and among slaves as "The Birdman" for his preferred cover story as an ornithologist.
Biography
Milton was born in Belleville, Ontario. He began his study of medicine in 1861 under the direction of Valentine Mott and subsequently under Russell Thacher Trall, the noted hygienic physician. Milton obtained his M.D. in 1855 and M.A. in 1867. He was appointed surgeon in the army of Nicaragua that was commanded by General William Walker.
Ross was an abolitionist and was involved in the anti-slavery struggle. During the Southern rebellion he was employed by President Lincoln as a confidential correspondent in Canada. He was appointed surgeon to the Republican army of President Juarez of Mexico. After the capture of Maximillian, he returned to Canada and became a naturalist. He collected and classified 570 species of birds that regularly or occasionally visit Canada, 232 species of bird eggs that breed in Canada and 247 species of mammals, reptiles and freshwater fish, 3400 species of insects and 2000 species of Canadian flora.
Ross was a member of the British Association of Science and of the French and American Associations. He received the Medal of Merit from the Shah of Persia in 1884, the decoration of honour from the Khedive of Egypt in 1884 and the decoration of the Académie Française from the Government of France in 1879. He was an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Linnean Society of London and the Zoological Society of London.
He was the founder of the Canadian Society for the Diffusion of Physiological Knowledge in 1880 and a founder of the St. Louis Hygienic College of Physicians and Surgeons. Ross married Hester E. Harrington. They had five children, of whom two daughters and a son survived infancy. Rose was an advocate of natural hygiene and opposed conventional medical treatment and all drugs which he considered unnatural. He abstained from alcohol and tobacco.
Ross died in Detroit.
Anti-vaccination
Ross was a staunch opponent of vaccination. He stated that vaccines were dangerous and useless to prevent smallpox. Instead, he advocated the strict enforcement of sanitation and isolation. In December 1885, Ross formed the Canadian Anti-Vaccination League (also called the Canadian Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League). Ross and the League considered compulsory vaccination an abuse of human rights. Ross authored anti-vaccination pamphlets that were widely circulated during the smallpox epidemic of 1885 in Montreal.
In 1885 during the epidemic, Ross left Montreal and his train entered Ontario. It was reported that he had been vaccinated as quarantine inspectors approached him and found a vaccination puncture mark on his arm not over a year old. Ross was criticized by major newspapers of the time for this dilemma, although Ross denied being vaccinated. A 1885 report by the State Board of Health of the State of Kansas suggested that Ross was only an anti-vaccinationist in theory not in practice as he had been vaccinated himself and his children were vaccinated. However, Ross continued to campaign against vaccination for the rest of his life. In 1888, Ross formed the Toronto Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League.
Books
Birds of Canada (1872)
Butterflies and Moths of Canada (1873)
Flora of Canada (1873)
Forest Trees of Canada (1874)
Ferns and Wild Flowers of Canada (1877)
Mammals, Reptiles, and Fresh-water Fish of Canada (1878)
The Fight Against Compulsory Vaccination (1883)
Stop!!: A Pitiable Sight!: People Driven Like Dumb Animals to the Shambles!!: Tyranny of Doctorcraft!!! (1885)
The Anti-Vaccinator, and Advocate of Cleanliness (1885)
Vaccination a Medical Delusion (1885)
Medical Practice of the Great Future
In popular culture
Ross appears as a character in the 1977 children's novel Underground to Canada which depicts four young slaves who, with Ross's help, escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad.
References
Further reading
Wright, Rick (2009) Birder undercover: the life and times of Alexander Milton Ross Birding 41(2): 46-50
1832 births
1897 deaths
19th-century Canadian physicians
Canadian abolitionists
Canadian anti-vaccination activists
Canadian naturalists
Canadian non-fiction writers
Canadian temperance activists
Hygienists
Orthopaths
Underground Railroad people