SELF-HELP MEDICAL LITERATURE IN 19TH-CENTURY CANADA AND THE RHETORICAL CONVENTION OF PLAIN LANGUAGE

In earlier centuries, authors of medical works intended for popular re aders defended their use of the vernacular against potential criticism from their learned colleagues. Scholars have shown that by the sixtee nth to seventeenth centuries such defence reflected rhetorical posturi ng more than political reality. This article examines self-help medica l literature in 19th-century Canada, revealing that authors adopted a similar stance in writing for the public. Not only did this rhetorical convention continue, but it also did not assure adoption of the plain style advocated. Moreover, a comparison of their style with that of m edical textbook authors reveals few real differences.