Those were the days of a queer, and now forgotten, controversy
over what was called "Science and Religion". Of that also
I have written in another place. It was left to Sir William Dawson
to deliver the last word in defence of a cause that was already lost.
His book came under the eye of David McCrae, as most books of the time did,
and he was troubled in his heart. His boys were at the University of Toronto.
It was too late; but he eased his mind by writing a letter.
To this letter John replies under date 20th December, 1890:
"You say that after reading Dawson's book you almost regretted
that we had not gone to McGill. That, I consider, would have been
rather a calamity, about as much so as going to Queen's."
We are not always wiser than our fathers were, and in the end
he came to McGill after all.

For good or ill, John McCrae entered the University of Toronto in 1888,
with a scholarship for "general proficiency". He joined the Faculty of Arts,
took the honours course in natural sciences, and graduated from
the department of biology in 1894, his course having been interrupted
by two severe illnesses. From natural science, it was an easy step
to medicine, in which he was encouraged by Ramsay Wright, A. B. Macallum,
A. McPhedran, and I. H. Cameron. In 1898 he graduated again,
with a gold medal, and a scholarship in physiology and pathology.
The previous summer he had spent at the Garrett Children's Hospital
in Mt. Airy, Maryland.

Upon graduating he entered the Toronto General Hospital as resident
house officer; in 1899 he occupied a similar post at Johns Hopkins.
Then he came to McGill University as fellow in pathology
and pathologist to the Montreal General Hospital. In time he was appointed
physician to the Alexandra Hospital for infectious diseases;