later assistant physician to the Royal Victoria Hospital,
and lecturer in medicine in the University. By examination
he became a member of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
In 1914 he was elected a member of the Association of American Physicians.
These are distinctions won by few in the profession.

In spite, or rather by reason, of his various attainments
John McCrae never developed, or degenerated, into the type
of the pure scientist. For the laboratory he had neither the mind
nor the hands. He never peered at partial truths so closely
as to mistake them for the whole truth; therefore, he was unfitted
for that purely scientific career which was developed
to so high a pitch of perfection in that nation which is now
no longer mentioned amongst men. He wrote much, and often,
upon medical problems. The papers bearing his name amount to
thirty-three items in the catalogues. They testify to his industry
rather than to invention and discovery, but they have made his name known
in every text-book of medicine.

Apart from his verse, and letters, and diaries, and contributions
to journals and books of medicine, with an occasional address to students
or to societies, John McCrae left few writings, and in these
there is nothing remarkable by reason of thought or expression.
He could not write prose. Fine as was his ear for verse
he could not produce that finer rhythm of prose, which comes from
the fall of proper words in proper sequence. He never learned
that if a writer of prose takes care of the sound the sense will take care
of itself. He did not scrutinize words to discover their first
and fresh meaning. He wrote in phrases, and used words at second-hand
as the journalists do. Bullets "rained"; guns "swept"; shells "hailed";