Technological and industrial history of 20th-century Canada Blood tests would become increasingly sophisticated in the coming years. The electroencephalograph, used for the diagnosis of neurological disorders was introduced in major Canadian medical institutions in the late forties. The techniques for the mass production and distribution of vaccines and for the mass public inoculation were introduced during these years. Polio was a disease that affected large numbers of Canadian children during the first part of the 20th century. In the US, research by Dr. Jonas Salk in the late 1940s led to the discovery of vaccine for the prevention of this disease. However, there was no technique for
Jonas Salk "I had an opportunity to spend time in elective periods in my last year in medical school, in a laboratory that was involved in studies on influenza. The influenza virus had just been discovered about a few years before that. And, I saw the opportunity at that time to test the question as to whether we could destroy the virus infectivity and still immunize. And so, by carefully designed experiments, we found it was possible to do so." In 1941, during his postgraduate work in virology, Salk chose a two-month elective to work in the laboratory of Thomas Francis at