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disastrous harvest of 1848 finally forced him to sell the property. Nevertheless, Ges-ner’s prospects looked good, for while living in New Brunswick he had developed a process for extracting a high-quality illuminating gas, as well as an oil he called “kerosene,“ from Albertite ore. This mineral, similar to asphalt or bitumen, was named for its place of discovery, Albert County, New Brunswick.
    The name kerosene derived from the Greek
keros
and
elaion
, meaningrespectively “wax” and “oil.” Kerosene proved to be an excellent and cheap alternative to whale oil for lighting purposes. Gesner also invented a type of lantern suitable for burning his new discovery. Unintentionally, he had knocked the bottom out of the whale oil market and significantly reduced the slaughter of cetaceans. Many feel that the great whales would already be extinct but for his timely discovery.
    In 1846, he did a geological survey of Prince Edward Island and also had great success lecturing on his findings. Gesner was a forceful and charismatic speaker, and audiences always flocked to hear him. Not forgetting medicine entirely, Gesner also advocated that a summer cholera outbreak in Charlottetown could be stemmed by piping a clean source of fresh water from nearby Grey’s Spring.
    Moving back to Nova Scotia, Gesner became Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Appalled at the state of the Mi’kmaq nation, he organized a protest at the Nova Scotia legislature in 1849. Accompanied by ten Mi’kmaq chiefs in full regalia, he was greeted cordially by Lt. Governor Sir John Harvey. Little was accomplished by this rally except to damage Gesner’s reputation further in the eyes of the reactionary powers in Halifax.
    Unfortunately, Gesner was never able to obtain much financial benefit from his discoveries, due to opposition from well-financed monopolies such as Nova Scotia’s General Mining Association (GMA). Several disastrous and expensive lawsuits were all decided against him, and he found himself in worse financial straits than ever. This was in spite of the fact that the city of Washington D.C. had adopted his Albertite gas to light the American capital. Gesner’s old nemesis, Dr. Robb, actually did an about face and supported his former rival’s claims, but to no avail. Ten years after Gesner’s proposal to gaslight the city of Saint John was turned down, the city hired an American company to accomplish that task.
    In the face of these disappointments, Gesner decided to move to New York. The Americans had a greater appreciation for his talents than had his fellow Maritimers, and he was promptly snapped up by the newly formed Asphalt Mining and Kerosene Gas Company. Here he continued to expand on his work with kerosene, pioneering the modern petrochemical industry.
    Living in Brooklyn, Gesner’s son later related how at church picnics his kindhearted father would pass barrels of food across the fence to starvingurchins. In 1859, Dr. Gesner, at age sixty-two, lost his job with the Kerosene Gas Company due to a changeover in production techniques. He practiced medicine for a while in New York, then returned to Nova Scotia, working for a while on a fertilizer called “Artificial Guano,” and later tried his hand at gold prospecting. Still destitute, he applied to Dalhousie University in Halifax for a professorship of Chemistry and Natural History. Unfortunately, on the board of the college was one of the principals of the Halifax Gas Company, another company with which Gesner had feuded in the course of asserting his claims. His application was rejected and a Dr. Lawson from Toronto was offered the post.
    Gesner died in April 1864. No mention was made in his obituary of the doctor’s many accomplishments, and he was buried in an unmarked grave in the Camp Hill Cemetery in Halifax. In 1933, Imperial Oil finally erected a monument commemorating this great Canadian, the neglected founder of