C H A P T E R LXI. THE DISCIPLES OF /ESCULAPIUS.
SYNOPSIS:—The First Medical Board in New South Wales. —The First Roll of Practitioners in Port Phillip.—Death of Sir Astley Cooper. —The First Medical Board in Port Phillip.—"A Board of Honour!'—Dr. Alexander Thomson.— Dr. Barry Cotter.—Dr. Patrick Cussen. the First Public Vaccinator.—Dr. David Patrick and Dr. David E. Wilkie. —Dr. Farquhar M'Crae.—Dr. Arthur O'Mullane.—Dr. E. C. Hobson.—Dr. IV. B. Wilmot.—Dr. David John Thomas.—Dr. J. B. Clutterbuck.—Dr. William Henry Campbell.—Dr. F. T. Ford.—Dr. John Sproat.— Dr. Thomas Black.—Dr. C. J. Sanford.—Dr. John Patterson.—Dr. John Dickson.—De. /. F. Palmer.— Dr. A. F. A. Greeves.—Dr. W. J. Dease.—Dr. Edward Barker.—Dr. C. Walkin.—Dr. Alexander Hunter.— Early Surgical Operations. —The First Medical Association.—Architects, Surveyors, and Engineers.—Ecclesiastical: Rev. Robert Knopwood.
UROPEAN professors of the "healing art" made their appearance in Port Phillip so early as 1803, in the persons of the medical staff attached to the abortive Collins Convict Expedition. They were Messrs. William Janson, Matthew Bowden, and William Hopley, ranking respectively as first, . second, and third Assistant-Surgeons, and rated at annual salaries of ,£"182 10s. for number one, and ,£91 5s. each to the deputies. After the Batman occupation of 1835, arrangements were m a d e with Dr. Alexander T h o m s o n to come from V a n Diemen's Land in the dual capacity of Medical Officer and Religious Instructor or catechist of the settlement, which it was assumed would follow in the wake of the Batman Company, and he arrived accordingly. In 1836, this gentleman acted as a sort of Colonial Surgeon, and was recognized as such until the 12th April. 1837, when he was relieved by Dr. Patrick Cussen, officially detached from Sydney to assume the control of thefirstregular medical establishment formed in the province. T h efirstregular public practitioner was Mr. Barry Cotter, a surgeon ; and as there was but little doctoring in the small community, no other medico seems to have had sufficient courage to try his luck here until 1839, when a trio of M . D s appeared—• Doctors Wilkie, M'Crae, and Patrick. T h e first and the third named entered into partnership, but soon dissolved, whilst the second singly advertised his commencement of the practice of medicine and surgery in Bourke Street West. A Dr. Ewing next opened a medical dispensary in the Market Square, and subsequently embarked in business relations with Cotter (who was to be a sleeping partner) at the north-east corner of Queen and Collins Streets. But sleeping or waking they did not pull long together. T h e first Medical Board established at Sydney under the Act 2 Vic, N o . 22, consisted of Messrs. J. V. Thomson, Deputy-Inspector-General of Hospitals in N e w South Wales ; Charles Nicholson and Frances Lascelles Wallace, M . D s , and to this tribunal the qualifications of all persons proposing to follow the medical profession in any part of the colony should be submitted, and its approval was necessary to secure recognition in the various Courts of Law. T h e first roll of legally qualified medical practitioners resident in Port Phillip is printed in Kerr's Directory for 1842, and is a curious relic of our colonial Medical History :— " Physicians.—Jonathan Clarke, Assistant Colonial Surgeon, Geelong; Patrick Cussen, Assistant Colonial Surgeon, Melbourne; Farquhar M'Crae, J.P., L a Rose, Moonee-Moonee Ponds, Melbourne; Henry Lewis O'Hara, Little Bourke Street, Melbourne; Arthur O'Mullane, Little Collins Street, Melbourne; Forster Shaw, Bayview Cottage, North Corio; William B y a m Wilmot, Coroner for the District, Melbourne. "Surgeons.—James Frederick Palmer, Flinders Street, Melbourne; John Patterson, R.N., Agent for Immigration, Melbourne; Charles John Sanford, Collins Street, Melbourne; David John Thomas, Bourke Street, Melbourne; Henry Watson, Collins Street, Melbourne."
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