the Peace in 1869, and is one of the oldest honorary magistrates in the colony.
In addition to being a medical man of more than ordinary attainments, he has some literary ability. His descriptions of the journey through Queensland are effectively penned. That he is possessed of poetic instinct is shown in his poem written on board the ship Nourmahal, off Cape Horn. In referring to the beautiful ice mountains, he says:—
"For, frequent rise the dreaded icebergs near—
Vast, cold, and cheerless; silent, grim, and tall;
Of forms fantastic, hugely strange and queer,
With surf high breaking on each glassy wall."
Being a clever conversationalist, Dr. Barnett sometimes treats his friends to a priceless wealth of anecdote; stories which, indeed, roam largely over five hemispheres.
DR. FRANK TRATMAN, J.P., M.D., M.R.C.S., D.P.H., L.R.C.P. (Eng.).
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Photo by DR. FRANK TRATMAN, J.P. Greenham & Evans. |
THE survival of the fittest—the uprising of merit—is one of the undeniable characteristics of the nineteenth century, in which work in any profession is highly specialised, and none but the specialist is held to be of any account. The time has gone by when mediocre brains or acquirements can pass muster in the world under a counterfeited hallmark of quality, and maintain for their possessor a spurious credit. The world is too perceptive and too critical to accept a make-believe for performances of the first class; there are too many eager competitors in the field to expose the cheat, and to jealously pull down the usurper of prizes that are fairly beyond his reach. To obtain distinction in any pursuit in these days of high pressure, not only talent, but singleness of purpose, is necessary, and sedulous application for the development in the highest measure of natural gifts, and it is only when this exacting combination of forces is happily found in association that rivals are distanced, and the victor bears away the palm. "The runners," as Carlyle says, "are treading on each other's heels; woe to him who stops to tie his shoe-string." This is especially true of the medical profession. The day has gone by when, as one writer puts it, a doctor may pour drugs of which he knows little into bodies of which he knows less. The physician or the surgeon works under too clear a light of public opinion to be able to assume a knowledge when he has it not. It is true that his patients do not understand his methods, but they judge him by the test of results, which is the most practical test of the efficiency and value of his services, which may manifest an inborn skill of diagnosis or merely a mechanical rule of thumb application of book learning, to all cases alike without discrimination, and which are rewarded respectively by a large practice, and the semi-starvation of the unhappy practitioner who has mistaken his vocation. The range of medical learning has become so wide with the accumulated experience of the ages, since the time of Esculapius, that it may be taken for granted that no man who does not find the profession a congenial one would attempt to shun delights and live laborious days in exploring the libraries of works which have been written upon the ills that flesh is heir to. The application of the point of our text will be found in the perusal of the record of the prosperous life of Dr. Frank Tratman, whose academic qualifications make an imposing array below the portrait of the subject of our biography.
Dr. Frank Tratman, MD., M.R.C.S., D.P.H., L R.C.P., and Justice of the Peace for the colony of Western Australia, was born in Bristol in 1860. He was educated at the Bristol Grammar School, distinguishing himself as a scholar, and carrying off many prizes at the head of his classes. From an early age the mysteries and the triumphs of medicine and surgery had possessed a fascination for him, and he delighted to absorb himself in the researches of these branches of science, so that his father, who was a profound believer in the sound maxim that the boy is father of the man, was easily persuaded to allow him to apply himself to a profession for which he had so marked a predilection. Frank Tratman entered upon the study of medicine at the London Hospital, and having now full scope for the display of his aptitudes, made rapid progress in the studies to which he applied himself with all the ardour of a strong and sympathetic mind. He took the degree of M.B., and became house surgeon to the London Hospital. After he had held this position for some months, he aspired to a wider sphere of observation and practice, and, his high qualifications having attracted the attention of the Colonial Office, an offer was made to him by the Imperial authorities to go out to Western Australia and become resident medical officer at Carnarvon. To the young practitioner the prospect of completing his education by the varied experiences of travel and of seeing the antipodes, whose conditions of life and influences on character are so wholly different to those of the
