Medical treatment in early Tasmania .
In need of a band aid in places , the above 1977 book , by Beatrix Kelly, hopefully no relation to a certain unqualified medico of the same surname , purchased from a Queensland op shop , is full of most interesting information .
It seems that if you were feeling ill, in what had originally been named Van Diemen's Land by explorer Abel Tasman , you could be given some wine and a concoction made from bark .
In l804 a settlement was set up in what became Hobart and there was an epidemic . Surgeon Jacob Mountgarrett had to house 12 patients in his own hut , one of which died .
As the settlement expanded there were outbreaks of scurvy (reaching epidemic proportions ), dysentery and catarrh . In the early hospital days kangaroo meat was made into soup and fed to patients .
There were more than 30 deaths from scurvy, nine being prisoners and 21 free settlers. Nurses were not mentioned in records until 1818 .Prior to that relatives and friends of patients had been allowed to sleep in the hospital .
At His Majesty's Colonial General Hospital , it was the practice to issue each patient an allowance of tea ,sugar and wine . Instructions were issued by the Lieutenant Governor to prevent patients hoarding such items to sell to other patients ,or over-indulge in wine .
A free settler suffering from malnutrition and a hernia was prescribed a nutritious diet and supplied with a gallon of sherry . Fast forward for a moment of tropical madness .
A thirsty modern Tassie hernia and hemorrhoid sufferer, obviously in great pain , is pictured above in Dr Kelly's crowded waiting room to get a jab with a recycled needle from the Wagga Wagga tip and a free bag of coal to keep the home fires and the rest of the nation burning .
Dr Kelly's impressive medical credentials from an American hamburger university on display above, thanks to brave rabid dog catcher, David Rowe , of the Australian Financial Review .
Meanwhile , back in colonial Tasmania, It is fascinating to read that vaccination against smallpox was introduced early in the settlement . It had first been used in New South Wales by Captain McMillan, surgeon on HMS Buffalo , the vessel connected with the settlement of Adelaide , who had been rewarded with "two cows."
Bark was also shipped in from Sydney and made into drinks supposed to have medicinal properties . Fresh supplies of Sydney and Tasmanian leeches were on sale A woman suffering from breast cancer was strapped into a chair , given a stiff dose of rum , and operated on by a surgeon off a visiting warship .
There is much information about the treatment of female convicts, kept in the House of Correction and the Female Factory , covering expectant mothers, babies, the overworked midwife and " good behaved "women paraded like cattle before men looking for a wife.
THE DYNAMIC IRISHMAN
An Irish patriot convict , Kevin Izod O'Doherty , the son of a solicitor , who had studied medicine and worked at Meath Hospital, Dublin , was transported to Hobart in l849 . A member of the Young Ireland Movement and co - editor of the Irish Tribune , he had been convicted of treason and sent to the colony for 10 years.
Because of his medical qualifications , he was acting surgeon at St. Mary's Hospital and on receiving a ticket of leave managed the Hobart dispensary .
In June 1853 he received a conditional pardon which forbade him returning and residing in the United Kingdom . This dynamic individual then made his way to Paris, from whence he made a secret trip to London where he married Mary Eva Kelly on August 23,1855.
The following year , receiving a full pardon , he returned to Ireland .After graduating as a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in June l857 , he set up practice.
Then he sailed for Australia , landing in Victoria in 1860 where he spent a short time at Geelong , moved to Sydney, then up to Brisbane where he became a leading physician .
During his time in Queensland he influenced the medical system, education and politics. As a member of the Legislative Council from 1877-l885, he sponsored a bill which opposed Blackbirding , the recruitment of Kanakas to work on Queensland farms . He was also responsible for the first Health Act in the state .
His standing in the nation's Irish community was such that he was elected president of the Irish Australian Convention held in Melbourne in l883.
In another amazing turn in his life , in l886 he was elected to the House of Commons as the member for North Meath , but resigned after the split in Parnell's party , so returned to Brisbane .
His final appointment in Brisbane was as secretary to the Central Board of Health and supervisor of the quarantine station.
When he died in 1905, the Queensland Irish Association placed a monument over his grave in the Toowong cemetery . He was survived by his wife and one of their eight children .
His lively wife was a poet , known as Eva of the Nation . The Dictionary of Australian Biography states she wrote throughout her married life and that poems written in Queensland had a tone of sadness and a longing for Ireland . Published was a collection, Poems, San Francisco ,1877, and a second edition, Dublin, 1909, the year before she died .
Beatrix Kelly , the author of this most interesting volume, which took this blog down some interesting avenues of follow up , graduated in general nursing at St. Vincent's Hospital ,Melbourne , in l916. Called up for military service in 1917, she went to India , was posted to the Bombay Convalescent Hospital , later appointed theatre sister at Bangalore Military Hospital .
At that hill station there were 6000 troops and a hospital with 1000 beds . She was invalided home to Tasmania in 1919 during the Spanish flu epidemic and spent the duration of that time carrying out district duties at the Tasman Peninsula .
