Page 3 - Pharmacy History 29 July 2006

Medicine and
pharmacy in Tasmania
in the early days
Geoff Miller FPS presented this paper as a keynote address at the Medical History Symposium held in Launceston, Tasmania
6-9 July 2006
This essay is a brief look
at the transitional period
in Tasmania whereby the Medical Men of the 18th and 19th centuries set about organising themselves through Acts of Parliament and the formation of professional societies, as a bastion against those who’s learning and skills fell short of those who could show tangible proof of their own education and training.
To begin this brief introduction to the world of medicine and pharmacy in Tasmania, or Van Diemen’s Land as the island was known before January 1 1856, I quote from a statement attributed to the British medical historian, the late Dr
David Richards, whose legacy is the Australian Medical Pioneers Index. Richards is recognised as the expert on the medical convicts sent from Britain to NSW and Van Diemen’s Land during the period 1788-1818, and he had found that of those
who had ‘left their country for the country’s good’, several hundred ‘Medical men’ arrived on Australian shores and of these some 109 have been identified as transportees1
In defining his use of the term ‘Medical men’, Richards says that
it is necessary to apply a broad canvas definition that encompasses all manner and means of service associated with the practice of medicine. In this context Medical men refers equally to Medical women.2
In addition to the familiar callings of physician, surgeon and apothecary,
a whole host of other occupational titles pervaded the scene such as
surgeon apothecary, chemist and druggist, dispenser, allopath, homoeopath, dental surgeon, optician or midwife.
Then comes a grab bag of others with less defined duties such as medical practitioners, medical attendants (including para or quasi-medicals), assistants to surgeons, surgical dressers, nurses and then attendants at the hospital which would have included , warders, janitors or storemen and so on.
These are the men and women who were exploited or used to benefit those pioneering folk who came or were sent to this ‘land down under’.
The period under review was a period of transition in which a disunited pluralistic community was transforming itself.
There were few restrictions to the assumption of medical practice and in the absence of any policing in the form of registration, medical titles were freely attributed.
During the years 1788-1868, the total period of transportation, almost 161,000 convicts arrived in Australia. Over this time, concern for the health and welfare of these unwilling immigrants gradually changed from sheer barbarity and indifference, to
a more systematic scheme of caring under well-qualified naval surgeons. The major problem facing the surgeons and other medical men after they had endured the long sea voyage to Australia was to find an available vessel in which to return home to England and many were forced into half pay appointments in the colonial service while they waited for a ship.
In those times the senior medical men had a huge work load as they were responsible for the medical care of bonded and free, the administration and control of the hospitals, requisitioning medical supplies from Sydney and England as well as all matters concerning the health of the community.
By the end of 1824, the medical establishment in Van Dieman’s Land consisted of surgeons and their assistants in Hobart and Launceston, as well as district assistant surgeons in several smaller towns, such as Georgetown, Richmond, Macquarie Harbour and Pittwater.
One of the medical miscreants sent
to Hobart Town at this time was Dr Archibald McLaughlan, who was listed as a ‘Dispenser of Medicines’.3 McLachlin4 is a good example of
how convicts were opportunistically utilised for their skills in medical appointments that were not appealing to medical officers already in service in Van Diemen’s Land.
Dr McLaughlan was employed as
a medical dispenser at the Colonial Hospital in Hobart Town for five years. He then spent the next three years at the convict station on Maria Island and after a term as surgeon to the Aboriginal Settlements on some of the Straits Islands he was granted
a free pardon to practise medicine in Hobart Town.
At around this time in NSW an Anti-Transportation movement was formed and as its voice grew louder and stronger, the British Government finally bowed to the will of the colonists in 1840 and abolished the transportation of convicts to Port Jackson.
volume 3 ■ no 30 ■ NOVEMBER 2006
Pharmacy History Australia ■ 3