Where we came from: continuing professional development for the 18th century physician and surgeon, the genesis of British medical societies.

Keeping professionally up to date in 18th-century Britain was not an easy undertaking. Learning on the job was insufficient for the further development of individual medical knowledge. The century witnessed the gradual growth of medical societies to provide a better education than that offered by university institutions.

Genocide and the Oppression of Indigenous Peoples: The Extermination of the 19th Century Aboriginal Tasmanians.

This article provides a brief outline of the genocides committed during the 20th century, examines the derivation of the appellation and concept of acts of genocide by the lawyer and activist Raphael Lemkin and the development of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. The narrative describes the extant socio-economic characteristics of global Indigenous peoples and their vulnerabilities to imposed violence. The work includes a succinct review of the contemporary continuing crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Chinese and Myanmar governments and concludes with the 19th century flawed British colonial administration of the Tasmanian Indigenous tribes between 1803 and 1876 and examines the causes contributing to the genocidal demise of the Tasmanian Aborigines.

Lues venerea at Warrane, Sydney Cove 1788-1828.

Historical writings of the growth of the Colony at Sydney Cove, Warrane, offered limited insight into the deprivations endured by sufferers of the 18th century canker, lues venerea, syphilis. Despite Governor Arthur Phillip's well-meaning precautions, the disease effortlessly accompanied the First Fleet, rapidly spread among the Colonial inhabitants and very soon spilled over to the indigenous Cadigal clansmen. Sporadic reporting by early Sydney diarists delineated the unstoppable course of the advancing affliction.

Cook's Endeavour, ship of discovery or ship of distemper: an assessment after 250 years.

The 250-year anniversary of Cook's landfall at Botany Bay on 28 April 1770, approximately half way through a global circumnavigation, was an extraordinary maritime undertaking. An enterprise of astronomy, cartography, cultural-botanical documentation and revelation achieved without a death from infectious disease and only 10 mild cases of scurvy in a ship's company of 95 men. The subsequent homeward journey was far less endurable, marked by shipwreck, unforeseen prolonged delays and fatal epidemics of flux and malaria.

James Cook's first Pacific voyage: alleged scurvy-freedom unmasked.

The east coast of New Holland was discovered 250 years ago during a voyage of covert strategic exploration of the Pacific Ocean regions by Lieutenant James Cook acting under instructions of the Royal Navy espionage chief, Philip Stephens, Secretary of the Admiralty. In addition to the study of the transit of Venus, the well resourced mission included some clandestine mapmaking during August 1768 to July 1771. Tasked by the Royal Society of London to investigate the anti-scorbutic effects of a variety of foods and herbs, Cook's post-operational debrief to the Admiralty included the inaccurate supposition that HM Bark Endeavour's cruise was scurvy-free.

Fournier gangrene: an historical reappraisal.

Perineal gangrene (synergistic gangrene), an age-old severe infectious disorder, was more completely described by Dr Robert Robertson (1742-1829) in 1777, providing much needed data on the clinical features well before Dr Jean Alfred Fournier's (1832-1914) account in 1883. Robertson's historically overlooked and detailed narrative is presented with implications, in part, refuting some conclusions made by Fournier 100 years later.

Dr Robert Robertson (1742-1829): Fever Specialist and Philosopher-Experimenter in the Treatment of Fevers with Peruvian Bark in the Latter Eighteenth-century Royal Navy.

The life and works of Dr Robert Robertson are reviewed set against the background of the extant British management of fevers during the latter 18th-century. Commencing in 1769, using the febrifuge Peruvian bark (cortex Peruvianus; Jesuit's Powder), he experimented and tested Peruvian bark mono-therapy protocols in the tropics in the cure and prevention of intermittent fever (predominantly malaria). His later work also showed the benefit of the bark in the acute care of developed continuous fevers (largely Ship Fever due to Epidemic Louse-borne Typhus Fever) in both the Temperate and Torrid Zones.