biographies

Black, Joseph ( - 1879)

M.D. (Melb.)

Born
Antigua, British West Indies
Died
7 March 1879
St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Gynaecologist, Medical practitioner and Obstetrician

Details

Transcription of item written by Dr Colin Macdonald and published in "The Book of Remembrance", The Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, 1956.


DR. JOSEPH BLACK
(1874 - 1876)

When Dr. Tracy died in 1874, his successor on the Honorary Medical Staff of the Lying-In Hospital was Dr. Joseph Black, born in Antigua, British West Indies and coming to Australia in 1853, at the height of the gold fever. On appointment, Black was already 63 years of age, and his association with the Hospital lasted only two years.

From contemporary records it is learnt that Black was not an ambitious man; he did not claim to be brilliant; he was content with the unexciting routine of professional life, and was steadily successful. Liked by his professional brethren, his patients thoroughly confiding in him, he had few interests outside of medicine. He helped to found the Medical Society, of which, in 1862, he was President and was one of the editorial committee of the "Australian Medical Journal". He was an honorary surgeon to the Benevolent Asylum, and honorary physician to the Melbourne Hospital. His force of character may be deduced from the fact of his having passed, in 1864, the examination under the then special regulations at the University of Melbourne, for the degree of M.D., twenty years after becoming a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He was by nature a gentleman, by conviction and habit an honourable man, and by sympathy a good fellow. He had a certain sense of quaint humour, which made him an excellent companion; he enjoyed the joke of frequently making him, at the medical dinners, respond to the toast of the Navy, though he had never been on board a war-ship in his life.

In his 68th year Dr. Black died at St. Kilda on March 7th 1879, but had been so long lingering with a painful illness that death came as a relief, both to himself and the many sincere friends he left behind.

Dr. Black was unmarried, and had no relatives in Australia. He was Surgeon-Major of the Prince of Wales Light Horse Cavalry, and has therefore a military funeral, with a firing party of forty men.

The affliction from which he suffered - it dated from a spinal injury in 1875 - was regarded at the time as very unusual, and Mr. Rudall, F.R.C.S. Eng., surgeon to the Melbourne Hospital, who attended him, furnished to the Australian Medical Journal an account of the illness and the appearances presented after death:

"From the history it appears the case was one of chronic spinal meningitis, resulting from injury, and giving rise to changes in the cord itself, or possible of meningo-myelitis in the first place. The old pericardial adhesions seemed to have had no important effect on the heart’s function and the renal concretions resulted in all probability from deficient innervation and lying so long on the back. It seems also scarcely doubtful from the clinical and pathological facts, that at the end of June and the beginning of July 1876, his head symptoms were due to arachnitis traveling up the cord and reaching the cerebral arachnoid, and that this exacerbation of the disease was caused by the concussions of the already inflamed spinal cord and membranes, which were to a great extent unavoidable in a journey of several miles. It may be mentioned that for a very long period it had been necessary to inject between five and six grains of morphia in the 24 hours, and even with this large quantity his sufferings were very great. Galvanism and induction current were both tried, but without very marked effects."

Archival/Heritage Resources

Royal Women's Hospital Archives

  • Book of Remembrance, 1956 - 1975; Royal Women's Hospital Archives [ Details... ].

Prepared by: Robyn Waymouth

Created: 31 July 2006, Last modified: 26 November 2006