Coronial Inquests - Dr Arthur Scouler

It was customary in the 1800s as it still is today, to hold coroner's inquests on unusual and accidental deaths. These required a coroner and medical witnesses to give testimony. One of these was Dr Arthur Scouler, who gave evidence at inquests in Campbelltown, Camden, Picton and Liverpool.
Born to William Scouler and Janet McArthur in Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, Scotland, on March 10th 1810, Arthur went on to study medicine. He became house surgeon at the Glasgow Eye Infirmary under William Mackenzie.
In 1838, Arthur departed Scotland on board the barque "Renown", which departed from Greenock on June 11th, coming to Sydney via Hobart and arriving in Sydney on November 23rd.  Arthur wasted no time on his arrival in Sydney, advertising his services in the Sydney papers.


Dr Scouler's advertisement in the Sydney papers on his arrival

In 1839 and again in 1843 he was given eligibility as a medical witness at coroner's inquests and inquiries in New South Wales, having the necessary testimonials and qualifications.
Arthur found himself in the Campbelltown area, perhaps because his services as a medical witness were in high demand. As inquests were often reported in the newspaper, we are able to see the sort of incidents Dr Scouler was called to be witness to. In 1842 an inquest was held upon Mary Warner who suffered from "excessive indulgence in habits of intemperance". The jury's verdict was "Died by the Visitation of God". Others over the years included witnessing to assault cases, the accidental death of Thomas Hynes and later the murder of Thomas Hynes wife Ellen; the fall from a horse and resulting death of John Duross; Peter Finnamore's death from apoplexy; the early death of Catherine Hurley; the death of Patrick Tighe of asthenic apoplexy; the death of James Booth who fell from his horse and died from injuries exacerbated by a debilitated state due to intemperance; the railway accident of John Dawson losing both his legs; the murder in Picton of Elias Trapand; and perhaps one of his biggest cases - the murder of Constable Raymond at Picton.
Dr Scouler was also in practice looking after broken bones, amputations, accidents, and visiting the Immigrants Home with medicine and attending the sick. In 1845 he married Harriet Blackburn in Campbelltown. They had three children, Jane, James and Emma.
Arthur also took part in local affairs - donating to a reward for finding the person responsible for the burning of John Hurley's stables in 1851, attending local political meetings, appointed commissioner for Campbell Town's Water Works and appointed Medical Referee for the Australian Mutual Provident Life Assurance Society.
Dr Arthur Scouler passed away on Boxing day in 1868, and his library, which contained about 500 volumes, which included about 120 bound medical works, his museum of anatomy, his surgical instruments and a large collection of medicines and other requisites for a man in a large medical practice were sold by auction. His widow Harriet died in 1886. Both are buried at St John's Anglican Church Cemetery, Camden, but do not have headstones or a marker.

The Racing Doctor

Doctors were few and far between in the area south of Liverpool known as the Cowpastures in the 19th Century. This area included Campbelltown. There was no guarantee of their skills or qualifications so for the sick and injured, life was risky.

A highly interesting and useful addition to the library's collection is The Racing Doctor: Tales of Medical Care in the Cowpastures by Elizabeth Villy. Published in 2014, it takes a look at the experiences of various doctors practising in the Cowpastures in the 19th Century. It starts with a chapter on the area's first and well known doctor William Redfern.

The Racing Doctor was the name given to Dr William Kenny and a chapter is devoted to this doctor who provided much medical help to the the folk of Campbelltown. The author writes that he had a dubious background in medicine but was renowned for his prowess on the race track! He was charged with supervising floggings at Campbelltown Gaol of which he seemed unperturbed.

Another doctor that is featured is Dr William Bell who I have written about in a previous blog article. There is a fascinating look at the skills used by Granny Long, a midwife of the Burragorang Valley and a chapter that specifically deals with home remedies for the early settler.

Make sure you check this book out next time you visit our library. It's a real gem.

Written by Andrew Allen

Dr William Bell

The bulk of the information for this post comes from the extensive research performed by Lois Sabine from the Blue Mountains Historical Society. Lois spent countless hours researching material for her article on Dr Bell in the Blue Mountains History Journal cited at the end of this post.

Few men have left such an indelible mark on Campbelltown as Dr William Bell. Although he only lived in Campbelltown for six years, his medical contributions helped him earn the reputation as one of the finest doctors the town has seen.

William Bell was born in Newry, Ireland in 1815. He sailed to Sydney in 1839 as Surgeon Superintendent and after arriving established a practice where he offered free consultations for the poor. He then moved to Parramatta and Windsor where he performed more medical work. However Dr Bell soon became insolvent as a result largely of the economic conditions of the 1840s. In fact money problems plagued him for the rest of his life.

Dr Bell wrote a number of medical publications during his life. His first work written in 1849 was "The Settlers Guide" or "Modern Domestic Medicine and Surgery". This book arose from Bell's observation of the need to help the many settlers who lived out in the bush, and who were far away from medical assistance. He also hoped that the book would solve his financial problems.

Bell moved to Carcoar near Bathurst in 1850 and then Orange the following year. In 1854 he had a practice at nearby Sofala on the goldfields. A coroner's report from his time there reported that he had performed a post mortem on a notorious drunkard, a woman who had been missing overnight and was found next day standing upright in the middle of a water hole but when rescued she immediately expired.

In 1855 the miners were moving on from the goldfields and Dr Bell thought Campbelltown would be a good place to move to. He rented a well furnished house that had a surgery, two parlours and three bedrooms.

In 1857 he became a coroner for the area. Using whatever transport was available to him, he was required to reach a body before decomposition set in. The court would then sit at the inn nearest to the incident.

Dr Bell was soon in financial trouble again and became insolvent for the third time in his life. He had run up accounts after buying a piano forte for his parlour, books for his daughters, furnishings and expensive clothes. Perhaps to overcome these financial problems, he wrote and published an essay titled "The Wear and Tear on Human Life" and another one titled "On the Origins, Progress and Treatment of Smallpox". It was however more likely that Campbelltown's healthy population had reduced his income. His business had fallen by 400 pounds from 1858 to 1859. He was charging 1 pound and 1 shilling for a visit and about 10 shillings for medicine.

Despite his financial worries, Dr Bell was involved with a number of committees in the town. Some of his activities included: the formation of a Benevolent Socity, chairman to raise funds for the celebrations for the opening of the railway in 1858, raising funds for the Donegal Relief Fund for the starving peasantry and an inaugural member of the Campbelltown School of Arts Committee.

It was his experiences as a doctor that most fascinated me. A search of Trove revealed some interesting, challenging and distressing calls for Dr Bell during his years in Campbelltown. Some of these included amputating a boy's thumb after a shooting accident, attending to a child after a tree had fallen on him, a girl who had died after falling out of a cart, a 17 year old girl dying after her clothes caught on fire and the scalding of a 20 month old girl who pulled a plate of boiling milk and flour over her. There were many inquests that he was needed for and many of these were as a result of intemperance.

Dr Bell moved to Picton in 1862. He later moved to Ashfield and practised in the city. His health began to decline and he became insolvent for a fourth and fifth time. He was advised to take a holiday to a warm climate but he never made this. Instead he moved back to Picton where he died in 1871. The end had come for a wonderfully talented medical man whose brilliance had touched the lives of many.

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

LISTON, Carol 1988
Campbelltown: The Bicentennial History
North Sydney: Allen and Unwin

Dr William Bell (1815-1871): Experiences of a 19th Century Doctor on either side of the Blue Mountains
In Blue Mountains History Journal
1; 2010