Medical practice in New Zealand 1769-1860.
New Zealand was discovered by Captain Cook in 1769. Over the next ninety years, increasing numbers of medical practitioners visited and began to settle in what became a British colony. The first medical visitors were usually naval surgeons or served on board whaling ships. The major influx of doctors occurred at the behest of the New Zealand Company between 1840 and 1848, although Christian missionaries, army doctors, and individual medical entrepreneurs also emigrated and provided services. This paper describes the pattern of medical settlement in the colony's earliest years and relates this to the health of the population and the development of medical and hospital services.
Lawrenson
Ross
R
Professor of Primary Health Care at the Postgraduate Medical School (University of Surrey). Stirling House, Surrey Research Park, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7DJ, UK. r.lawrenson@surrey.ac.uk
D018595:Colonialism / Q000266:history*; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D008511:Medicine; D009520:New Zealand; D006113:United Kingdom