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THE COLONIAL CAREER OF JAMES PATRICK MURRAY
Author(s) -
ELMSLIE RONALD
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.111
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 0004-8682
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-2197.1979.tb06464.x
Subject(s) - medicine , colonialism , gerontology , archaeology , history
This paper is a biographical sketch of Dr. Murray during the years 1860 to 1873 when he lived in Victoria, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. It records details of his career from his residency at the Melbourne Hospital followed by his exemplary conduct in the Howitt expedition to recover the remains of Burke and Wills. It traces his progress of degradation unhampered by constituted authority and concludes with his magnum opus – the greatest massacre of South Sea Islanders in the annals of the South Sea slave trade. He departed from the colonies still registered to practise medicine and without penalty or probation. This paper concludes with a brief summary of his personal qualities and asserts that it was these qualities, together perhaps with the discordance between the colonies, which allowed this knave to escape the penalty which he appeared amply to deserve.