The Spirit of Pestilence

Doctors and Diagnosis

Although doctors might be expected to play a large role in the treatment of an epidemic, doctors in Victoria seem to have mainly treated white patients, while Natives were largely left to the missionaries. Rev. Alexander Charles Garrett was working with the Natives before the smallpox epidemic, and remained in their camp to treat them when the epidemic began.

	Doctor John Sebastian Helmcken was a doctor and politician in Victoria who responded to the smallpox outbreak.
	It is difficult to understand exactly how doctors were trying to prevent smallpox, as people who were reporting the epidemic did not discuss the important difference between vaccination and innoculation.
	There were several factors behind the different vaccination rates between the white colonists and Natives.

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