The Wind and the Book: Memoirs of a Country Doctor

The story of a general practitioner in mid-twentieth century Victoria. Dr Browne tells of his efforts to combat fear and ignorance, and his struggle for improved conditions in the days before antibiotics revolutionized medicine. This is the story of a general practitioner and his patients. The scene is Victoria in the mid-twentieth century. Many of the changes which revolutionized-medicine, antibiotics, immunization and blood transfusions-were yet to be made. Conditions were hard, transportation primitive and hospital facilities scarce. The innovating doctor met a public that was often cautious and suspicious, if not actively hostile. In these circumstances Dr Browne struggled for better health care in three country areas. He built his own hospital at Cobden. He campaigned for the immunization of children against diphtheria. Under shocking conditions he carried out one of the earliest blood tranfusions in Victoria. For fifty-three years he worked with imagination, compassion and dedication to improve the health of his patients. At a time when general practice was threatened by the rush to specialization. Dr Browne's memoirs are not simply fascinating; they are a warning of the danger of our losing the personal relationship and commitment which has characterized general practice in the past.

About the Author :
Dr David D. Browne was born in April 1893. He was educated in Victoria and graduated M.B., B.S. from the University of Melbourne in 1916. He then served in France and Flanders until 1918 when he was invalided home. On his return to Melbourne he practised as resident medical officer at the Military Hospital, Mont Park, and at the Women's Hospital and Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. From 1919 to 1924 he was general practitioner at Cobden, Victoria. The next thirty-five years he spent at Wangaratta in general practice and as honorary surgeon at the Wangaratta District Base Hospital. During World War II he served for two years at military hospitals in Victoria. In 1960 he started general practice at McCrae on the Mornington Peninsula, retiring only in 1969 after fifty-three years of active life in the practice of medicine.