A new exhibition in the Fellows Room of 145 Macquarie St. Sydney explores the history of domestic medicine in pre-Federation Australia. During the nineteenth century, domestic medicine played an important role in the health of the average family throughout the colony. Home‑based healthcare using household remedies and informal knowledge was very important in colonial Australia for several practical and social reasons. Medical doctors in that period were expensive to consult, if available. In rural and remote areas, trained doctors were scarce, and isolation from settlements meant that seeing a doctor involved long and difficult travel. As a result, families often had to treat illness and injury themselves using whatever knowledge and supplies they had.
The advent of the domestic medicine chest, which contained the most commonly used remedies, occurred during this period. Often referred to today as a homeopathic chest, these cases were designed for use in the home, usually by the middle class who could afford them. If one couldn't afford a whole chest, individual patent medicines often filled the void. Publishing also played a part with various guides and journals providing hints and remedies for the reader, with varying authority.
Some doctors were aware of the problems faced by settlers in isolated areas. A range of popular medical texts gradually appeared, written by Australian-based doctors, playing a role similar to that of the highly successful Buchan's Domestic Medicine in Britain. Dr George Fullerton, a Brisbane doctor, published his Family Medical Guide in Brisbane in 1870. It eventually ran to eight editions.
The entrepreneurial Dr. Ludwig L. Smith first published his annual Medical Almanac in 1860 in which he emphasised home treatment. He also developed his popular approach through articles in the Australian Journal from 1865 which he parlayed in to cheap books produced in the 1870s.
Dr T. P. Lucas, a Brisbane medical practitioner, published his book Domestic Medicine, apparently at the urging of his patients. In it, he made large claims for the use of ferment of the papaw plant in regard to tumours and cancer, reporting that 'the success with tumours is phenomenal. The long standing tumours.. quickly fall before the papaw power'. Lucas is credited with the popularity of papaw ointment which still has a faithful following today, albeit in regard to non-cancerous treatment.
Patent or proprietary remedies were often marketed as “secret” formulas and advertised alongside glowing reviews of the product. Typically bearing the name of their creator, these products promised remarkable cures for a wide range of illnesses. In a time before strict regulation, they might contain powerful and potentially harmful substances such as cocaine, morphia or alcohol, or alternatively, ingredients with little medical effect. Some, like Lucas' papaw ointment and Josephson's Australian Ointment, remained in use for many years. Josephson's was 'composed of wild plants indigenous to the country and nowhere else, the principal being Eucalyptus, now so famed throughout the world'. It was touted 'the most useful ointment in the world. Bar none'. Who could resist such a claim?
During the late colonial Australia, widespread interest in electricity led to the invention of devices known as magneto-electric machines. These instruments were popular in clinics and homes as curative devices for nerve ailments and pain relief. They administered gentle electric shocks to relieve aches and pains, particularly those linked to the nerves, through the turning of a crank. Women were thought to be especially prone to nervous disorders, and as a result, advertisers frequently targeted these treatments at them. Fullerton's 3rd edition of Family Medical Guide (1878) commented:
'we now have the Magneto-Electric Machine so portable and simple in its application as to make it quite a domestic remedy... in this edition, Galvanism or Electricity is recommended in the cases for which it is calculated to be useful'.
As the use of patent medicines and so‑called secret cures became increasingly widespread, a Royal Commission into Secret drugs, cures and foods was established in the early 1900s to examine these practices. Its findings led to recommendations for regulating proprietary products and restricting the advertising and sale of questionable or unsafe remedies.
The exhibition will remain on display until August, 2026.