A history of medical professionalisation in NSW: 1788-1950

This paper presents a brief history of medical professionalisation in the colony and State of New South Wales to the middle of the twentieth century. It is suggested initially that although 'western' medicine is a powerful international organisation with common structures and a shared scientific core, any worthwhile study of the medical profession in a particular setting must be founded on an analysis of the intersection of local conditions and international structures. Thus various overseas and interstate accounts of the social history of medicine are reviewed in terms of their relevance in helping to explain the process of medical professionalisation as it occurred in New South Wales.