Adelaide's blackbirding pathologist

Archibald Watson (1849-1940) was the inaugural Elder Professor of Anatomy at the University of Adelaide. He held the position from 1885 to 1919, having previously trained in Gottingen, Paris, and London under some of the most eminent physicians of those times. Before he started his medical studies, he, Dr James Patrick Murray, and several others were involved in the kidnapping ("blackbirding") of Pacific Islanders (Kanakas) to work on South Sea cotton plantations. A number of the victims were killed. Watson and two others were charged with murder and remanded in Levuka to appear in Sydney. Watson absconded, traveled to Europe, and never stood trial; the other two were convicted and sentenced to death. Watson's life as an anatomist, surgeon, pathologist, member of the Adelaide Club, world traveler, Australian Army doctor during the Boer War and World War I, fisherman, and motorcyclist was full of interest and incidents. The events surrounding the autopsy he performed on a case of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva and the subsequent preservation of the skeleton in the Anatomy Museum of the University of Adelaide are described.