As sheep farming developed on West Falkland, and settlements and shepherds with their families appeared there was an apparent need for medical care. West Falkland farmers agreed to employ their own doctor. A house provided on the hill above the creek ‘Doctor’s Creek’ about a mile from the settlement at Fox Bay East and in 1883 Dr Anderson was their first doctor, riding around the farms and going by boats to islands to visit his patients. He died at Doctor’s Creek on May 20th 1887 aged only 42.
The next doctor for West Falkland was Dr Going. Under Civil Establishment 1888 ‘Mr Andrew Joseph Going was appointed Assistant Colonial Surgeon on the 29th of February, in the place of Mr A. T. Anderson who died on the 20th May 1887. Mr Going arrived in the Colony and assumed his duties on the 15th of April, when he was appointed Coroner for the West Falkland and adjacent islands, a Justice of the Peace and Assistant Collector of Customs.’
For 1888 and 1889 Dr Going wrote detailed reports on the health of the early West Falkland settlers, giving an insight into life there.
During year 1889 there had been a total absence of zymotic disease; he did not attribute the increased healthiness of the place by improved sanitation, as it would be almost impossible to get a healthier place than West Falklands, but due to the fact that none had been imported from Stanley or elsewhere.
The 1889 death rate was higher that year than it ought to be but was no true guide to health as two deaths were from violence, one from drowning and the other from shooting. Also a master mariner belonging to the ‘Grandholm’ had died suddenly at Spring Point from apoplexy, and a fourth was that of a man from Stanley, who died shortly after landing in Beaver Island, the cause of death being unknown. Two other deaths occurred in the West Falklands, one a baby from convulsions and the other and adult from meningitis, which was most certainly not tubercular.
The Children
Considering the small amount of children, Dr Going thought there was a great deal of rickets among them with one or two severe cases as bad as he had seen in London. However they had no broncho- pneumonia in the children ‘so common and fatal at home’. His 1888 report describes the children of the West: ‘With regard to the children born in this district, they are certainly below the ordinary standard. The rising generation are distinguished by their weedy growth, their narrow rachitic looking chests, their flabby muscles, their coarse scaly skins, their dry uncertain-coloured hair, their slowly contracting and generally dilated condition of pupils, &c. Most children suffer from constipation and other disturbances of their alimentary tracks. Their teeth also decay early. I have not seen any cases of congenital syphilis.’
On General Health on the West:
‘All the people are well clothed. There is no overcrowding. The houses with one or two exceptions, are built of wood, with iron roofs and stone chimneys. There is no definite system of drainage; there are, however no cess pools. The houses for the most part are built on piles, and consist of a ground floor and one storey. No cellars. Peat is used for firing with few exceptions. A shepherd’s house consists generally of four fairly sized rooms.’
There is no lunacy or ‘idiotcy’. No epilepsy or hysteria. I have seen no pneumonia or acute cardiac affections’. Going found the absence of pneumonia and rheumatic fever ‘striking’ considering the amount of exposure the inhabitants of the islands were subject to, writing that ‘they are always getting wet through, and hardly ever change their clothes, and yet they never get either pneumonia or rheumatic fever. The men suffer a good deal from that chronic intractable rheumatism in the muscles of the back, and other forms of muscular rheumatism, but never from rheumatic fever with its disastrous consequences. ‘
Diet
Dr Going was scathing about the diet and cooking in the islands and leaves descriptions of the West diet in his 1887 and 1888 reports. 1887. ‘Diet: The most general articles of diet are mutton and bread and excessive quantities of tea and coffee. The most common kinds of vegetables are dried beans and rice. The summer fresh milk and butter can be obtained in but this is not the case in winter. Then tinned milk and tinned butter are used; the former, as is well known contains an excessive amount of sugar and is by no means a substitute for milk. The tinned butter comes from Denmark, as to its quality I can say nothing, but more cows suffer from tubercular disease in Denmark than in any other country in Europe. A large amount of the hot sauces are used out here, which is decidedly bad. The cooking is badly done; the meat and bread are thus served up in their most indigestible forms. Regular, well cooked meals, so essential the ultimate well-being of a people are characterised by their absence. ‘Continuing in 1888: ‘Chronic indigestion among the adults is the bane of these islands; it principally occurs in the form of ‘heartburn’ and ‘waterbrash’ and is due to the enormous quantities of coffee and tea consumed in the very strongest forms, to the indigestible character of the bread they eat, and to the ignorance of most of the women of the most rudimentary laws of cooking.’
Alcohol
On the subject of alcohol consumption Dr Going was more satisfied. ‘ As to the amount of alcohol consumed, it may be said to be at a minimum; this is not due to the spread of temperance, but due to the most excellent rule made by the farmers of only allowing the workpeople to have a non-intoxicating amount. Another unmitigated blessing is the absence of drinking shops.’ (The large sheep stations continued to limit the amount of alcohol that could be bought by from the farm store to a bottle or half-bottle per week well into modern times. However this could be overcome with effort, for instance an employee at Fox Bay East could visit the FIC store at Fox Bay West and buy more). Also helpful to curb excessive drinking a relative (wife) or responsible person could put a someone they considered needed to be restricted on the ‘black-list’ for a time and it was then a criminal offence to sell or give alcohol to that person. This law is still enforced.
Dancing
Dr Going concluded ‘The healthy condition of the West Falklands is no doubt due to the splendid air and the abundance of water.’
He was still at Fox Bay in August 1891 as he wrote to the Editor of the F I Magazine airing his advice on the safety of dancing. ‘ I venture to remark that from a hygienic stand point dancing, being merely a form of exercise, is decidedly beneficial provided that, 1. It is not carried to excess, 2. The health of the dancer be sound, 3. The environment of the dancer be healthy, by which is meant (a) an abundance of fresh air, (b) rapid removal of vitiated air, (c) suitable clothing. Faithfully yours, J.A. Going’
Keppel
The Fuegians on Keppel at the Mission were ‘in fairly good condition’. Mr Whaits was praised for teaching them the very first step towards civilisation- cleanliness.
The Falkland Island Magazine 1894 reports the death on June 16th in London of Dr Going’s little daughter Dorothy aged 6 years of scarletina. Also it reports that Dr Going, late of West Falklands, was expected to sail for New Zealand on June 21st.
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Doctors Creek, the Doctor's house was sited above the gorse bushes on the hill possibly until the 1930s when it was moved to the Government settlement
