A DENTIST BECOMES A DOCTOR By 1906 Chicago had grown from its origins as a tiny, frontier trading post to a metropolis of nearly two million people. After the city was rebuilt following the Great Fire of 1871 there was a wave of immigration. People arrived from
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In 1900 young dentist Victor Ratten was establishing himself at West Wyalong, in the Central West of NSW. At the time there was fierce competition about where the new railway station should be located. In August 1900, the Minister of Works was due to visit the rival
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In 1903 the Queensland government followed the example of New South Wales by introducing compulsory registration of dental practitioners Dr Victor Ratten applied to the Dental Board on July 16 that year. Ten days later he was informed that they had considered his application but were unable
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ALL THAT GLISTERS IS NOT GOLD The years 1890 to 1893 had been a period of world-wide, economic depression. In Australia the situation reached crisis point when the Commercial Bank of Australia suspended trading in April 1893. A dozen other banks failed soon afterwards. Amid this widespread
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FORWARD Just after midday on January 2 1963, a funeral cortege left a Hobart undertaker’s chapel for the Cornelian Bay Cemetery. Enroute, the procession diverted to Liverpool Street, slowing as it passed the historic Royal Hobart Hospital. The hearse was carrying the body of 83 year old
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When ‘Doctor’ Paul Rene Loubet was unmasked as an imposter in September 1917 he left behind a grieving, bewildered young widow. Nell Kent Loubet (nee Hughes) immediately moved back to her family’s home in Toorak. More positively, she graduated from Melbourne University in January 1918 as
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Daydreaming in our pandemic iso-world is a national pastime. Here is an imagined dinner, hosted by myself and my partner Rob in our new house at Blackheath, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. There are four courses (well sort of), and four dinner guests from
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In 1919 Dr Victor Ratten was Surgeon Superintendent of the Hobart General Hospital. At the time he was fighting accusations that the medical certificate he had obtained in Chicago ten years earlier was fraudulent. He was a man of supreme self-confidence, never allowing the charges to distract
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Seven years ago I was seriously ill in a Sydney Hospital with a hideous, undiagnosed condition. It was affecting my brain, my heart, my muscles…. and just about everything else. Part of my stabilizing medication was a very high dose of the steroid Prednisone. Among the side
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I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity. Eleanor Roosevelt. What wise words; especially for future scientists….and writers! English crime novelist Ann Cleeves was asked what motivated her
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