the age, so far that with some twinges of conscience he m a d e up his mind to sacrifice the moustache ; but to the artistically-cultivated whisker he resolved to cling irrespective of consequences to the last day of his existence. T h e razor was accordingly set to work, and mercilessly did it do its duty. Campbell and his moustache went through a sorrowful parting; and when he next appeared in the streets it was like a sunbeam shorn of half its brilliancy, and from a high premium he sank to par in the estimation of the ladies. However, professionally, the compromise was good-humouredly accepted by the public; his practice increased, and moving into Swanston Street the moustache deficit was supplied by a matrimonial alliance with a rose from the garland of historical spinsters, w h o accompanied their father, thefirstEpiscopalian clergyman, on his migration to the cure of souls in Melbourne. Dr. F. T. Ford was Campbell's partner, and Campbell and Ford constituted a well-known co-partnery, after the dissolution of which they separately enjoyed a fair business. O n the death of Cussen, in 1849, Campbell had strong claims for, and a half promise of the Colonial Surgeoncy, but by some unexplained fluke he was jostled out of it. After the Colony of Victoria was established Campbell was appointed the first Coroner of the County of Bourke ; but he was not a docile animal in Government harness, and once he so kicked over the traces that his voluntary or compulsory cashiering was inevitable. It was during the reign of Governor Sir Charles Hotham, in 1854, when everything official and non-official was in the state known as " sixes and sevens." A m a n took it into his head lo die suddenly at the Rocky Water Holes (Donnybrook). Campbell held an inquest on the body, and an order for burial was given, for which job the undertaker (being under no contract to the contrary) coolly charged ,£20. T h e excessive demand came before Hotham, w h o worried himself to death in vain endeavours to check financial trickery, and it drove him into a towering passion, the Coroner, in his opinion, being the prime offender for not having entered into some prior agreement. Campbell accordingly received an uncommonly sharp missive, asking for an explanation, to which he replied with a pungency little expected from a subordinate. T h e correspondence was prolonged until at length Campbell, worked to a high degree of exasperation, brought it to a close by declaring that he could not reasonably be supposed to know whether the charge of an undertaker was unreasonable or the reverse, as he had not been brought up to the business. After this it is no wonder that he never held another inquest as District Coroner. Campbell was always held in high estimation, and had considerable ability, but he lacked the knack to push himself as others did. Though long in the colony, he was singularly deficient in the colonial characteristic known as " cheek," for otherwise he might have acquired m u c h betterfilledpockets than he did. During late years he let everyone know he was alive by his annual appeals through the Press for funds to treat the paupers in our charitable institutions with a tobacco Christmas box. His begging letters in this respect are swathed with a philanthropic haziness which makes them somnolent reading, but as they are intended to end in smoke, this is perhaps an advantage. If Campbell had looked after his o w n interests with half the pertinacity with which he held out the hat for mendicities, there would be few wealthier m e n in the profession ; but as one of his medical brethren once remarked to me, " Campbell was, in fact, too m u c h of the gentleman for his business." Melbourne, through all its wondrous changes, has seen few better fellows than W . H . Campbell, surgeon, & c , and reckoning from the period of his commencement, he must be accounted Victoria's senior practitioner, the " Father " of the medical profession—numbering a rather numerous and mixed progeny, in age, condition, qualifications and reputations. is still in Melbourne, where he arrived in 1847, and for many years has acted as medical attendant to the police, w h o find him a very different person from the gentleman w h o medicinally ministered to their predecessors—a Dr. James Martin, under whose regime every sort of malingering was possible. Ford asserts his right to be recognized as the first public vaccinatoi. H e is the first statutably appointed one, but as has been already conclusively shown, Cussen as Colonial Surgeon was the first ex-ofpicio operator in that respect.
DR. FORD
or as he was commonly called "The Old Sprat," was a tall gaunt grey-headed customer, w h o divided m u c h of his affection between the chess-board and the tap-room. His constituents
DR. JOHN SPROAT,
