OBITUARY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9607, 13 March 1917, Page 3

OBITUARY

DR W. H. HOSKING

A VETERAN NEW ZEALAND 3IED. ICO.

The news of the 'death of Dr W. H. Hosking, which oca urred at Maslerton about 5.30 o'clock «:n Sunday evening, will be received wit;Si feelings of regret throughout the Wairarapa, writes our Mastcrton correspondent. The deceased was seventy-five yea ,rs of ago, and was a native of Cornwall!, England. He was educated at Falmouth and Taunton, and studied at CTia.ring Cross Hospital medical school, obi tuning his English qualifications. In ihe late Dr HosKing came to New Zealand in the ship New Ureat lintaiu , He practised at Campbelitowii ana 3 Ross till 16/3, acting as surgeon to Uio Ross Hospital. While iu iloKitlka, he mnrricd his first wile (a Hiss Archer), \vi»o died in IbiJU. 'liie deceased, came to Atasterlon in 1873, and was appointed surgeon at the time of the cstaolishmei at of the Masterton hospital, lie retained the position till a lew years ago, yflmn he retired, and liis son. Dr Arche;r Hosking, succeeded him. SPECIA3L MEMOIR. “The old doctor'ai dead!" As the new* travelled round oia Sunday nigne, and was vvnisperca fr-una ear to ear, a setueu gloom seemed to ■ spread over the con> unity, iw woreia w ore spoKcn invariably in a spirit *of sadness. Many old residents feu Lhu/t they nad lost a treasured friend. Vvnat stories v.cro told, what incider As recalled! The old domori Ino man that taved so many lives, whoso servio *3 were implored by the despairing when every thing else failed, who was believed bo possess powers bordering on the suipernatural., in spite oi the electrifying a.* ad vitalising mechanism of his wonderful laboratory, has passed away—gono beyond recall, inaccessible to the most persists at patient. The old doctor I For the lost forty years has not Mastcrton been like potter's clay in his hands! Other doctor* have come and gone, and sometimes his place has been temporarily filled, but Dr A. H. Hosking tias always been securely welded to Masteirton. How many young lives he has usHered into the light oi day; what a hu;ge section of the community lias passed through his hands; and tor what a congregation of old residents he has gfigned the death certificate!' Yet he hed a singular contempt for these certifiesates. “Worthless bits of paper/' he called them, ‘"demanded by laws convention-sal and idiotic." If it was suggested that relatives and friends ought to know the cause of death he would reply: “Who can tell them? X can‘t. Who couLd positively declare the i*ause of their illness? We medical men have to give it a name; rot it is virtually guess worlc, although our certificate cannot be challenged. That is ono of the sacred privileges of the profession."

A fine active Iran was the "old doctor" when he i irst came to Masterton and took charge' of its first hospital, a plain wooden bu aiding, equipped with a small assortment; of surgical implements in which saws and lancets figured cliicily, and an assortment of drugs in which sails and senna wero consuicuous. Perhaps the most useful piece of furniture in the institution was the kitchen range, "(jive the patients plenty of tucker and don’t forget it. ; Good chops and lots of milk and porridtfa," he would say to the married couple srho performed the functions of cook, stiulierymaid and nursing staff, ilmt'iuanir pieces of poor humanity ha had to carve! But if the saw and the lanoet wore : often in requisition the doctor had a teinder heart and an Insinuating way. jHasterton was a small town, enclosed in heavy bush between thirty and fortjr years ago. The land was being cleared and several sawmills wore at work. The axe and slasher were wielded vigorouady to keen them employed. Bushfelliiig accidents were pretty frequent, and thti hospital was kept well filled. Broken lojgs and arms were common enough, and occasionallv the bushfeller met with a tragic end. Bid not the doctor’s malaj servant part with his head? lie was a itbvifty fellow, who had saved up bis. wastes, and started, while still in the employ, of the doctor to convertva piece of bush into a dairy farm. Going out one morning he failed to return, and when a search was made some ‘days afterwards ho was found decapitated. His body lay <jm one side of a newly felled tree, and hit; head on the opposite side. Some times | wedges of wood propelled from the cir.-cular saw were driven into the skulls of |the henchmen. These were difficult cases; to manage, but the doctor would darn! the features, remove the splinters, and when fragments ol timber were wcdgeld too firmly for his surgical appliances) he has been known to direct the local! blacksmith how to manufacture the 'extracting apparatus he required. Mediioal cases in these days were excluded from the hospital, which partook somewhat of the character of a butcher’s sloop. Yet severe and serious though mapiy of the accidents were, the services «bf the undertaker to finish off the mending process! were rarely required. In midwifery casjls the doctor had a fine reputation. His qualifications -in this department of imtedical skill were of the highest order, a'md in the treatment of the most difficult cases he displayed an amount of skill that seemed marvellous. When danger ; or trouble arose his aid and services hawe often been sought by other members ‘-of the medical profession, and this Wigs always cheerfully rendered. i What a diplomatisit and conciliator ho was! How ottt-u di.cl lie mediate between husband and wife, between father and soni between mother and daughter! Of a nervous ten .perament he spoke rapidly, and arrive.! swiftly at conclubions. Although in* professed that he should never have ; been a. doctor, he really loved his profession. Ox course it was awkward and not too agreeable to bo roused out of hi 3; warm blankets on a cold winter night i to face rain, hail or sleet or a dangerous road m the darkness, but no. ..thunderstorm, or personal risk ever prevented him from responding: to a suddesi and ‘ imperative call when life or lirab were at -stake. Ho rarely went to church, yet he was a devout reader—'ktl'ansard," I thin*:, was his Bible. Eve;; on the hunt for the latest discovery hn medical science, one could never puzzile or perplex him by referring to the latest medical or surgical marvel. Although no total Abstainer, his sympathies were with the Temperance party. He attended temperance meetings, signed tho pledge, and •enjoined others to follow his example. Yet he fully used win os and spirits if his patients required them. TVlirn the X-rays was discovered he sent straight away to Eng laud for the apparatus apd Jie vas about the first medical man in Xew Zealand to bring it into requisition. Hp led the way in adopting antiseptic treatment of wounds and the practice of abdominal surgery, removing _ huge tumours of many year?' standing, invart- : ably with the happiest results. "When tho method of dealing with appendicitis was revealed, how ha skilfully prepared the county engineer for on one-ration and hod him carefully tended by the most competent nurse: procurable. VTHh the X-rays ho worked wonders—* cancerous tumours, nnd sores, sk'n disease?. etc., were nil exnoriminted with. Then he had a. workshop fitted un with electrical machinery, a zns en sire driving the dynamo, and a wealth r.i apparatus, including,;electric gc-nernt-inc glass wheels and insulated chair?*. The Boer War saw him ip. South Africa in regimentals a* a lieutenant-

colonel ati-ached. to the medical stall and he was oi his* uni:oral, ior he and himself photographed and portraits were distributed among his mentis. But before starting on what turned out to be a world’s tour he cur a wav the cancerous tongue and a big part of the lower 1« w of an old Scandinavian. Leaving the remnant of his patient to be led an india-rubber tube, he said “This day twelve months you call on me in Masterton and HI present- you with a five pound note.” When the day arrived rho doctor was in England, but die patient called at his surgery, claiming his .€.5. and received the money IT Din Dr. Archie H., the doctor’s f>ou. Xecd it be told how astonished and delight ed the doctor was when lie heard what had happened. He little expected to sec the old man he had carved up alive again. Returning from a Medical Conference in Wellington with a portmanteau full of books oil hypnotic bUgg&fition he expatiiited on the wonderful effects oi this, influence. “AYny,” he exclaimed, “what could I do? I could not knock sense into a lot of fossils that refuse to move a peg. I might bo able to make some impression on the young ones, but the older practitioners are too stiff-necked and obdurate. They know’ nothing ahou* hypnotism. Thcv have never studicc. it. They don’t want to. and yet the control I am able, with its assistance, t.-> exercise over disease, i-s simply amazing. You can’t imagine it. .You must -oe it before you can believe it.” And then ho explained how he had releases young and old from their agonies and produced a refreshing sleep; how lie hac. regulated their habits; and instructed them what to eat, drink and avoid. am; how they could not resist his injunctions and were healed in consequence.

Rapidly he began to faith m medicine. The- rays and hypnotism became his powerful weapons. Young girls suffering from asthma and bronchial troubles came to him. He would tell them to sleep, not to cough, but to breathe freely; and after a few such interviews they were cured. Adult women would consult him suffering from nervous complaints. He would induce a hypnotic sleep and in a subconscious condition warn them on no consideration to sit up late, to enjoy the morning sunshine and attend strictly.to diet. Has he not restored to excellent health scores of women; .young and old, whose nerves were shattered till they boon;'.n' physical wrecks, by simply enjoining them to abstain absolutely from strong lea? For some years past he confined him self to consultations and patients have flocked to him from every part of New Zealand. Ho never advertised, prs ferring to allow his successful treatment of cancer and othtfr diseases generally regarded as incurable, to proclaim his merits. Of testimonials he had thousands. The drawers in his rooms weivstuffed with letters of thanks. from patients that ho restored to vigorous health after years of suffering and long terms spent in hospitals. He was a great reader, fond of his art, and he simply devoured the “Lancet." He spared neither pains nor money in testing the merits of every new discovery. It is doubtful if any other practitioner in Australasia has more thoroughly tested the uses and powers of the X-ray* and radium on which he expended over J2IOOO. To many he has been a generous benefactor. Masterton ladies are indebted to him for n fine, swimming bath. The afflicted poor will long re member him, for in hundreds of cases his services were given gratuitously and he was never known to press a poor family or a poor patient for money.