Obituary. 141 



Province. He retained his seat for ten years, during which time 

 he became a member of a Government and Chairman of Committees ; 

 but he never showed any special liking for political life, his heart 

 being in the study and practice of his profession, in which he 

 deservedly held a conspicuous place, and in which he won con- 

 siderable success, both generally and as a specialist, the direction 

 of this latter being gynocology. 



For several years before his visit to Europe, whither he went in 

 November last, Dr. Wilkie had retired from very active practice, 

 but his scientific interest in medicine never waned. His death 

 took place in Paris on the 2nd of April of this year, at the age of 

 seventy. The event was unexpected, as he was in very fair health 

 when he left Melbourne. 



EDWARD BARKER, M.D. Melb., F.R.C.S. Eng. 



Dr. Barker was an old colonist, having arrived in Victoria in 

 1840, when only twenty-four years of age. He was a native of the 

 South of England, and his medical education was received at 

 University College, London, where he was a pupil of the illustrious 

 Liston, and to whose example and precepts he attributed much of 

 the interest he always took in operative and conservative surgery. 

 His first experience here, however, was not in connection with his 

 professional pursuits, for on his arrival he at once took up land in 

 the north-west, where he entered upon pastoral pursuits with 

 much energy and very profitable results. Nine years later he 

 experienced a desire to resume the practice of the profession to 

 which he had been trained, and although he continued a com- 

 mercial connection with his squatting undertakings, he settled 

 down in Melbourne to the regular work of medicine. In 1851 he 

 obtained his first official position, being elected in that year 

 honorary surgeon of the Melbourne Benevolent Asylum, then only 

 just started. In 1852 he was chosen to a like position on the 

 staff of the Melbourne Hospital, at that time a very small institu- 

 tion in comparison with its present bulk and importance. He held 

 this appointment continuously for twenty-four years, during which 

 period he deservedly acquired the reputation of a skilful and 

 scientific surgeon. He was one of the founders of the Royal 

 Society of Victoria, and also of the Medical Society, both 

 of which grew out of the fusion of competing, but not 

 antagonistic, associations. With the governing bodies of both 

 societies he maintained a long connection, and of the Medical 

 Society he was President in 1859. He assisted in starting the 

 Australian Medical Journal, which has been for more than thirty 



