Baudin's Doctors: French Medical Scientists in Australian Waters, 1801-1803

This essay deals with the backgrounds and education of the medical men on board the 'Géographe' and the 'Naturaliste', their activities on the voyage and their subsequent careers. We also discuss their treatment of the principal diseases which afflicted the members of the expedition. We concentrate on the voyage in Australian waters, including Timor, as far as Port Jackson, where the two ships stayed for about five months, the 'Géographe' arriving on 18 June 1802, and the 'Naturaliste', first on 26 April 1802, and then on 28 June, ten days after the 'Géographe'. This is the most interesting period from a medical point of view. It is the period in which the expedition's medical men were challenged by epidemics of scurvy and dysentery. While some aspects of medicine during the Baudin expedition have been discussed by other scholars, this is the first time that the material has been brought together and that the careers of the medical team have been considered as indicators of their education and their intellectual orientations. In this way we hope to give an overview of the effects of the medical men on the expedition as well as the effects of the expedition on these men.