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whether her baby was bom at Kew or if Kate had left Mt Prospect three weeks earlier
akeady ill. It is perhaps significant that the baptism took place four days after Kate was
taken away, and that she was in WilUamstown, a western suburb of Melboume, rather
than in her own house.
At 37 years of age, Kate was registered in the Female Case Book at the Kew
Hospital as suicidal and dangerous. Her treatment, as prescribed at the hospital, was
'extras and chloral draughts' ~ extras including sago, beef-tea, brandy, ale or porter,
aU served to patients at 11.00 am.^* Chloral was a mixture of chlorine and alcohol
used as an anaesthetic and hypnotic but its prolonged use led to a morbid condition
knovm as chloralism. While Kate's mental imbalance resulted from a physical illness
and, to a certain extent, the side-effects of her treatment, it would seem not to have
been uncommon for immigrants to have ended their days in asylums. The trauma of
moving to a new country, the loss of family, the economic uncertainty and the
harshness of the living conditions all conspired to weaken mental stability and to
confine such men and women to institutions. Kate was too iU to mind her baby in the
first three months of its life and, while it is uncertain who took over its care, this task
was possibly taken on by other women in the ItaUan-speaking community: like the
men, they understood the worth of co-operation and had strong support networks.
Kate gave birth to another child in November 1875, a son named Antonio who
died in infancy. She was, however, enjoying a period of better physical health and had
begun dressmaking to earn some extra money. She had also taken up singing at St
Joseph's Church alongside other talented parishioners in the district. 1875 was.
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