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The mmblings of discontent directed towards Severino Guscetti did not,
however, appear to have taken an overt form ~ for he was soon able set up a medical
practice wdth Italian speakers as his patients. While mining had been an exciting and
lucrative occupation, like most of the more educated immigrants who had abandoned it
for a cleaner, easier and more financially rewarding career, Severino soon retumed to
medicine. Within a year of his arrival he had established a medical practice in Spring
Creek, announcing his new premises in the Bendigo Advertiser on 6 December 1856
with, 'S. Guscetti, M.D. adjoining the Switzerland Store^^ near the camp'. Positioning
his premises to take advantage of the large Italian-speaking population, he had
attracted those settlers eager to discuss their ailments in their own language (recall
Gaetano Tomasetti's difficulties with the English speaking doctors) and receive a
sympathetic hearing from someone who shared their ethnic and cultural background.
Severino soon eamed the respect and esteem of his patients, including Stefano Pozzi
who was cured after a long iUness in 1855.^
One of only a small number of doctors practising on the Jim Crow goldfields,
Severino found his time fully occupied with mining accidents and common illnesses.
Pneumonia, consumption and miners' complaint were among the most frequently
occurring diseases, aggravated by the harsh living conditions on the goldfield. In an
age of limited medical knowledge and few effective dmg treatments, the most common
causes of death among children were typhoid and diphtheria (the high infant and child
mortality rates among the ItaUan speakers having already been noted). The death of
the Guscettis' fifth child Fausto Amerigo, bom one year after the family's aT-'ival in
Australia, may have resulted from one of these childhood illnesses.
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