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Severino may have selected his friends from among the professional classes,
one of his closest associates being Francesco Rotanzi who had emigrated from Ticino
in 1855; perhaps not a professional, Rotanzi was certainly an educated man willing to
perform various secretarial duties for associations in Daylesford.'^ So too may he have
mixed with Ticinese doctors Rossetti (as later financial arrangements would suggest)
and Pagnamenta. Rossetti had been declared officially bankmpt when price wars and
intense business rivalry had forced him to abandon his commercial interests at
Hepbum. Falling back upon his medical skill, in 1864 he had been appointed honorary
surgeon at the Daylesford Hospital ~ erected in that year to symbolise the
government's commitment to Daylesford's future (ref figure 9) ~ a position which he
held for one year."
Dr Pagnamenta had also retumed to medicine discovering, to his dismay, that
during his time as a miner and then as a dairyman he had allowed his skills to
deteriorate. Among several patients dissatisfied with his treatment was Tranquillo Pata
who, after one intervention to repair a broken leg in 1859, complained that one leg had
been left shorter than the other. Unburdening his anger in a letter to his brother, he
wrote: 'la mia gamba e restata curta e sempre sard nel medesimo stato fino alia
morte per mezzo di quello infamatore Dottore Pagnamenta' ^'' The loss of
Pagnamenta's medical skills did, however, vindicate his compatriots' belief that the
goldfields was no place for the professionals, that doctors and the like lacked the
adaptability and wit needed to survive. Dr Pagnamenta had eventually returned to
Ticino where he died in 1861.
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