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to their children and to the wider community. Besides his contribution to the
Benevolent Society, Severino was honorary medical officer for a time at Blanket Flat
(Eganstown). He was also a member of the St Patrick's Society"*^ and the Swiss and
Italian Association, his religious beliefs and ethnicity linking him to other members of
the community.
Having to cope with a demanding work schedule and various public duties,
Severino's poor health brought him to an early death on 20 April 1871 at 55 years of
age. The previous November he had been involved in a road accident which, although
minor, would have weakened him physically. The incident, because of the doctor's
high public profile, had received lengthy reporting in the local press, beginning with the
words, 'Early yesterday morning, two of our medical men [also involved was one Dr
Massey] had a narrow escape from a severe, if not fatal accident'."' Even before the
accident, however, Severino had been suffering nervous instability which many had
attributed to an over-concem with political events then taking place in Europe."*"* As
an ex-member of parliament, he was reported to have been unable to disassociate
himself from the affairs of his homeland, and had become increasingly troubled. By
Christmas of that year, his son Federico had been forced to take over his normal round
of gift giving, making presentations of his best colonial wine to the Daylesford Hospital
and the Benevolent Society. When Severino's condition further deteriorated, he was
taken to an asylum in Cremome (Melboume) and then, with his recovery pronounced
hopeless, to a hospital in Yarra Bend (Melboume). In January 1871, the Daylesford
Hospital Committee sent a letter of support to Giuditta Guscetti but her husband died
just a few months later (the official cause being cited as 'softening of the brain and
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