Thomas Embling
| Thomas Embling | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
26 August 1814 Oxford, England |
| Died | 17 January 1893 (aged 78) Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia |
| Years active | 1837 - 1893 |
| Known for | Pioneer in ethical treatment of the mentally ill |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Medical Officer, General Practitioner, politician |
| Institutions | Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum |
| Specialism | Treatment of mental illness |
Thomas Embling (26 August 1814 – 17 January 1893) was a doctor from the United Kingdom who took an interest in the humane treatment of inmates in asylums before emigrating to Melbourne, Australia where he set about reforming the Yarra Bend Asylum. Later on Thomas Embling took up the cause of the gold miners in and had a successful career in the early parliament of Victoria.
Thomas Embling was born 26 August 1814 in Oxford, United Kingdom. At 16 he was apprenticed to an apothecary. He then studied medicine, becoming a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1837 and a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in 1838.
After his graduation in 1829 he went into partnership in practice with his brother. It was during this time he held a position as a Visiting Medical Officer at Hanwell Asylum, where he became familiar with the latest treatment methods in lunatic asylums. Embling married Jane Webb Chinnock on 1 August 1839 and by 1841 they were living with their son, William on Brompton Row, South Kensington, London. Both Embling and his wife suffered from 'pulmonary affections' which influenced their decision to emigrate to Australia. In 1850 Embling, his wife and seven children sailed from England to South Australia; they then travelled across to Melbourne. The journey to Melbourne was not without incident and Embling was caught up in the bush fires of Black Thursday in February 1851.
Embling's first appointment in Australia was to be as an assistant to the Colonial Surgeon of Victoria. However parliament members James Johnston and Charles Ebden put forward the proposition that Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum required a Resident Medical Officer and Embling was highly suitable. Although not a psychiatrist, Embling had a pioneering interest in the 'moral treatment' of mental illness
Embling's early days at Yarra Bend were not easy. Superintendent George Watson was not pleased with the appointment of a Resident Medical Officer. With the assistance of displaced Visiting Medical Officer Dr Cussen, Watson attempted to thwart Embling's efforts to become involved in the care of inmates. He was refused a pass key and denied access to many of the asylum buildings, including the accommodation that he was to have been provided on the asylum grounds. Efforts to hinder Embling however, only served to strengthen his resolve to become actively involved in the clinical management of his patients. What he saw at Yarra Bend shocked him, his first impressions "were those of great astonishment not unmixed with pain … I saw much that was incomprehensible, and much disreputable."
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