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144 ' .;
to these arrangements , the Comptroller-General had visited the Infirmary
with a view to taking it over as a site for offices , and that the women
and children were to be removed to the Brickfields . Although both he
and Jackson protested verbally to the Principal Medical Officer that the
locality was unsuitabl, and that the children should not be placed again
under t h e care of the convict authorities so far away from medcal
supervision, the removal was effected.
On July 12 and July 26, Hall returned to the lecture platform
of the Mechanics Institute, foll o wing up his lectures of the previous
winter session on 11Hearing11 and 11 Digest ion'' with one on 11Respi ratio n'1
delivered in two parts.
These two lectures were important in that they
marked the beginning of his work as a sanitarian and the self-appointed
custodian of the community 's health.
By now he and Miller were firm
friends ;
Miller described Hall as an
ab le and instructive lecturer who was already well known to
the public as a clever and accurate speaker , both perspicuous
and _ entertaining in a high degree, although using scientific
and technical language . 9
Hall spoke of Mi ller as 11my worthy friend from the 'D aily News'1•
To what
extent Hall owed his new role to the driving influence of M. ller and his
associates it is not possible to say;
certainly both men mutually
benefited from the contact ;
Hall found a conscious purpose and a goal
for his life's work plus a means by which they could be pub licly expressed,
Miller another worthwhile subj ect for his social interests and his
newspaper columns .
It was an ideal situation and both men took advantage
of it;
the result was a vigorous campaign in the Tasmanian Daily News
in the interests of Public Health .
The maturing of their ideas provided a fascinating study .
The
first part of 11Respiratim;'1 was given in the usual way and reported fairly
briefly in the Tasmanian Daily News on July 13 in the fashion approved of
for such subj ects ; the second part was treated differently: Hall, the
Sanitarian, was reported verbatim at great length,
Obvious ly, the two
men realized the possibilities of the situation in the interval between
the two lectures.
Mi ller explained his attitude:
We deem the subject to be one of so great an importance
to the community, that so clear and ab le an exposition of
it must be productive of benefits to those who are
sensible enough to read it carefu lly .
. ... We do . not as a rule devote so much of our space to the
publication of literary matter , but we feel that this subject
9
Tasmanian Daiy News , July 13, 1855 .