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CHAPTER 10
PUBLIC
HEALTH
The tempestuous events of 1855 changed in various ways the lives
of many people: Young was censured by the Bri.tish Government; Hampton
was gone, his place taken by the former Deputy Comptro ller-General
W. Nairn; the convict infants were better cared for. "The days of
tyranny and mawkish sensibility have passed away" , wrote Miller, whose
journal was well-established, financially viable and popular. The
dissolution of the Legislative Council on February 7, 1856 , and the
preparations for the election of a representative parliament under the
new constitution affirmed the feeling that a new era had begun.
Hall, too, was affected by his experiences in that momentous
year : his courage and determination to expose the evi ls of the convict
system were recognized and acclaimed, whilst his reputation as a resolute
and fearless fighter on behalf of the weak and helpless had spread
throughout Australia and to England. Of more importance was the increase
in the breadth and depth of his know ledge and interests as the result of
his intense efforts during the stormy days of 1855 to prove his argument .
The necessity to do this pub licly turned his attention to research and
writing, both of which he found stimulating and satisfying. As a legacy
of the many hours he spent in the Registrar's office investigating returns
and compi ling tab les of statistics , he developed an absorbing interest in
the science of "Vital Statistics", which induced him to become a member
of the Statistical Society of London, although the exact date of his
election is not known. Moreover , his studies necessitated extensive
research into many other fields of scientific enquiry - sanitation, public
health, nutrition, penology, meteorology, climatology, medical topography
and the like . Indeed, Hal l's interest in statistics and meteorology was
the basis of a life-long friendship and scientific co-partnership which
sprang up between him and F. Abbott , the Registrar General . Pl:>rc:-tt , \o'ho