PDF (Whole thesis) - UTas ePrints - University of Tasmania

177
of the Vital Statistics of Hobarton generally, and some of its
institutions in particular, it revealed Hall, the statist, at his best.
At the time of its pub lication, few people in the city realized just
how great its repercussions would be.
No doubt to some professional
men holdng important, responsible positions in the comunity, it was a
nasty shock, a bitter pill to swallow.
'
It als. o revealed the depth to
which Hall had penetrated into the science of ''Vital Statistics'' and his
wide knowldge of related subjects;
in short, it offered little
opportunity for argument by anyone in Hobarton, as the facts spoke for
themselves .
Hall commenced his remarks by stating that his six tables, one
of which detailed minutely and comprehe nsively all the deaths in 1855
under the different classes and genera of diseases at every age, the
other five giving the deaths of children under three years of age for
1851-2-3-4-5 , were compiled from the Hobart Town Registry with great
labour and difficulty, owing to the very imperfect system of recording
used.
In the cons true tion of the tab le for 1855 I have been at great
pains to make it conform with the arrangement and nosology
· adopted by the Registrar-General of England. In fact I have
recast it throughout for that purpose; not that I mean thereby
to acknowledge unconditionally the perfection of the plan, or
to subscribe to the theories of disease that may be inferred
from it; but that I think it of great moment that uniformity
in all works in the English language, on Vital Statistics ,
should be aimed at as much as possib le. To effect this
agreement has been no easy task, from the very absurd terms
under which the informants generally have recorded ''the cause
of death'' .
Bo imperfect as the system of registration in 1855-56 that deaths in
January 1855 were not recorded until July.
Here the Registrar-General of England would find it
almost useless to attempt to carry out his valuab le
'Weekly Reports ' on public health .
Referring to his own "Monthly Report on the Pub lic Health of Hobarton"
he maintained that these would never be perfect until a system similar
to that used in Denmark was instituted.
Once again, he stressed the
enormity of the death rate in Hob arton, 752 deaths in 1855 out of a
population of 23 ,000 .
This is more than 3 1 /4%, or nearly one out of every
thirty-one inhabitants and about one per cent above the
aveage of England, and even very considerably above the
average for fifteen years of London, with its numerous
deaths from smallpox, cho lera, typhus fever and other