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independent body.l3 Obviously, when two aged, experienced doctors ,
both parents themselves , differed so widely in their estimation of the
situation,
there could eventually be only one outcome, one was right,
the other wrong .
That there were actually some grounds for Hal l's
suspicions concerning the amount and quality of the Children 's food was
proved by the setti_ng up of a Commi ssion of Enquiry by the Executive
Government on Novemb er 23 , 1857, to hear charges against the Matron,
Mrs Smyth, who' was accused of using the meat served out for the children
to make broth for herself, and of using their milk .
However , the
charges were not substantiated. 1 5
Certainly, Hall was equa lly adept at both censure and praise
· if he thought either would benefit the welfare of the people . In the
role of mentor, he always availed himself of the opportunity to express
publicly his enthusiastic admiration for the virtues and achievements of
remarkable men in an arti cle which conveyed inspiration to others .
Reading in the Lancet of August 15, 1857, of the death of Dr Marshall Hal l,
the inventor of the Marshall Hall method of restoring asphyxiated persons ,
he immediately forwarded an abstract of the leading article on the eminent
physician to the Dail y News
I have condensed the following abstract as my homage to
a man whose name, whilst living , and ever since I commenced
my own professional care er, I have felt proud to bear;
whom, as an ardent and honorab le medical practitioner,
as a zealous man of science, as a philanthropist above
all petty and selfish views, I have regarded as a model
whom every professor of the healing art ought to copy,
and who, having now closed a useful and laudable course
by a dis covery of incalculable benefit to science and
humanity - according well with a life so spent - I revere
and honour in the grave.
He enclosed a full description of the Marshall Hall method in the hope
that shopkeepers and pub licans , especially round the wharves would paste
up the directions in a position to be readily seen by all customers . 1 6
Yet , to Mil ligan and Bedford Hall gave only condemnation .
On January 2, 1858 , he once again accused Mil ligan of secretarial
ineffi ciency, of mis-statements and suppressions ,
of partial and
inaccurate reporti_ng ,
this time of the December meeting of the Royal
Society at which he had entered a 11protest" against Milligan 's reporting
of the special meeti
_
ng of October 26.
,_
13
1 5
1 6
Daily News , December 1, 1857 .
H.A.P. 1859/72 .
Daily News , January 1, 1858.