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

199
Yet, Hal l's article cone luded on a note of optimism and rej oi d ng ;
found that the Zymo tic class of diseases , which was that most influenced
by atmospheric and local impurit ies, had gradually but considerab ly
diminished in Hobarton since 1853, when there were 123 deaths in this
group, to 100 in 1856 , and only 84 in 1857.
he
This was an encouraging
result for Municipal authorities and should spur them on to increased
exertions in the sanitation of the city.
In April, 1858, the Australian Medical Journal pub lished the
fourth and concludi_ng part of Hall's artie 1 e 110n the Medical Topography
and Vital Statistics of Hobarton, Tasmania, and its southern Sub -Districts
for 1855."
Although in this section Hall primarily wished to discuss
the diseases prevalent in Tasmania in 1855, as he had previously intimated
in Part · III , he, nevertheless, devoted the first half to refuting
professionally Bedford 's letter in the Aus tralian Medical Journal .
Angrily, indignantly, but precisely, Hall attacked one by one Bedford's
conunents and obj ections , excusing himself on the grounds that the
importance of the subject , his own honour, and the position of the
objector demanded that he do so.
Actually, it was a devastating attack
on the professionalism of a man who obvious ly had little acquaintance
with the subt leties of statistical argument and their implications with
respect to acceptab le standards of health and mortality.
Dr Bedford seems to be quite unconscious that, when g1v1ng
from his own selected thirteen years calculations , an
annual mean rate of mortality for the Orphan School, of
rather above three per cent (31 per thousand) for children ,
who for five years out of the thirteen were all upwards of
three years old; for the other/five, all above two years
old; and for the last three . a rs , with one solitary
exception 1 all more than one ' year old, that the rate is
enormous , when compared with that which usually prevai ls in
Europe, in children of a corresponding age, and still more
disproportionate when compared with the ratio of mortality
in children in Tasmania.
According to his own analysis of deaths at the Orphan School, taken from
the Hobart Town Registry, 271 children had died from 1841-1857 inclusive,
on an average daily strength of 400 children, wpich is 4 per cent or
40 per 1000
a rate which I venture to point out is without para llel in
any we ll conducted estab lishment in Europe.
Even th is, Hall considered too favourab le a view, considering the ages
of the children.