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

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205<br />

many peculiar advantages to invalids from Inda; I was<br />

chagrined beyond measure when I found how serously the<br />

commissioners had failed in proving it, and I lost no<br />

time in endeavouring to counteract their errors in the<br />

proper quarters .<br />

In the October numb er <strong>of</strong> the Australian Medical Journal<br />

pub lished in Melbourne, I reviewed the commissioners '<br />

report at length, and did my best to advance the interests<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>Tasmania</strong>, <strong>of</strong> science, and <strong>of</strong> humanity, by a candid<br />

exposition <strong>of</strong> the real advantages this island possesses for<br />

establishing a ";;anitarium for India" .<br />

Hall's "Review11 which occupied twenty-seven pages in the journal , was<br />

a courageous and remarkable achievement, which estab lished him as a<br />

mature sanitarian whose attitude was international and global rather<br />

than national and parochial .<br />

The preservation <strong>of</strong> human health, the prolongation <strong>of</strong> human<br />

life, binds every sanitary reformer in one indissoluble link,<br />

whatever may be their country, condition or creed . All are<br />

cosmopolitans . No real sanitarian wi ll swerve one line from<br />

his honorab le course to truckle to the behests <strong>of</strong> any<br />

Nebuchadnezzar, or to worship the golden image <strong>of</strong> self<br />

interest. Zeal may outrun know ledge, for to err is human ;<br />

but to love their neighbours as thems elves , as the majority<br />

<strong>of</strong> sanitarians show that they do, is to embody the essence<br />

<strong>of</strong> christianity . 4<br />

Although very much in Hobarton society Hall was also ab ove and beyond it.<br />

Although his only contact with other sanitarians was by correspondence<br />

and literature, his extraordinary ab ility to think obj ectively ,<br />

strengthened by his religious beliefs and his integrity, gave him the<br />

confidence, the courage, the audacity , the determination, and the skill<br />

necessary to pit himself alone in a small isolated city against the<br />

judgment <strong>of</strong> the Board <strong>of</strong> Commissioners appointed by the Executive<br />

authority, and to declare them to the world gui lty <strong>of</strong> great errors .<br />

Unfortunately , scarcely a statement was made, a tab le given,<br />

a conclusion drawn , or a proposition advanced that was not<br />

flagrantly erroneous . 5<br />

Considering the importance <strong>of</strong> the issue at stake - the very nature <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>Tasmania</strong> itself - and the influential position <strong>of</strong> the nine Commissioners ,<br />

the fact that Hal l's "Review" was published "in toto" twice proved the<br />

strength and efficacy <strong>of</strong> his attack.<br />

As a result the Executive and the<br />

Commissioners learnt in no uncertain terms <strong>of</strong> the fol ly <strong>of</strong> their out-moded<br />

ideas and <strong>of</strong> their ignorance <strong>of</strong> modern sanitary science.<br />

Unfortunat ely<br />

4<br />

5<br />

A.M.J., October 1858, p. 287 .<br />

The Builder, Apri l 9, 1859 , p. 248.

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