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217
confusion to free thems elves from blame, were in a position to know that
they were,
in reality, the puppets of the advancement of medical and
scientific knowledge and its consequence, social change .
In his examination on June 15, Hall contrasted the conditions
at the Orphan Schools in Tasmania with those found in the Cheltenham
Female Orphan School, The Military Orphan School
at Che lsea, The Sydney
Benevolent Asylum and the Brixton Hi ll Orphanage in London.
With the
exception of the Benevolent Asylum, his figures were taken from the
Statistical Society 's Journ al for 1858 . Essentially, he argued th at there
was a greater wastage of food from the human body in Tasmania owing to more
frequent circulation and respiration due to the purity of the air;
hence
a gre ater quantity of food was required.
He proposed that the children
be given a bal anced diet of carbonic and nitrogenous foods in the
proportion of three to one , the amount
to be 43 ounces of solid food daily
supplemented by 120 ounces of milk per week .
On June
18, Bedford and Benson, both members of the Commission,
were also examined by their associates .
Bedford disclosed that he,
himself, had made some effort to improve the children 's diet. When he
first took charge, the chi ldren were not in a good state of health , and
during the scarlet fever epidemic in 1843 the mort ality was very high:
at that time , the amount of food supplied was the same as now , but its
distribution was very poor -
on two days a week dinner was a lump of
boiled dough , on another boiled rice;
he had altered this , first amongst
the infants ,
to soup and meat every day, sometimes with the addition of
rice; there had been a good effect in health. He claimed that the
OrpDan Schools were used by the Government in 1854 as
an infirmary for
sick chi ldren taken from the Cascades Factory;
this was the cause of the
high mort ality, not the food, as Hall argued .
I have had to receive idiots , deaf and dumb and blind children ,
children with diseased hip joints , with diseases of the spine ,
water in the head and any form of less marked disease than I
have enumerated.
On the question of food, he was quite adamant ,
I do not consider there is too much uniformity when they have
baked meats or Irish stew two days in the week and broth four
days. Uniformity of diet is more hurtful to adul ts .
On June
24 Hall was re-examined before the Commission to whom
he presented an extremely long, minutely detailed report of the Orphan
Schools , whi ch he compi led after a visit there on June 20 . Thi s report ,