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236
"On Influenza Epidemic" Hall attempted to imitate this examp le in
Australia.
The Australian Medical Journal is the only medium for these
regions through which special reports of the character and
effects of this widespread epidemic can be usefully made
knmm and submitted to comparative examination, for the
information of the medical practitioners of Au stralasia and
the general advancement of sanitary science . I, therefore,
initiate this desirab le undertaking by contributing a medicometeorological
hitory of the disease and its fatality, as it
appeared in the city of Hobarton and its environs , where
I have practised my profession for many years .
As in his previous arti cles, Hall wasted no words , packing
110n Influenza Epidemic" tightly with an impr essive array of facts and
figures ,
difficult to compress.
He described his intention and his
method carefully:
For several years past I have every month extracted from the
Registrar-General 's records the deaths that have occurred
during the month , and tabulated and classed them in accordance
with the age, cause of death, and classes of disease. At the
same time I have minutely analysed the exce llent meteorological
tab le furnished by Mr Francis Abbott every month to the Royal
Society and weighed the presumed influence of each meteorological
phenomenon in its effects on the diseases and deaths of the
month. As I believe such a course of investigation - laborious
though it be - is well calculated to elicit useful truths , I have
adopted the same plan for the basis of the present article.
Hal l's analysis of the mortality disclosed that the total numb er of deaths ,
114, in proportion to population was the highest ever recorded in Tasmania.
Of the
114 deaths
8 were under l year old
9 were between l and 5 years
4 were between 5 and 20
22 were between 20 and 45
22 were between 45 and 60
49 were 60 and above .
Such an enormous senile mortality was never before recorded in any one
month .
Hall found that the mortality formed three distinct , well defined
divisions .
From July l - July 9 (incl .) 18 deaths
10 - 23 (incl.) 80 deaths
24
-
31 (incl .) 16 deaths
Therefore, he arrived at two conclusions :
the first was most unusual and
contrary to findings in Victoria, Sydney and London;
namely, in Hob art on