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270
In the long, unceasing struggle over tne ages to attain this most
important asset in life, health, Hall believed the new science of
"Stati sties" had played an outstanding part.
From the date of the application of the science of numbers -
statistics - to cosmical variations and vital phenomena and
disease, are the grand triumphs of modern hygiene to be dated.
The facts and figures collected, arranged, expounded and
disseminated by the Registrar-General of England, and his
numerous co-adjutors of the medical profession, were the great
levers whi ch enabled sanitary reformers to effect their brave
and bloodless victories . Dr William Farr has been the
11thauma-turgus11 - the wonder-worker of the age we live in , and
the figures he has arranged, and the centres of disease-breeding
he has indicated, with the unsparing exposure of their origin
in the neglect of Nature 's own sanitary teachings , has opened
an entirely new sphere for medical practice. The master minds
of the profession are now assuming the first duty of medical
skill to be to prevent disease. The curative department is
rapidly becoming a secondary branch in the exercise of medical
science. lenever these new princip les - new at least
comparatively to any extent in practice - have been fairly acted
upon , human lives have been saved by thousands . We now
scrutinize suspiciosly every mortuary record where the deaths
exceed a certain assumed normal standard. No longer can the
unphilosophical oi-polloi safely mask their ignorance and
attribute excessive mortality to recondite causes, or take
she lter in vague generalities, and the untangible, mystic
influence of the weather. l3
Continuing , Hall implied the motive behind his own great interest in
meteorology and his ready assistance to Abbott 1s research; meteorologists ,
he maintained, had provided invaluable data which assisted sanitarians in
their reasoning and in constructing their reforms .
In this respect,
Tasmgnia had been more fortunate than other colonies in having been
slected as one of the localities for a Magnetical and Meteorological
Observatory at the suggestion of the British Association.
Now , as
Sir Thomas Maclear of the Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope asserted,
Abbott1s 40 Tables were a standard of reference , leaving
nothing to be desired for the climate of Tasmania. 14
In his detailed analysis of the meteorological data, based on
Abbott1s work, Hall included some items of more than usual interest which
are tabulated here for the sake of brevity.
1. It is remarkab le that diseases of the "Brain and Nervous systemn
13
14
give more deaths in proportion to the total from all causes in
Tasmania, than in either Victoria or New South Wales .
Ibid. , p. 42 & 43.
Ibid. , p. 43.
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