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Officer:
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However, it was not quite correct that the city had no Halth
although Hall held no appointment which carried a salary, and
his work was of necessity limited to pointing out abuses , he, nevertheless ,
knowing that it was the recognized practice elsewhere and necessary for
the well-being of the people, conscientiously undertook many of the duties
of a Health Officer voluntarily.
That he should have performed such an
arduous task for so long without any recompense and very little gratitude
was an indication of his own fine, persevering character, whilst, at the
same time, a sad reflection on the scientific and medical outlook and the
\'lisdom of Hobarton officials.
Be that as it may , Hall compiled his
Health Reports regularly, assessing, warning , and advising suitable
courses of action, thus making , as the Tasmanian Times pointed out, the
most valuable contribution of all to the Pape rs and Proceedings of the
Royal Society. 2
Perhaps Hall's deep concern for the welfare of his fellow citizens,
young and old, \'las best illustrated by an opening address he gave on
\
April 4, 1865, as the newly-elected Chairman of the Physical Section of
the Royal Society.
As no special subject had been selected, he chose to
discuss three recent discoveries which he considered were important to
the comfort and welfare of the human race :
the first of these was the
dissevering of the light and heat giving rays of the sun by passing the
solar ray through a solution of iodine or sulphide of carbon ;
the second
was the discovery of metal magnesium, and the third - a sub ject of a purely
sanitary nature - the artificial feding of infants whose mothers were
unable to nurse them.
portion of his address on the third.
In true Hallean style , he concentrated the major
As a statist, he was greatly
concerned that so many children under five years of age died through
mismanagement : in England, it \'las half the number born ; even in Tasmania,
where the climate was so propitious , out of 920 annual births, on the last
seven years' average, 138 infants under one year old annually died;
87 more between the ages of one and five .
It is the pride of modern science that its researches are made
to have a practical application to the \'ielfare of man . I shall
not, therefore, deem it necessary to apologize for introducing so
homely a sub ject into the discussions of the Physical Section of
the Royal Society of Tasmania. Whatever tends to benefit our
common humanity, and may eventuate in the saving of many lives
will ah.,rays hold the first place in my philosophy .
and
2
The Tasmanian Times, Aug. 8, 1867.