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

319
observations for the next five years had been tabulated , he thought it
desirable to incorporate these with the former, in order to give in a
c mplete form the results of the observations of thirty consecutive years ,
1841-1870, incident ally the results of a life-time 's work by him. The
second section was an article by Hal l, ''Climate and Vital Statistics of
Tasmania" , a unique contribution to Tasmania's statistical and med ical
history, which Inspector-General Lawson, the President of the Epidemiologica
Society described 11as a model for any work of the kind'' . 6
Since the masses
of statistics relating to population, births, deaths, marriages and diseases
required a trained and experienced medical statist to adequately evaluate
them, the comments of the Australian Medical Journal in its review in
December 1873 best indicated the calibre of the article .
It is almost superfluous to say that Mr Hall's scientific
reputation extends far beyond the colony in which, for
forty years, he has laboured with honour to himself and
profit to ethers . His various contributions to the
scientific literature of the day have wel l attested his
competency to deal with questions relating to health and
disease, more especially in that broader aspect which presents
them as they are seen to be affected by the remoter influences
of causation. In putting forward , therefore, a series of
facts bearing upon these influences, as observed in Tasmania,
it may be assumed that Mr Hall's statements are of that
carefully considered kind which do not suggest controversy.
They are arguments of an irreputable order , so that although
his object may clearly have been to show the remarkab le
salubrity of Tasmania as a place of residence, he is to be
acquitted of 11 prjudice or partizanship , inasmuch as he
only gives facts and makes comparisons, and does not go at
all out of his way to enforce conclusions, seeing that the
inferences inevitably declare themselves . 7
B,oth Abbott's and Hall's figures were surprising and gratifying :
indeed,
Abbott's proved that the climate of Hobart Town and Tasmania generally
was more insular than that of the British Isles and equitable in every
particular;
for example, the average mean temperature of January, the
warmest month, was 62.70°, whi le that of July, the coldest month , was
46 .1°, a range of only 16.6°; the average mean temperature of the wh ole
year being 54 .7°;
in addition, the percentage of humidity varied only
from 67 in January to 83 in July, the mean dewpoint from 56.5 in February
to 40 in July .
Hall's statistics also proved the ''wonder-working
influences11 of the island's genial climate, namely that the total death
6
7
Mercury, Oct . 7, 1873.
A.M.J ., Dec . 1873, pp . 371-372.