Sanitary forum: The Royal Society of Tasmania and public health reform 1853-1911

In the nineteenth century Tasmania experienced a number of epidemic diseases like scarlet fever, diphtheria and, most deadly of all, typhoid. Sanitary reformers attributed the epidemics to contaminated water supplies, accumulations of decomposed rubbish, poorly built houses and the absence of underground drainage schemes. Leading reformers, most notably Dr Edward Swarbreck Hall, were Fellows of The Royal Society of Tasmania and used the society as a forum to identify the causes of epidemic disease and to explain the public health reforms that would prevent death and illness. Lectures and papers by medical doctors, sanitary engineers, and statisticians drew on the latest thinking in sanitary science and helped build momentum for public support of such reforms. This paper examines the arguments of sanitary reformers and the reaction to their interventions and concludes that between 1853 and 1911 the Royal Society was the main forum for debate on public health reform in Tasmania.