Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, Robert (1763-1824)

by Charles Creighton ‎

HALL, ROBERT, M.D. (1763–1824), medical writer, born in Roxburghshire in 1763, was a great-grandson of Henry Hall of Haughhead (d. 1680) [q. v.], the covenanter. From school at Jedburgh he went to the medical classes at Edinburgh. After three years' practice in Newcastle he entered the navy as surgeon, and served several years on the Jamaica station. On his return he proceeded M.D. at Edinburgh, and took up practice at Jedburgh. Thence he went to London and occupied himself in translating, compiling, editing, &c. On the fitting out of an expedition to the Niger he was appointed medical officer. Invalided by a fall and the climate, he returned to Madeira. He died at Chelsea early in 1824, of a decline. Mrs. Agnes C. Hall [q. v.] was his wife. His writings are:

1. Translation of Spallanzani on the ‘Circulation,’ with Tourdes' notes and life of the author, London, 1801.
2. Translation of Guyton de Morveau's ‘Means of Purifying Infected Air,’ London, 1802 (with a vindication of Johnstone's priority as against Carmichael Smyth).
3. ‘Elements of Botany,’ 1802.
4. Revised edition of Clare's ‘Treatise on the Motion of Fluids,’ 1804.

He also contributed papers to the medical journals on cow-pox, hydrophobia, pemphigus, &c.

[Georgian Era, ii. 585; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Gent. Mag. March 1824.]

C. C.