The Icelandic Canadian - 01.11.2007, Blaðsíða 25

Vol. 61 #2
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
67
would increase 100 Danish dollars every
third year until it reached 500 dollars a
year.
In 1867 Jon Hjaltalin lobbied the gov-
ernment for full accreditation of the pro-
posed medical school, with the Chief
Medical Officer for the country as overseer
and two additional instructors. As previ-
ously indicated, the motion was approved
by the National Assembly, subject to a
number of amendments. Finally, a law was
passed by the National Assembly approv-
ing the establishment of a medical school in
Reykjavik, and the said law received the
approval of the King on February 11, 1871.
In this way Dr. Jon Fljaltalin managed
to realize the cause he had championed for
32 years, from the time he first raised the
matter in the New Company periodical in
1844. Subsequent progress in this matter is
demonstrated by the fact that there were
initially only seven doctors in the whole
country, whereas there are now 21 - with
19 of that number having received instruc-
tion from Dr. Hjaltalin himself, while only
two received their accreditation in
Denmark. (The reader must bear in mind
that the article was written sometime in the
19th century. Today the number would be
higher.)
Closely related to the issue of locally
trained doctors is the one concerning the
establishment of a hospital. Dr. Hjaltalin
was fully convinced that it was necessary to
establish a hospital in Reykjavik. Although
he was not a member of the committee
formed to bring the hospital into existence,
he nevertheless played an important role in
that matter.
Sometime before Dr. Hjaltalin became
Chief Medical Officer for Iceland, a num-
ber of men were practicing homeopathic
medicine, particularly in northern Iceland.
In Hjaltalin's opinion, such practices
should not be sanctioned as they misled
people and dispensed dangerous or ineffec-
tive palliatives, and none of these practi-
tioners had been properly trained as physi-
cians. In the winter of 1855-56, he made
the government aware that, in his opinion,
homeopathic practitioners and the reme-
dies they offered were deleterious. He also
suggested that the full weight of the law be
brought to bear on these quacks (See
Government Archives pages 143 and 162).
Around the same time, he wrote articles in
various periodicals condemning those
practicing homeopathic medicine.
A third issue in which he expressed an
interest was the one concerning a disease
that attacked the skin of sheep. Hjaltalin
expressed clear views on the slaughter of
infected sheep in southern Iceland in the
year 1856, and he did not think the mea-
sures taken by farmers in curtailing the
spread of the disease was in keeping with
acceptable medical and hygienic standards.
As a progressive individual who had a great
love for the land of his ancestors, he felt the
methods being employed were wasteful
and did not effectively contain the spread
of the disease. He also considered that
farmers should be more enlightened and
progressive than they were in the middle of
the 19th century. It appeared to him that
the mindset of the time was similar to that
common 100 years before. Various com-
munity leaders looked to him to provide
direction on overcoming backward meth-
ods of farming and animal husbandry, and
as a result he was included as a member of
a committee seeking ways and means of
arresting the disease in the sheep. Also on
this committee were such leading men as
Tacherings and Jon Sigurdsson. In addition
to this Hjaltalin concerned himself with
many other matters that he felt impeded
progress.
Jon Hjaltalin, the “land's doctor,” was
not only a progressive doctor who was
knowledgeable about the latest trends in
medicine, he was also interested in new
ideas circulating among his contempo-
raries. He read the best books in Danish,
German, English and French, and he had a
broad range of knowledge on various sub-
jects, especially as they pertained to sci-
ence. He also travelled a great deal and
familiarized himself with the ecosystem of
his country, as it related to geology and the
earth sciences. He spent a considerable
time studying geology in the hope that he
could discover minerals that might prove
feasible - particularly iron and chalk - and
he bought shares in the Helgustadur-
mines, which contained silverberg.