Hassall was born in Middlesex as the youngest son of five children in a house of a surgeon. His father was Thomas Hassall (1771–1844) and his mother, née Ann Sherrock (c. 1778–1817).[1] He spent his school years in Richmond.
He entered medicine through apprenticeship in 1834 to his uncle Sir James Murray (1788–1871), spending his early career in Dublin, where he also studied botany and the seashore.[2][3] In 1846 he published a two-volume study, The Microscopic Anatomy of the Human Body in Health and Disease, the first English textbook on the subject.
After further studying botanyatKew and publishing on botanical topics, particularly freshwater algae, he came to public attention with his 1850 book A microscopical examination of the water supplied to the inhabitants of London and the suburban districts, which became an influential work in promoting the cause of water reform. In the early 1850s he also studied food adulteration; his reports were published in The Lancet by reformer Thomas Wakley and led directly to the 1860 Food Adulteration Act and subsequent further legislation against the practice.[4]
From 1878 onward, aiming to rest in warmer climates, he spent most of his time in Europe, gaining permission to practise both in San Remo, where he and his family lived, and Lucerne, where he worked in the summer. During this time he wrote extensively on climatic treatments for tuberculosis, works such as the 1879 San Remo and the Western Riviera Climatically and Medically Considered.[6][7] His autobiography, The narrative of a busy life, was published in 1893.
His Ventnor hospital operated until 1964 when it closed, made obsolete by drug treatment of tuberculosis, to be demolished in 1969. Its grounds are now the site of Ventnor Botanic Garden.[8]
An illustration from A. Hassall's book "A microscopic examination of the water supplied to the inhabitants of London and the suburban districts." 1850Illustration by Hassall depicting fake-tea in "Food: its adulterations, and the methods for their detection." 1876
Hassall's paternal grandfather was a physician who practised in Sunderland and fathered numerous sons and daughter. By the marriages of his grandfather's children, Arthur Hill Hassall was connected to the prominent Sanderson, Coppin, and Straker families in the North of England.[9]John Burdon-Sanderson was a member of this Sanderson family. John Coppin Straker (1847–1937), Deputy LieutenantofNorthumberland, was a member of the Coppin and Straker families.[10] A. H. Hassall had two brothers and two sisters. One brother went to sea and died young (perhaps as the victim of foul play). The other brother, Richard, became a physician.[11]
A history of the British freshwater Algae, including descriptions of the. Desmidiaceae and Diatomaceae. pp. vi, 462. Atlas, 103 ph. col 8. London, 1845.
Adulterations detected; or, Plain instructions for the discovery of frauds in food and medicine. Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, London 1857.
The urine in health and disease: being an exposition of the composition of the urine, and of the pathology and treatment of urinary and renal disorders. John Churchill and Sons, London 1863
Food: its adulterations, and the methods for their detection. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, London 1855
The inhalation treatment of diseases of the organs of respiration including consumption. Longmans, Green, and Co., London 1885
