It is true, there are grave scandals in the public medical
service. The public doctor may be also a private practitioner
eking out his earnings by giving a little time to public work for
a mean payment. There are cases in which the position is one
which no successful practitioner will accept, and where,
therefore, incapables or drunkards get automatically selected for
the post, faute de mieux; but even in these cases the doctor is
less disastrous in his public capacity than in his private one:
besides, the conditions which produce these bad cases are
doomed, as the evil is now recognized and understood. A popular
but unstable remedy is to enable local authorities, when they are
too small to require the undivided time of such men as the
Medical Officers of our great municipalities, to combine for
public health purposes so that each may share the services of a
highly paid official of the best class; but the right remedy is a
larger area as the sanitary unit.


MEDICAL ORGANIZATION

Another advantage of public medical work is that it admits of
organization, and consequently of the distribution of the work in
such a manner as to avoid wasting the time of highly qualified
experts on trivial jobs. The individualism of private practice
leads to an appalling waste of time on trifles. Men whose
dexterity as operators or almost divinatory skill in diagnosis
are constantly needed for difficult cases, are poulticing
whitlows, vaccinating, changing unimportant dressings,
prescribing ether drams for ladies with timid leanings towards
dipsomania, and generally wasting their time in the pursuit