occasion: a predicament in which a very capable man may find
himself at any time through the cropping up of a case of which he
has had no clinical experience.


THE SOCIAL SOLUTION OF THE MEDICAL PROBLEM

The social solution of the medical problem, then, depends on that
large, slowly advancing, pettishly resisted integration of
society called generally Socialism. Until the medical profession
becomes a body of men trained and paid by the country to keep the
country in health it will remain what it is at present: a
conspiracy to exploit popular credulity and human suffering.
Already our M.O.H.s (Medical Officers of Health) are in the new
position: what is lacking is appreciation of the change, not only
by the public but by the private doctors. For, as we have seen,
when one of the first-rate posts becomes vacant in one of the
great cities, and all the leading M.O.H.s compete for it, they
must appeal to the good health of the cities of which they have
been in charge, and not to the size of the incomes the local
private doctors are making out of the ill-health of their
patients. If a competitor can prove that he has utterly ruined
every sort of medical private practice in a large city except
obstetric practice and the surgery of accidents, his claims are
irresistible; and this is the ideal at which every M.O.H. should
aim. But the profession at large should none the less welcome him
and set its house in order for the social change which will
finally be its own salvation. For the M.O.H. as we know him is
only the beginning of that army of Public Hygiene which will
presently take the place in general interest and honor now