Page:Labour and childhood.djvu/217

 Meantime, though the work of gathering statistics goes on in our country, our schools are not centres of healing. "Examination" has a dismal sound in the ears of many. It seems to indicate a test, not an open door to health and new life. And very slowly though public opinion is changing, the great public come to see that they want this new kind of doctor. But it is said, if he must come, then why should we not engage the services of the medical men we employ already? We are a conservative people—why not engage a medical officer, or his assistant? That is briefly what many think.

There is, of course, the ever-present question of expense. It would cost a great deal of money to engage a vast army of medical men for these new posts. That, it is allowed, might spell economy if it stemmed the great flood of disease bearing social wreckage for ever into our hospitals. But of course it would mean a great initial expense. For you cannot get first-rate advice on a large scale without paying accordingly. First-rate advice, the service of highly trained and accomplished school doctors, is bound to be costly. This is what John Bull thinks, and his thoughts appear to be reasonable.

They are reasonable—only they do not take account of all the facts. The only persons who