Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/612

608 it would bring the medical profession into line with the highest interests of the social group which they serve and would make the physician in relation to the preservation of public health what he now is in relation to the cure of illness, a leader in the fight for the extermination of disease.

The transition from a fee to a salary system of payment for medical service would not necessarily eliminate private practise. Those wishing the services of a private physician could secure the same at a rate based on value of services actually rendered. The existence of public schools has not eliminated private schools from the educational system. Neither has the public school system resulted in less consecrated service to the public welfare than was rendered by the private school. Neither should a salaried medical profession be less consecrated to its work than one rewarded by fees.

The transition from a private to a public medical practise is gradually coming. The appearance and persistence of free dispensaries and hospitals is not the least evidence of the change. The establishment of departments of health in city and state, the magnificent work of the medical service of the United States government; the system of engaging a company physician adopted by many of the large corporations; the movement toward medical inspection of school children with its accompanying treatment at public charge of children unable to pay for treatment; and the movement toward the public treatment of certain types of disease, such as tuberculosis, all indicate that a new order is coming wherein prevention of disease by trained and paid public servants will be considered as important a matter as the cure of disease already contracted. The economic interests of the medical profession will be brought into line with those of the general public and this is the end which should be sought.