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required for her care. Unfortunately the suggestion in the
report of the Medical Officer of Health, which, on the recommendation
of the Maternity Committee, was adopted by the
Council, to utilise the South London Hospital for Women—an
excellent, well-staffed modern women's hospital, within a few
hundred yards of the Borough Maternity Hospital and the
Central Ante-Natal Clinic, was, for the time being, deferred by
the Ministry of Health for economic reasons. We are consequently
driven to appeal to the generosity of voluntary institutions
like this to take in the more urgent and necessitous cases.
As most of these institutions are themselves financially embarrassed,
it is the more to their credit that they endeavour as far
as they can to assist us in taking in our cases. This should not
be, as the Maternity and Child Welfare Act definitely and clearly
provides powers enabling local authorities to make adequate
arrangements for the welfare of women and young children, and
these, to do them justice, are generally only too willing to do
all they can for this worthy object. They are, however,
restricted in their endeavours in carrying their laudable efforts to
a successful issue by the financial veto of the Central Authority,
mainly on grounds of economy. It is surely a perverted method
of economy to starve properly-conducted health services. It
cannot be sound economy to fail to provide adequate medical
treatment for the expectant mother. Much of the suffering,
invalidism and incapacity amongst women which, as the
statistics of large hospitals unfortunately show, prevail to a
very considerable extent amongst the poorer classes of the
population, can be prevented if the causes responsible are removed
at an early date. Ante-natal clinics are invaluable for
the early diagnosis of these crippling diseases of motherhood,
but their usefulness will be greatly diminished unless it is fully
recognised that adequate facilities for institutional treatment are
made available.

Ante-Natal (V.D.) Clinic.
One of the most interesting and useful additions to the
( ouncil's Maternity and Child Welfare scheme is the newlyestablished
special clinic at the Borough Maternity Hospital.
There are 2 wards, each containing 5 beds, in the administrative
block of the hospital reserved for these special cases, and there
is also an out-patient clinic, which has been specially fitted up