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5
control of milk production might take up a substantial part of the time
of the sanitary inspectors, and probably would take up the same proportion
of time of many more were they appointed. The case for the
transference of powers and duties seems to rest on the fact that veterinary
inspectors already by their present duties must visit the farms, undertaking
a duty which only they can perform. Less would be feared from
the proposals if it could be felt that these activities would be carried out
by the veterinary surgeons ; but it is extremely doubtful if there is this
staff available, so that the fear is that from the first it will be necessary
for much of the work to be undertaken by assistants to the veterinary
surgeons, people who, there is no reason to suppose, can carry out the
work any more efficiently than the existing service provided by the
sanitary inspector. Another ground for concern is that the veterinaryprofession
quite rightly will look on the disease of cattle in relation to the
animal or the herd ; however desirable this outlook may be, it should
not be overlooked that those same animal diseases are capable of transmission
to man.
The adoption throughout the country of uniform conditions of
service for nurses of many grades and of midwives by the application of
the Rushcliffe Report, the recommendations of the Hetherington report
in regard to domestic staff at institutions and probably similar provisions
for other members on the staffs of local authorities will go far to smooth
the introduction of arrangements which involve the transfer of staffs
from one to another local authority. The general raising of the salaries
of midwives is another step towards the creation of a profession in which
the general conditions of service will be sufficiently attractive to recruit
sufficient of a class and enable the training to be long enough for the
midwife of the future to be looked on as the natural attendant of the
woman in labour, one whose qualities and qualifications will be such
that much for which today she has to summon to her aid a medical
practitioner, she will be permitted to undertake. One striking disadvantage
of today's arrangements with its time off and week-end break
of the midwife is that so frequently a mother is not only not able to have
at her confinement the midwife she chooses but that she may altogether
during the fourteen days have the services of as many as four midwives.
It is not suggested that the service provided by each is not good, but it
is to be imagined that many a mother would look back with regret to the
day when she could book a midwife, knowing she would have her services
during the labour and also have her for the subsequent nursing. Medical
service is just as personal as midwifery, even more so, and it is hoped
that what is happening in the midwifery service need not be accepted as
an augury of what will happen if the proposals of the White Paper
are adopted.
The war has been responsible for the introduction of a number of
changes in administration of the different services, some brought about
by the necessity for seeing that in times of shortage of essentials, those
who need it most obtain it first ; some introduced to conserve man-power,
transport, etc., while others again formulated on premises that the
progress of the war would be different from what has actually happened.
Some of these arrangements, or something resembling them, have been