5 o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



secure the services of conscientious practitioners should be given not as 

 a gratuity, but as a legitimate part of the functions of the school, just 

 as a physical training or baths or recreation. 



There will, no doubt, be opposition to them at first. We attempted 

 once to enucleate tonsils in schools and we had street riots in the Italian 

 section of the city. There will be other sources of opposition. Every 

 new experiment or departure from established routine is bound to 

 invite opposition, but as the clinics demonstrate their usefulness and 

 efficiency, the opposition to them will gradually wane. 



A number of sources has been suggest id to secure the means neces- 

 sary for the maintenance and operation of such clinics : budgetary pro- 

 vision by the municipality, special assessments, voluntary per capita 

 contributions of a couple of cents weekly by the parents of the children, 

 and, finally, the establishment of branches in school buildings by dis- 

 pensaries caring to reach out. Each of those suggestions has its merits, 

 but the last two may prove impractical. A system of collecting small 

 contributions is cumbersome and costly, and establishing of children's 

 clinics in schools by dispensaries is not very probable; furthermore, the 

 extension of the field of the gratuitous service of the physician is im- 

 practical and unjust. Physicians must be paid for their work and paid 

 adequately. If the establishment of school clinics proves to be a public 

 need then, not one class or classes, but the community as a whole must 

 defray the expense of their maintenance and operation. 



