146 ADMINISTRATIVE SECTION 



good things they had heard that morning about the decrease 

 in infant mortality was in the children of the fit. If that 

 were so no one would rejoice more than herself, but she 

 could not help saying that, in fact, they had no cause for 

 rejoicing. She was sorry to go against the gentleman who 

 had spoken, but if the Mental Deficiency Bill gave guardians 

 and others powers so as to shut up these poor unfortunate 

 people really for their own good as well as for the good 

 of the community, then in a year or two's time she would 

 be rejoiced to hear that the death-rate among children was 

 going down. 



Dr. S. G. MOSTYN (Darlington) said he had been very 

 much interested in listening to Mrs. Kitson Clark's paper 

 and her remarks on the relative advantages of expert work, 

 by which he took her to mean trained work and the work 

 of amateurs. He felt that there was plenty of room for 

 the work of both classes. He would like to emphasize one 

 point which was of great importance to those of them who 

 were engaged in public work. They were supposed to be 

 experts as medical officers of health on various subjects, but 

 the field in which they worked was enlarging so greatly that 

 they could not be experts in every point of detail. They 

 were willing (and he was speaking, he was sure, not only 

 for medical officers of health, but for all engaged in adminis- 

 trative work) and anxious to be taught by experts, they 

 were willing to learn from them how the work should be 

 done properly. They could not afford in their work to 

 make mistakes. Consequently, the knowledge they had 

 must be the best, but he would like to ask that all experts 

 who gave their advice would take a little trouble to learn 

 about the nature and character of the work that medical 

 officers had to do. They had, above all things, to be sane and 

 show common sense in their work. It did not much matter 

 if they were cranks if people did not think them to be 

 cranks, but if they were thought to be cranks it was a much 

 more serious matter. They had to know so much about 

 various branches of science. They found the dentist who 

 seemed to think that the whole world revolved on the teeth, 

 and if the teeth were all right everything else was all right. 

 They did not seem to realize that they as administrative 

 officers had to take up a position that was recognized by 

 the community as being sane they did not realize that they 

 had to take an all-round view. With regard to amateur 

 help he felt that at the head of every undertaking they 

 wanted someone with good sound common sense and with 

 a good wide outlook, not only to direct the work, but to 

 put on the brake and to prevent too great an emphasis being 

 laid on one particular subject. 



