EDUCATION IN INFANT HYGIENE : DISCUSSION 283 



did this they would not get it. Personally he disagreed with 

 Miss Gregory on that point. 



Colonel GREEN (Indian Medical Service) said he would 

 like to support what Dr. Scharlieb had said. In Calcutta 

 they gave the midwives a year's training, and he did not 

 think that was too long. They had midwives who were out 

 from England, and he must say that irrespective of the point 

 that the midwives they trained in Calcutta were their own 

 pupils, and also that they had knowledge of the country; 

 putting all that aside he preferred the women trained in the 

 country, on account of the great practical experience they 

 had, although they might not be so well educated 

 and although they might not be pure European. He 

 thought that what had been suggested was practically 

 making a new class of practitioners, and they had great 

 experience of that in India. They had so-called hospital 

 assistants who were not qualified, midwives, assistant sur- 

 geons, and graduates. Their experience of these lower 

 grade practitioners was that, although they were essential 

 on account of the fact that they must be cheap, yet they 

 were nasty. What they wanted was to have the best training 

 possible, and he thought it would be better to keep to the 

 old style of nurse to which Dr. Robertson referred, who, at 

 any rate, had a large practical experience, than to have a sort 

 of specialist in one subject only; or in other words, a new 

 class of practitioner. 



Miss GREGORY, in reply, said that in regard to Miss 

 Ashton and her remarks on State payment she sometimes 

 thought that people did not recognize what a revolution had 

 taken place owing to the Insurance Act and the maternity 

 benefit. The lamentable thing was that they did not seem 

 to know how to deal with it. The mother had now 305. to 

 pay for her necessities, and she held that the first of the 

 necessities was the receiving of skilled attendance. Mid- 

 wives ought to take 155. or i is. of that, although if the 

 doctor came in she had to take less. In the old days the 

 mother had to pay the midwife out of her own pocket, and 

 now that the State paid 305. why should they not take 

 advantage of it to raise the midwives' fee, or otherwise they 

 would continue on the old road where they were before, 

 and the money for the maternity benefit would go in buying 

 the children boots or paying for the husband's drink ? Dr. 

 Robertson said he would like all midwives to be trained 

 nurses of two or three years' standing. Quite obviously all of 

 them who went about saw the enormous advantages of that 

 course, but she would like to ask the speaker if he had ever 

 considered how many trained nurses there were in hospitals 



