400 



MEDICAL SECTION 



when the medical authorities had thought he might be 

 discharged. So it was of very great value at any rate in 

 that disease. They, however, always used the original 

 Wassermann reaction, and a great many discrepancies 

 which arose in different laboratories were due to different 

 methods of procedure. He did not mean to say that the 

 case Dr. Rugh referred to was not tested by the proper 

 methods, because he knew that in Philadelphia they had 

 most eminent pathologists, but if the boy had been treated 

 quite recently it was quite possible the reaction would not 

 come off. Sometimes when they expected a case to give 

 the reaction it did not. As a test he considered it was of 

 the very greatest value, although he did not claim that it 

 was infallible. 



Dr. NAISH said he had been asked by Dr. Pritchard how 

 he managed to get so many tests of small infants by the 

 Wassermann test. It was very difficult, but he always took 

 the blood himself, and it meant searching all over the body 

 for a vein. He believed he failed once in every six or seven 

 times. With regard to the technique of the Wassermann 

 test which had been done for him it -was done by Professor 

 Dean, whom Dr. Mott had mentioned, and who, he 

 believed, was one of the first authorities on Wassermann 

 reaction in England. 



FOURTH AND FINAL SESSION, AUGUST 5. 



THE WORKING OF THE MATERNITY 

 BENEFIT UNDER THE NATIONAL 

 HEALTH INSURANCE ACT. 



BY BARBARA SUTHERLAND, M.A., M.B. 



Assistant to the Medical Officer of Health, Glasgoiv. 



Submitted by Dr. A. K. Chalmers. 



THE following details are gathered mainly from 

 information obtained by the health visitors of the 

 Glasgow Public Health Department. The cases 

 visited are, naturally, those which are considered 

 most in need of direction and guidance, and any 



