28 HOME TREATMENT AND 



of London's most c< 1 physicians. He re- 



marked, after going round : !!<>\v hard it will 

 be for medical men to gi\ . up their old practice, 

 although the facts are so clearly set before them ! 

 Such an interesting sight I have not seen. You 

 have done a great work.' 1 



A contrast. On 12th July, 1909, I certified a case of scarlet 

 f \ r in a branch Home where I had on eight 

 previous occasions kept a scarlet fever child in a 

 room with some fifteen to twenty others under ten 

 years of age. On the 13th July the sanitary 

 inspector visited the Home, and on the 14th the 

 medical officer of health. AVhen I called to see 

 the child the same day the matron told me of 

 these visits and of the medical officer's remarks. 

 These led me to write the following: 



"DEAR DR. . . ., The matron has just told me 

 you called this afternoon and insisted on all the 

 children being removed from the dormitory where 

 I have kept a case of scarlet fever. This I have 

 proved to be unnecessary. However, if you insist 

 on this, the only plan is for you to remove the case." 



On the following morning the child was re- 

 moved. Had I kept this child it would, perhaps, 

 have laid me open to the treatment suggested by 

 the scarlet fever superintendent : " Imprisonment 

 for ten years by all sanitary law and authority." 

 In this case I deemed discretion to be the better 

 part of valour. 



