224 
we may recall the suggestion put forward last 
January! by a group of ten members of Par- 
liament headed by Major Waldorf Astor, now 
Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Food. 
The group advocated the combination and 
reorganization of existing departments for the 
setting up of a Ministry of Health, and sub- 
mitted the heads of a bill providing that so 
soon as the new ministry had been established 
by Parliament all the powers of the Insurance 
Commissions for England and Wales, and all 
the powers of the Local Government Board, 
should be transferred to it by order in council, 
that the health functions of other departments 
should be taken over at such times as were 
found convenient, and that there should be 
power to transfer from the new ministry to 
other departments any functions transferred to 
it at first for the sake of convenience but found 
to be unsuitable for a health ministry to per- 
form. Under this scheme the new ministry 
would be simultaneously acquiring and shed- 
ding powers, and although the method was 
recognized to be clumsy, the promoters be- 
lieved that by this expedient matters of na- 
tional health would be discussed on their 
merits undisturbed by conflicting claims of 
rival authorities. Writing on the subject some 
four months ago, we said that the indications 
then were in favor of the government bill be- 
ing a measure to amalgamate the Insurance 
Commissions in England and Wales with the 
Local Government Board, leaving the non- 
medical functions of the latter department to 
be shed at a later date. There is general an- 
ticipation that the medical functions of the 
Board of Education would also be handed 
over, but with this possible addition the pres- 
ent position appears to be the same to-day as 
it was in March. If the bill is introduced in 
this form, it will undoubtedly come in for 
much criticism. If it means that the Minis- 
try of Health, to quote Sir Bertrand Daw- 
son’s words, is not to have “a bigger horizon 
than the Local Government Board and Insur- 
ance Commission, then we must emphatically 
say ‘No.’” On principles, as he said, there 
1 British Medical Journal, 
p. 98. 
January 19, 1918, 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Von. XLVIIT. No. 1235 
can be no compromise— the practise of put- 
ting the skilled under the control of the un- 
skilled must cease.” One plan for preventing 
the perpetuation of this evil in the new minis- 
try is outlined in the scheme of the British 
Medical Association, which proposes the estab- 
lishment of an Advisory Council of experts. 
This council should hold regular meetings not 
less often than once a month, should have di- 
rect access to the minister, and should have 
the power of initiation—that is to say, it 
should have the right and obligation to tender 
its advice to the minister on any subject which 
it considered ought to be dealt with, and not 
merely on such matters as the minister re- 
ferred to it. It is proposed to meet the objec- 
tion that the Board’s advice could always be 
overruled by the minister, acting perhaps 
under the influence of permanent ofticials— 
not experts either in medicine or any of the 
other professions concerned in the prevention 
of disease or the maintenance of health—by 
requiring reports of the Advisory Council to 
be presented to Parliament. What value this 
expedient would prove to have in practise is a 
matter upon which there is room for difference 
of opinion; but, provided the Minister had effi- 
cient permanent medical officials in an inde- 
pendent position of direct responsibility to 
him, it would undoubtedly afford some safe- 
guard against the risk of “ putting the skilled 
under the control of the unskilled.”—British 
Medical Journal. 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 
The Ornamental Trees of Hawan. By JoserH 
F. Rocx. Honolulu, published by the author. 
1917. Pp. yv+210. Illustrated with 79 
plates from photographs and 2 colored plates 
from paintings. $3.50. 
* One of the charms of tropical cities is the 
deonusigl of flowering shrubs and trees. The 
reviewer has had the pleasure of spending sev- 
eral months in the Hawaiian Islands and can 
say that Honolulu is the most attractive trop- 
ical city he has ever visited. Much of this at- 
traction is due to the wonderful variety and 
beauty of the cultivated shrubs and trees of the 
streets, gardens and parks. 
