290 TlMEHRI. 
remembrance of the unpopularity and almost complete 
failure of the Poll tax ; but this would differ very much 
from that tax which was collected to be placed to the 
general revenue. This tax I suggest would be purely 
local in all its bearings, and would be expended in 
visible and immediate returns to the parties from and 
amidst whom it might be collected. 
The Medical Relief Board above referred to, might be 
the treasury for these sums, the present local Poor 
Law Board perhaps being capable of conversion into 
such a body, and responsible through the Surgeon-General 
to the Executive for all its transactions. Probably I may 
be permitted to make a rough estimate of a district by 
calculating for about 3,000 free persons ; and estimating 
even at such a mild figure as a penny a head per week, it 
would return about £600 (a little over) per annum, which 
might be directly expended in the locality, as follows : — 
Medical Officer ... ... ... ...^200 
Medical Comforts and Medicines ... ... 200 
Relieving Officers 4 at ^25 ... ... ... 100 
Trained Midwives & Extras ... ... ... 100=^600 
There is, I beg to say in support of this paragraph, no 
originality on my part in this suggestion, for we find in 
the county cess and poor rates in the divisions and counties 
of the United Kingdom a somewhat comparable system. 
The form of assessment possibly is different, but the 
objed is the same ; and I should say that, as regards the 
idea being considered unconstitutional (whatever that 
may mean), it would be no more so than allowing private 
Medical (Incorporated) Aid Societies, but would instead 
have every argument in its favour by being under the 
guidance and protection of the Executive. As regards 
