Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/510

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
506
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

secure the services of conscientious practitioners should be given not as a gratuity, but as a legitimate part of the functions of the school, just as a physical training or baths or recreation.

There will, no doubt, be opposition to them at first. We attempted once to enucleate tonsils in schools and we had street riots in the Italian section of the city. There will be other sources of opposition. Every new experiment or departure from established routine is bound to invite opposition, but as the clinics demonstrate their usefulness and efficiency, the opposition to them will gradually wane.

A number of sources has been suggest id to secure the means necessary for the maintenance and operation of such clinics: budgetary provision by the municipality, special assessments, voluntary per capita contributions of a couple of cents weekly by the parents of the children, and, finally, the establishment of branches in school buildings by dispensaries caring to reach out. Each of those suggestions has its merits, but the last two may prove impractical. A system of collecting small contributions is cumbersome and costly, and establishing of children's clinics in schools by dispensaries is not very probable; furthermore, the extension of the field of the gratuitous service of the physician is impractical and unjust. Physicians must be paid for their work and paid adequately. If the establishment of school clinics proves to be a public need then, not one class or classes, but the community as a whole must defray the expense of their maintenance and operation.