The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-08-07
HE WOULD ABOLISH
 PRIVATE PHYSICIANS
A British IsScientist Says. the State Should Treat the Sick and
 Teach,Sanitation-He Writes
 a Book About it

Dr., Benjamin Moore of the biochem rio department of the University o1 hiverpool has a plan to do away with lall private physicians. He wants the tgovernment to safeguard the health ttors being on the basis of civil ser tvice employees. He predicts grea, Isaving of life and money and les Isenfng Of suffering and sorrow by his hplan-
 That this scientist is very much ir searnest is evidenced by the fact that the has written volume of some 20. kpages on the subject. His book is kAge,'' and has proved of sufficient in- kterest and importance to provoke dis tcussinn in the medical publications on both sides of the Atlantic.
 [ Tn this work" says American Med ticine, '.the wastefulness and futility tof the present system of of 'tinkerine fwith the diseased individual instead of Eseeking by organized effort the entire teradication of disease from the com lmunity, are pitilessly exposed and at- tackled
 The vast amount of economic waste consequent on illness, through loss of temployment, Restitution of depend
 
 kexpenses of those who die before the1r ttime, the expenses of illness, includ- ling the medical fees; the maintenance kschooling, clothing, and feeding of be- freaved children at the public cost, in sconseQuence of the loss of those whose led out.
 '"The effect of competition in cut ting down the remuneration of medi- lcal men, and it's necessarily concom- litant degradation of the practice ot medicine by entailing scamped work the interference of our present hOSpi- tai system-especially as regards the outpatient department-with the prac- stitioner's Livelihood; the over-strain- ing of the charitable hospital, which icannot possibly attend to more than s15 or 20 per cent. of those whose fin ancial position entities them to the trelief 1t ought to afford, as we'll as the lmarked contrast between the luxury of the voluntary hospitals and the par ,Simony of the state institutions; the necessary restriction of the hospital training and opportunities to limit ed few of the entire medical body; the inadequate numbers of those engag- ed in the most important part of med ical work, viz. the prevention of dis ease and the education of the public, as we'll as their totally inadequate re- muneratiOn: the lack of power and authority vested in the health authority to investigate for themselves without having to wait on reports which are often not made; conditions relating to the incidence of infection, and to com pei removal, isolation, and other meas ures necessary to strike at the root of the most disabling forms of disease all these points are displayed in tren- chant terms, if somewhat discursive manner.
 .-The remedy proposed by Dr. Moore is a complete abandonment of the ,present methods of combating disease ,the fundamental condition of reform being, according to him, radical and complete change in the whole aspect and outlook of the government, the public, the private medical practition- Ter, and the public health officer. II icontemplates no extension or amplifi- cation of the present systems or any branches of them, but a new system including the organic coordination of tall the various forces now engaged in the warfare on disease.
 He proposes the formation and equipment of a national health ser vice on a government basis. under a minister of public health with cabi- met rank, to be parallel in all impor- fant points with the government med, ical services of the army and navy, and supported like them, by a gener. al tax so that medical treatment shall be free, like education, and like edu- cation also, compulsory.
 He is sanguine enough to believe that ten years of such regime would practically rid the community of all need (outside of accidents and a small residium of individual diseasel for