THE SOCIAL WORK OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES 283

authorities. The more dangerous infectious diseases, such as
diphtheria, scarlet fever, and the fortunately mote rare typhus
and smallpox are "notifiable", i.e., the person in whose house
they occur must inform the local Medical Officer of Health, and
the responsible authority has to provide isolation hospitals,
arrange for the removal of patients, disinfect the house, and
enforce regulations to prevent the spread of the disease. The law
also requires local authorities to provide for sufferers from
tuberculosis. People afflicted with unsound minds may be cared
for either in a county mental hospital, or in a private home,
but the local authority is responsible for humane treatment.
As to die treatment of ordinary disease and of accidents, the
hospitals under public control were, until the 1929 Act, part of
the Poor Law service. Since then the Councils have been gradually
turning them into general hospitals, and patients are charged for
treatment according to their means. This service is run in
co-operation with voluntary hospitals, some Councils being much
more active than others. Whether a voluntary hospital service is
desirable is a disputed question, both among the medical profession
and the public. Many people dislike the idea of ending an honour-
able tradition of charity* and argue that a public institution is
so impersonal that it would not call forth the same service as is
given by hospital staffs who feel themselves partners in a charitable
work. Others point to the excellent service rendered by many
public hospitals; once under public control, a hospital has an
assured and definite income, and as medical treatment makes
increasing use of expensive apparatus, the importance of this
fact grows.

3. Maternity and ckSd welfare. This newest branch of health
services scarcely existed before the beginning of the twentieth
century. Among the large families of Victorian times, there were
few which had not been deprived of some of their members at
an early age, and a certain fatalism about children's diseases
hindered progress. Many people took the view that for the public
authority to take a hand in the care of children was an imperti-