the services of medical women for the Purdah women of India who, owing to the strictness of their rules, were not infrequently debarred from the full benefit of medical treatment by men.  Unfortunately, however, the doctor in charge of most of the Dufferin Hospitals is under the local senior civil surgeon, who is a man.  As he has the right, if he wishes to exercise it, of seeing any of the patients, and doing any of the operations or other treatment necessary, it is obvious that the hospitals are of little or no use to Purdah women, as they have no guarantee against treatment by a man.

There is also no security of tenure for the doctor who is not allowed to be present at the meetings of the governing body, and may find herself dismissed or transferred from a good post to a bad one at short notice.

The remuneration varies roughly between L250 and L500 a year, with house but no carriage allowance.  The doctor is entitled to add to her salary by private practice.  In some towns this is a considerable item, whereas in others it is quite negligible.  There is no definite furlough allowance, and the doctor may be removed from her post and required to keep herself on very little for a considerable period of time before being appointed to another hospital.  All this causes a severe drain on the resources of doctors without private means.  The staff is also frequently inefficient, and the nursing is sometimes very indifferent, being undertaken by Eurasian girls under partly trained women who have never been “home.”

In the practice of medicine as in all other branches of women’s labour, the question of the effect of marriage upon work is a very important and difficult one.  In its general aspect it lies at the very heart of the whole question of the working woman.  Its effect on the medical woman varies according to the branch of her profession which she selects.  If she wishes to become (a) a specialist or (b) a general practitioner, she has perfect freedom of choice as to what she will do in the event of marriage; and some women retire while others continue their work.  The latter is a much more desirable course from the point of view of medical women as a whole.  The medical woman who is married can, better than any one else, render to society certain services in her profession, and it is desirable that these should not be lost.  In any event no woman need retire from her work on marriage, though it is, of course, most important that the married medical woman should not deny to herself and to her husband the normal healthy joy of having children.  To continue in practice, however, while bearing a child requires a certain amount of expenditure, as such a doctor will need to retire from practice for at least two or three months, probably longer, and is therefore put to the expense of engaging a locum tenens. This ought, however, to be possible when both husband and wife are earning incomes.