(c) Should she decide to enter the public service, she will still require to take a certain number of posts, especially those dealing with eyes, ears, and skin, and must also obtain the Diploma of Public Health.  To gain this diploma she will need to devote several months to post-graduate study in that subject before taking the necessary examination.

The chief posts at present open in the public service to a woman are:—­

  (1) School medical officer, or assistant medical
       officer of health.
  (2) Assistant medical officer in some asylums
       and poor law infirmaries.

There is one woman inspector of prisons who is a medical woman, but she is not a medical inspector and was not appointed in that capacity.  It is much to be hoped that women prison medical officers will speedily be appointed on equal terms with their medical colleagues.  The conditions for women prisoners from the standpoint of health are, at the present time, extremely unsatisfactory.

The tendency is to employ more and more women in the public service, and therefore the opportunities are likely rapidly to become more numerous.

The Act, under which medical school inspection was made obligatory, particularly mentioned the suitability of women for much of this work.  It is therefore becoming usual all over the country to have at least one woman school doctor, and in some districts there are several on the staff.  This work is not extremely arduous, is free from the heavy strain of private practice, and, if the school medical officer is allowed reasonable freedom in her work, may be made of much interest.  It is, however, somewhat monotonous, and has the great disadvantage that at present the stimulus of promotion is largely absent, as the higher administrative posts are almost universally in the hands of men.  This is a disadvantage which will also be gradually, perhaps rapidly removed as the prejudice against women in authority dies down.

After having practised medicine for some years, further degrees indicating experience are open to the medical practitioner; thus, if she has taken the Bachelorship of Medicine she may, after the lapse of three or four years, enter for her Doctorate.  This is gained either by a further examination or by writing a thesis on some subject of original research.  If she has taken the Diploma of the Royal Colleges, it is open to her to sit for the Fellowship in Surgery or Membership in Medicine.  She is also open to election to the Fellowship in Medicine.

It is extremely difficult to give anything like an adequate idea of the remuneration to be obtained in medicine, as it varies tremendously.

The first posts, which are taken soon after qualification, if really first-rate in the experience which they give, seldom include any salary at all, though board and lodging are provided.  Posts which rank as slightly inferior to these, but still give a considerable amount of experience, are often associated with honoraria varying from about L50 to L150 a year, including board and lodging.