When one considers the numbers of boxes of good brass pens, the quarts of ink, and the reams of paper (to say nothing of such cheap things as brains and time and vitality) that have been consumed within the last score of years, in bringing forward “solutions of the servant problem;” when one sees that self-same problem, still to the front, dangling in the air as it were, refusing to settle itself or be settled, it surely ought to be sufficient to deter all but the most audacious from touching it. Instead of being solved, it is growing larger and more difficult to deal with. It is not much wonder that men suggest that women demonstrate their ability to manage their own domestic domain, and get the servant question settled, before seeking to get into politics and take a hand in the government of the state and nation. However, a prominent member of the board of a certain hospital remarked optimistically not long ago, that “since the Irish land question seemed to be getting worked out,” she had some hope that somewhere, around some unexpected corner, some bright man or woman would discover a means of really solving “the servant problem.” But up to the present moment that discovery has not been made, and let it be understood here and now, that a solution of that problem is not attempted here. Neither is any special claim made for originality, for the subject has been so thoroughly gone over that it seems there is nothing new to be said. But difficult as the subject may be to deal with, either theoretically or practically, it cannot well be ignored in dealing with hospital housekeeping, since it consumes no small portion of the time and energy of the housekeeper, and is of vital importance to the institution. [Sidenote: Numbers of Servants] Perhaps the best place to attack the subject would be to calculate how many servants are necessary to do the work in a certain hospital of a certain capacity. But at the outset one is baffled at that point because institutions differ so very greatly. Some buildings are much more difficult to keep clean, more difficult to get work done in because of mistakes in construction that entail more labor. Servants also differ in their ability, standards of work vary, and the organization of the working force varies. Some institutions require nurses to do all the sweeping of wards and private rooms, others have it all done by maids. Some hospitals require nurses to wash ward dishes. In others nurses do none of that work. In a place where soft coal is used more help will be required to maintain the same standard of cleanliness throughout the building, than if that difficulty had not to be contended with. Some institutions have no laundry work done on the premises, others have it all done at home. Some hospitals bake all their own bread, others bake none. All these and many other things have to be considered in reckoning the number of servants required. Each institution must be largely a law unto itself in this matter.