The separation of the medical work of Education Authorities from public health medical work was contrary to the first principles of sound administration; although it is possible that, owing to the inertia in some public health circles, this separation at first favored rapid advance in school hygiene; just as the early development of public health apart from poor-law administration was probably more rapid than could have been expected from centrally ridden local authorities, concerned chiefly in keeping down the poor rates. _The Ad Hoc Vice_ But in both instances there was an offence against the first principles of good administration, which require that when a special function is to be undertaken it shall be undertaken by one governing body for the whole community needing the service, and not for different sections of the community by several governing bodies. Medical treatment is needed for school children and for the poor generally. Why separate this into two administrations? Hospitals are required for paupers with tuberculosis, and for non-paupers with tuberculosis. Why have two authorities for this work? The separate existence of Education and Poor-Law Authorities _qûa_ medical attendance on those children needing it erred, not only in this fundamental respect, but also because neither of these authorities had the preventive facilities and powers possessed by Public Health Authorities, who were also partially engaged in the treatment of disease. The inveterate tendency in the past has been to create a new authority when any new work was inaugurated, this authority then fulfilling all purposes for a special portion of the community and thus necessarily duplicating the staffs of other departments of local or central government. The crowning instance of this recurring instance of legislative myopia is seen in the case of the National Insurance Act, under which has been provided an imperfect and unsatisfactory domiciliary medical service for one-third of the entire population of Great Britain, when by combining and extending the medical forces of existing departments of the state, a satisfactory service for all needing it would have been secured. The axiom that “the object of community service is to do away with group competitions and bring in its place group coöperation or team work” (Goodnow), is especially applicable to all public health and medical work; and the spirit of this axiom is infringed by the existence of separate, sometimes competing, occasionally conflicting, services under separate local and central control. _Principles of Local Government_