=Exceptions to Institutional Care.= A few exceptions may be made in advising institutional care. For example, if a family is in good circumstances, with excellent home conditions, and the patient is surrounded with every care and attention, it would hardly be necessary to counsel his removal. On the contrary, with our present lack of hospital facilities, to urge such a patient to leave his home might mean taking a hospital bed from another who needed it infinitely more. Again, if a tuberculous child is being cared for by his mother, or some one equally unlikely to contract the disease, it might not be worth while to remove him. An exception might also be made in the case of a childless couple, advanced in years. The nurse must use her judgment and common-sense in such cases, where the chances of infection are slight, or non-existent. On the other hand, if there is ample hospital accommodation, and cases like the above ask for admission, they should always be taken in. The cases in which separation is imperative are those in which there is great exposure, inability to control the home surroundings, extreme poverty and neglect, or undue and prolonged strain upon other members of the household. =Compulsory Segregation.= Not until our hospital facilities are so large that we can accept every case which applies for admission, can we consider forcing people to enter these institutions against their will. It is illogical to consider compulsory segregation, while we cannot accommodate all those who voluntarily ask for it. The patient who refuses to go to an institution is probably no more dangerous than he who clamours in vain for a bed. The docile, well intentioned, kindly consumptive is doubtless as much a menace as the selfish, vicious, avowedly careless one; in fact, the former may be more harmful, since his kindly nature surrounds him with friends, whereas the latter forces people to avoid him. As for the tramp, the homeless man who wanders from pillar to post, sleeping in saloons and lodging-houses, he is far less of a menace than people suppose. He comes into but casual relationship with his fellows, and no one is in prolonged and intimate contact with him, as is the case of the man in the home, the centre of the family circle. Until we can accommodate the latter, we must let the former do as seems best to him. If ten anxious people are clamouring for every hospital bed at our disposal, why force it upon the reluctant one who refuses? When we can handle the problem of voluntary segregation, it will be time to consider compulsory measures. CHAPTER XVII The Problem of Giving Relief—The Giver of Relief—Co-operation between Agent and Nurse—General Rules for Nurses and Agents—Conditions of Asking for Relief—Wrong Conditions of Relief-Giving—Incidental Assistance—Withdrawal of Relief—Supplying Milk and Eggs.