creased so steadily and rapidly during the
nineteenth century, that it seemed to trouble no one that countless
lives of mothers and babies were lost during the perils of
child-birth; it remained the only civilised country of Europe where a
woman could practise as a midwife without any training at all.

For nearly twenty years before the passing of the Midwives Act in
1902, a small band of devoted women laboured in season and out of
season urging on Parliament the need of a bill requiring a _minimum_
of three months' theoretical and practical training and an examination
before trusting a woman with the lives of mother and child.

This historical fact alone is a sufficiently cogent reason for the
now ever-increasing demand on the part of women for the parliamentary
vote.

The Central Midwives Board (C.M.B.), a body of eight members (experts
elected by various bodies, such as the Royal Colleges of Physicians
and Surgeons, the British Nurses' Association, the Midwives'
Institute, etc.), now exercises supervision over the midwives of the
whole of England and Wales, though local supervising authorities also
take cognisance of midwives' work and investigate cases of malpractice
and the like. The address of the Central Midwives' Board is Caxton
House, Westminster.

The training for the examination of the Central Midwives' Board is
based on the method pursued in medical education in English-speaking
countries, viz., there is not one uniform course, but each of the
training schools attached to hospitals follows out its own plan of
training, each hospital having been approved by the Central Midwives'
Board as giving an adequate training for its examination. There are
now seven maternity hospitals in London, where women students may
train in midwifery. Of these, only one--the Clapham Maternity Hospital
(with its training school founded by Mrs Meredith in 1885)--is, and
always has been, entirely officered by women. Here the course advised
is six months, viz., three months in the hospital (Monthly Nursing),
and three months in the hospital and district doing Midwifery proper.
During this time over 200 cases may be seen, and nearly 100 cases
attended personally. The cost of this training is L35 to L40, which
includes board and residence for twenty-six weeks. Students previously
trained elsewhere may take one months' extra training at a cost of
ten guineas. Private doctors and midwives may also take pupils if
recognised as teacher