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regard to the removal of such defects, and even conceivably to insist upon this as a necessary duty on
the part of parents and guardians before the children are admitted to the classes.
Cleansing Scheme.—Heads.—The number of unclean heads is steadily diminishing.
Reports of various charitable societies and country holiday funds bear ample testimony to this.
Managers, teachers and nurses speak in the highest praise of the good work being done in this
direction. The Cleansing Scheme has been applied to 74 provided schools during the year with the
following results:—
Departments.
Number of
children
examined.
Clean.
Verminous
White
cards.
First
notice.
Red cards.
Final
warning.
Proposed
by nurse
for
exclusion.
Excluded
for prosecution.
Boys 21,612 20,870 742 381 194 43 8
Girls 23,863 17,140 6,723 5,073 2,460 963 506
Infants 24,159 21.130 3,029 2,501 1,102 384 230
Mixed 2,528 2,171 357 345 119 77 35
Special 831 672 159 146 78 44 21
Total 72,993 61,983 11,010 8,446 3,953 1,511 800
The parents of 101 children have been prosecuted, and fines imposed varying from 1s. to 18s.
and 2s. costs.
In some cases the parents continue to neglect their children after prosecution and fine. At one
school 10 children returned in an unclean condition, they were again excluded, and all returned in a fit
state except two sisters. On the first occasion the parents of these two children were fined 10s., but
as the unclean state was allowed to persist a further fine of 18s. and 2s. costs was imposed.
Bodies and Clothing.—The Cleansing Scheme so far as unclean heads are concerned has
worked satisfactorily, but constant reports were received from the teachers and nurses in regard to
children who were bodily unclean and had verminous clothing. In some isolated cases action was taken
by the sanitary authorities, but in most parts of London there is no public provision for the cleansing
of such persons.
With the co-operation of the medical officer of health an attempt has been made to cleanse the
bodies and clothing of the children attending the provided schools in the Borough of St. Marylebone.
The method adopted was similar to that for cleansing the heads. The nurse examined seven schools
and found 65 children whose bodies and clothes were so verminous that they were unfit to be in school.
The names and addresses of these children were sent to the medical officer of health, whose sanitary
inspectors delivered cards stating that the children could have a warm bath and their clothes sterilised
free of cost at certain hours on specified dates. Thirty-six of the children took advantage of these baths,
28 were cleansed by the mothers, and one left school. A number of these children continued to attend
the baths.

It has now been decided to extend this scheme, and work it into the regular scheme co-operating
with the borough council in those districts where arrangements for personal cleansing are already in
force. There are children in every borough in London who require some provision for their cleansing,
and for the disinfection of their clothes.
Powers are now being asked for the whole of the Metropolis similar to those of the Glasgow
Police Order Confirmation Act, 1904, so that if a child is found by a duly appointed officer of the Council
(medical officer or nurse) to be in school in an objectionable state notice may be served on the parents
to cleanse the child within 24 hours, or it may be cleansed at the public expense and the cost recovered.
The officers of the Education authority should deal with the matter up to the serving of the notice ;
the matter should then be taken up by the local sanitary authority, but power should be reserved by
the Council to take action on default of the sanitary authority.
Ringworm.—Ringworm is a widely diffused disease. In the majority of cases little or no
attention is paid to it after the first few weeks, and children are frequently absent from school for periods
varying from twelve months to two years. The infectious nature of the disease does not appear to be
fully recognised when it becomes chronic, and many children are sent to school whilst in an infectious
state. Some of these cases are detected by the school nurses, and specimens of the hair sent to this
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