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CHAPTER XXXIV.
Public Health Reports (continued).
Report of the Education Committee Submitting the Annual Report of the Medical Officer
(Education) (Dr. J. Kerr) for the year 1911.
We present the report of the medical officer (Education) for the year ended 31st December.,
1911. In presenting this report it should be pointed out that the Council on 25th July, 1911 (p. 329).
decided to place the control of educational medical work under the county medical officer of
health, and that Dr. Hamer, the officer newly appointed by the Council, entered upon his duties on
1st January, 1912. It will be seen that the present report relates to the year ended 31st December,
1911, and, for the views expressed in it. Dr. Kerr, who was then medical officer (Education), is solely
responsible.
The report shows that during the year the doctors inspected 204,000 children at 9,785 sessions
and that 62 per cent, of the parents were present at the time of inspection. More than one half of
the children showed defects when examined in detail, and 38 per cent, had advice cards given. One
third of the children suffered from enlarged tonsils and adenoids, and four-fifths from caries of the teeth.
Cases of ringworm under observation numbered from two to three thousand throughout the year.
The two open-air schools at Birley House and Shrewsbury House were open during the year. The
tuberculosis school at Kensal House has now been working since April, 1911, and playground classes
have been considerably developed.
Nine cleansing stations for verminous children were at work, and the school nurses inspected.
251,592 children, of whom 14,893 were reported verminous, and 9,917 had notices served under the
Children Act. Of these, 5,209 were ultimately cleansed at the Council's stations, and the parents of
285 prosecuted.
During the year there was an exceptional prevalence of measles, but the report points out that
the measles death rate of 1911 was exceeded by that of every alternate year of the nineties.
Candidates taking up permanent appointments in the school service, and candidates to whom
scholarships have been awarded are medically examined in the Public Health Department. The
report shows that the number of candidates submitting themselves for a first examination during the
year was 5,975.
Reference is made in the report to such subjects as (i.) enquiry into the means of differentiating
the mentally defective; (ii.) the extension of special means of education for myopes, the semi-blind
and the hard-of-hearing; (iii.) further provision for epileptics; (iv.) stammering; (v.) seating of
classes, floor space, ventilation and heating of schools. Statistics of the work done are given in the
appendixes.
Report of the Medical Officer (Education) for the year 1911.
With this report the series for which I have been responsible during the past ten years is concluded.
An attempt has been made to lay the foundations of school hygiene, as a study of national
interest and value, on the basis of problems worked out on scientific lines by the staff of the department.
Administrative rearrangements under the Council at the end of 1911, transfers from the
education officer to the medical department all arrangements for medical treatment. At the same
time the educational medical work has been placed under the control of the medical officer of health,
a change in organisation which can be justified if it is regarded as a first step to the co-ordination,
under the control of one authority, of the sanitary service of the Metropolis, now carried out under
a score and a half of different bodies.