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155
Report of the Medical Officer (Education).

The cases submitted from ordinary school examinations or elsewhere as possibly suitable for Deaf
treatment as deaf were further examined at the Head Office with the following results as regards
educational treatment proposed:—
Elementary school 53
„ front row of class 45
Hard of hearing class 9
Deaf 133
Mentally defective 11
Imbecile 3
Physical defect, cleft palate, etc. 5
Invalided or exempt 23
282
Of those advised for elementary school 38, and of those for front row 3 were cases with aural
suppuration. The hard of hearing cases are few, not because there are few, but because there is little
use referring them for treatment until centres are established.
The analysis of the causes of deafness is of great importance from the public health standpoint.
Certain cases must always occur, but the majority even including congenital and hereditary cases could
be prevented.
Mr. Yearsle has investigated the causes of the defect among 874 pupils of the Council schools
for the Deaf. The records of other deaf schools are of comparatively little value, as generally they have
not been made with a clinical or scientific purpose, and often it is doubtful whether they are wholly
medical records. The records dealt with here are, however, the result of a critical examination of the
history of each child as given by its parents, or on its admission papers checked and controlled by
a thorough physical and functional examination. For convenience the classification used by Mygind,
in his well-known work on deaf mutism has been used, although a more complete classification is desirable.

I.— Congenital cases.— The cases born deaf number 360; to these may be added 3 of true congenital
aphasia, making 363 out of 874, or 41.5 per cent. Amongst the doubtful cases 23 are probably congenital
and 1 is likely to be true congenital aphasia. The addition of these would raise the percentage of congenital
cases to 443. Mygind writing in 1894, suggested that "Future investigators will perhaps
prove that acquired deafness has a still greater preponderance in the causation of deaf mutism than we
are authorised at present in believing." Here the majority of all cases are found to be acquired.
II. The acquired cases.— Those which are beyond dispute number 454 or 51.94 per cent. If 18
of the doubtful cases which were probably acquired are added, the number is 472, or 54 per cent.
Of these acquired cases the first group is Disease of the Brain and its coverings, constituting
18 per cent. of the acquired cases—viz.:—
Meningitis 49
Convulsions 10
Fits 23
Brain fever 1
It is probable that all were meningitis cases, although the exact nature of the cause would not
be definitely ascertained nearer than the classification given. One of the cases was definitely recorded
as "tuberculous meningitis."
12532 U 2