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26
The number of children found to stammer amongst the eight-year-old group was 130 boys and
35 girls (0.4 per cent. and 0.l per cent. respectively), amongst the leavers there were 160 boys and 52
girls (0.5 per cent. and 0.2 per cent. respectively). The number of boys in the earlier age group suffering
from other speech defects was 214 (0.6 per cent.) and girls 148 (0.4 per cent.), at the later age the numbers
were 138 boys (0.4 per cent.) and 122 girls (0.4 per cent.).
In the Annual Report for 1916 attention was drawn to the classes for adults provided by the
Council and taught by teachers of the deaf by oral methods, to the instruction of the students in the
training colleges in the theory and practice of speech, and to the "speech clinic" conducted by the
authorities of St. Thomas's Hospital. These facilities were continued during the year, and an experi-
mental class in remedial exercises for stammering children attending elementary schools is about to be
conducted under the auspices of the Westminster Health Society at Greek Street, Soho; the results of
this experiment will be recorded in the report for the ensuing year.
The number of children noted as having enlarged glands of the neck was higher than in the
previous year, reaching 11.6 per cent. in the case of boys and 10.5 per cent. in the case of girls at
the eight-year-old period and 8.1 per cent. in the boys and 8.4 per cent. in the girls at the older
age. These figures, however, include all degrees of enlargement, and it is necessary to add that there
was no increase noted in the number of cases in which the enlargement was such as to necessitate
reference for treatment, i.e., in severe cases, which remained practically identical with the numbers of
the previous year, viz., 0.4 per cent. boys and 0.2 per cent. girls at the eight-year-old age and
0.2 per cent. for boys and girls alike in the leaver group.
The percentage of children at the age of eight found with normal vision was 37.9 boys and 34.6
girls, at the age of twelve this had increased to 51 per cent. boys and 45.4 percent. girls. Attention
is therefore once more directed to the excess of the incidence of visual defect upon girls as compared
with boys.
The number of eight-year-old boys referred for treatment for vision was 3,716, or 10.8 per cent.,
and of girls 4,017, or 11.9 per cent., and of older children 5,409 boys (15.8 per cent.) and 5,539 girls
(16.2 per cent.). These, although differing not materially from those of the previous year, are high
percentages; a considerable amount of visual defect appears to be inseparable from the conditions
of modern civilised life; how far the condition is due to hereditary causes and how far due to defective
hygiene and too early application to fine work at school and home is not decided, but the special
incidence upon girls suggests that the second factor is a very important one in the production of visual
defect.
Percentage of boys and girls at the age of 12 found with perfect vision with or without glasses.
1913. 1914. 1915. 1916. 1917.
Boys 51.1 54.3 57.4 54.4 51.0
Girls 43.8 47.3 51.3 48.4 45.4
The above table shows that ground has been lost during the last two years. This is due to a
variety of causes, including preoccupation of parents, the increasing cost of spectacles and the closing
down of eye departments at many of the general hospitals. It is probable that the last of these causes
is the most important, as previous to the war a large number of children obtained relief from these
departments.
The proportion of children found suffering from the effects of rickets was slightly lower than
that of the previous year. The absence of complete figures for the entrants, however, makes any
general statement upon this point impossible. 1,080 (1.6 per cent.) children of the eight-year-old group,
equally divided between the sexes, were reported as suffering from deformities other than the result
of rickets, while 705 (2.1 per cent.) boys and 969 (2.8 per cent.) girls at the leaver age were so
reported upon; corresponding with the higher incidence of heart defeat and anaemia in older girls the
excess of deformities in girls reported at the leaver age must be attributed to their occupation at home
upon household tasks.
The greater difficulty experienced in keeping children in a cleanly condition, owing to the enforced
or voluntary absence of the mothers from home during a great part or the whole of the day is referred
to elsewhere in the report. This is reflected in slight increases in the percentage of children in the age
groups found to be suffering from skin disease and external eye disease, both of which in general may
be taken to belong to the category of "dirt" diseases.
Still more is it seen in the numbers of children suffering from these diseases presented for urgent
and special examinations. There were no less than 6,614 children so presented found to be suffering
from skin diseases in 1917 compared with 2,646 in 1916. This is a very significant increase.
The number of children presented for special and urgent examinations continues to increase.
During 1917 reports on 53,334 special examinations were received, as compared with 39,425 in 1916.
Owing to the facilities accorded to teachers and Care Committee workers for presenting special cases and
to the frequent presence in the schools of the doctor and nurse, it is increasingly the case that few cases of
serious disease remain undetected. Were it not for these special facilities by which children are seen
early and brought under treatment the results of the routine inspections would be far worse. As has
already been pointed out, it is rare for a case of phthisis to be first detected at a routine age group
examination, and this also applies in slightly less degree to cases of skin disease and external eye disease.
The extension of the routine age group inspections to the children in schools for the mentally
defective admits of a comparison being made between them and the normal children. That the
mentally defective are derived from the more degenerate stocks physically, is shown by the excessive
incidence upon the mentally defective children of every one of the tWenty-two diseases comprised in
Stammering
children.
Enlarged
glands of the
neck.
Defective
vision.
Rickets and
other
deformities.
Skin diseases
and external
eve diseases.
Special and
urgent examinations.
Physical
cmdition of
mentally
defective
children.