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It is very satisfactory to note that, in spite of the difficulties of the times, the
excellent condition of the general health of the children in the schools is being maintained,
and that there is not the least decline perceptible in London in nutritional
well-being.
Attention has been called in previous reports to the fact that there is an irreducible
remnant of children who are ill-nourished. Amongst these is the group
which was studied by Dr. Leipoldt before the war under the title " Asthenia congenitalis
universalis," and in the last Annual Report by Dr. Maurice Young under
the heading " Arachnodactyly." The children in this group respond neither to feeding
nor to convalescent treatment, and throughout school life remain, whatever is done,
thin, pale and nervous.
Cleanliness.
The percentage of children found free even from traces of nits or pediculi in
the hair was 95-2 and of those free from traces of body vermin, 99-7. For some years
past the condition of the hair of the 12-year old girls has been taken as the criterion
of cleanliness, and it has been pointed out that there has been a gradual improvement
from 67 -2 per cent, in 1913 to 75 per cent, in 1923, and 91 9 per cent, in 1930. In
1931 the record figure of 93-5 per cent, was reached, a substantial improvement
on the figures recorded in the previous two years.
It is comparatively rare for the school doctor to find a child actually infested with
body vermin ; a condition which 3 to 4 per cent, of the elementary school children
exhibited in the early days of medical inspection, but is now to be found in little more
than one in a thousand.
It might have been expected that the campaign against the grosser conditions
of neglect of personal hygiene which formerly obtained in the schools would rapidly
have borne fruit in the earlier years of the school medical service, but the improvement
took place only slowly, and, although this progressive improvement is still taking place
every year, it is more difficult to attain now that the chronically dirty children have
to be dealt with if further success is to be achieved. The results are a great tribute
to the work of the school nurses. It would be impossible to praise too highly the
efforts of these devoted women who carry on their work unflinchingly in the face
of much obloquy poured upon them day after day by some of the rougher elements
in the population. It is needless to say that this great work could not have produced
its effects without the enthusiastic co-operation of the teachers in the schools, the
attendance officers, and the sanitary officers of the borough councils ; but in addition
the revolution, for it is nothing else, could not have been brought about without the
winning over to the ideal of cleanliness of the great mass of the parents and the
general support of a more enlightened population.
Dental decay.
The proportion of children found at medical inspection in a satisfactory dental
condition was 64.4 per cent., compared with 62.9 per cent, in 1930. This improvement
is not only in the 8-and 12-year old groups, the percentage among entrants
has also risen from 52.6 to 53.9. When, however, comparison is made between the
proportions of children in the three age groups having serious dental decay, the