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15
The increase of 36 per cent. in the number of special examinations is remarkable,
and is chiefly due to the solicitude aroused in regard to the nutritional state of the
children generally, and to the desire that no child needing additional nourishment
should be debarred from taking part in the scheme of the Milk Marketing Board.
The additional work thus thrown upon the staff was equivalent to that of four
whole-time school doctors, and explains why considerable strain was felt. It could
not have been carried out had it not been that the age groups, particularly the
leaver group, were smaller than in recent years.
Although the number of children seen at special inspections was much less than
the number seen in the routine age groups, yet in the case of many diseases the
actual numbers found to be suffering therefrom in the former exceed those in the
latter. Thus 1,009 children with scabies were referred for treatment at special
inspections, compared with 120 only at routine inspections. In regard to epileptics
77 first came to notice at special inspections, compared with 32 at routine inspections,
and 194 children with chorea were seen at special inspections, compared with 113
at routine examinations. Heart trouble requiring treatment was detected in 231
children at special inspections, compared with 252 at routine inspections.
This is evidence that full advantage is being taken of the doctors' visits to the
schools to present to them promptly really ailing children.
The number of children amongst the special cases who were submitted to the
school doctors on account of real or supposed nutritional defect was 53,066. At the
resulting medical examinations the nutritional classification on the Board's scale of
the children was as follows :—

The health
of the
leaving child.
The Council has undertaken the examination of a fourth age group, namely,
children who are leaving school. This examination takes place in the term prior
to that in which the children are due to leave school. The results of this examination
are available at the school-leaving conference, and are of assistance in determining
the choice of a suitable occupation. Coming at the end of the school career, the
examination is useful in estimating the results of medical attention received since
the children entered school.
This year's " leaver " group was formed of the children born in the year 1921-22
and the numbers are, in consequence of the lower birth-rate at that time, fewer than
in the previous year. They comprised 26,739 boys and 26,470 girls. In nutrition
they were found to be better than the younger groups, only 4.4 per cent. of the
boys and 3.8 per cent. girls being classed as subnormal. They compared with
3.5 per cent. boys, and 3.0 per cent. girls in the previous year.
In personal cleanliness this group also shows an improvement on the 11-year-old
group, 98.5 per cent. boys and 96 . 7 per cent. girls having perfectly clean heads. The
dental condition of this group was found to be slightly inferior to that of the 11-yearold
group, for both boys and girls, the percentage with satisfactory mouths being
751 in the case of boys, and 74.8 in the case of girls, compared with 76.1 and 77'3
respectively in the 11-year-old group. In other respects the "leaver" children
showed an improvement in health over the 11-year-old group.
Spinal curvature in the " leaver " girls was reported in .8 per cent. of the cases,
identical with the percentage at age 11 ; on the other hand, heart defect in the
"leaver" girls was 1.7 per cent., compared with 2.0 in the 11-year-old group. The
older girls invariably present more cases of spinal curvature and heart defect than
do the older boys.
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