View report page

Satisfaction was expressed in recent reports that the excessive incidence of
visual defect on older girls compared with the boys, which was formerly such a
striking result of school medical inspection returns, had diminished as the result, it
was thought, of improvements in school hygiene such as by a rule of the Education
Committee that sewing should not be done by artificial light unless the school
medical officer has given his consent after examination of the lighting in each case.
The figures for 1935 show that there is again a heavier incidence upon leaver
girls.
Enlarged
tonsils and
adenoid
growths.
In the prescribed age groups 6,214 children were referred for some form of
treatment of enlarged tonsils or adenoid growths; this is 4.5 per cent, of the
children examined, the same percentage as in 1934, compared with 6.6 per cent, in
1931, 6.7 per cent, in 1930, and 7 per cent, in 1929. These nose and throat conditions
are found chiefly among the entrant group, many of the children in the older
groups having already been dealt with before their examination in those age groups.
The percentages requiring treatment for these conditions in the individual age
groups in 1935 were: entrant boys 7.8, girls 6.7 ; 7-year-old boys 4.4, girls 4.2 ;
11-year-old boys 1.5, girls 1.9.
There has been a fall in recent years in the percentage of children referred for
treatment for enlarged tonsils and adenoid growths. The older the children the
fewer there are that suffer from ear, nose and throat defects.
Many cases found with slight degrees of defect are not referred for treatment
but are placed under observation.
The proportion of those recorded as having enlarged tonsils and adenoid
growths who were referred for treatment was 39 per cent, compared with 38 per
cent, in 1933 and 1934, and 43 per cent, in 1932.
Of the 6,214 children referred for treatment for these defects, 4,186 were referred
for enlarged tonsils only, 472 for adenoids growths only, and 1,556 for both enlarged
tonsils and adenoid growths.
Otorrhcea
and hardness
of hearing.
Otorrhæa was noted in 1,073 children, or .8 per cent, of those examined in the
prescribed age groups, compared with .9 per cent, in 1934, .8 per cent, in 1933 and
in 1932, and with 1 per cent, in 1931 and 1930. The highest proportion of these
cases was found in the entrant group. In no year prior to 1930 was the percentage
of children with "running ears "less than one; in 1927 the percentage was 1.3,
and in 1913 it was over 2 per cent. This defect is most prevalent amongst entrant
infants and diminishes during school life year by year.
Hardness of hearing was found at routine medical inspections in 218 children, or
only .2 per cent, of those examined. This compares favourably with 383 in 1933,
453 in 1930, and 868 in 1927, and again equals the best result yet obtained.
Mention is made in another part of this report (page 16) of the extended use of
the audiometer in elementary schools, which brings to light many minor degrees of
hardness of hearing and cases of unilateral deafness, which, while not interfering
with education, are sometimes the indication for active preventive treatment.
Many of these cases are missed by the ordinary method of medical inspection, in
which the test is the forced whisper at 20 feet.
B