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Precautions that should be taken with rheumatic children :—
(1.) Keep limbs and body warmly but lightly clothed, preferably
with woollen underclothing. See leaflet on clothing.
(2.) Put child to bed, and obtain medical advice whenever
feverishness, growing pains, sore throat or other symptoms
of rheumatism are noticed.
(3.) Enlarged tonsils are better removed if a child suffers from
repeated sore throat.
Public Health Department,
Croydon.
LUNG DISEASES.
Affections of the lungs were found in 366 instances. Of these
the greater number was of the nature of bronchial catarrh, and not
of serious import. Many of these catarrhal cases were very slight
and of short duration; others were more persistent, and a few
were quite chronic. The effect on the health of the children in the
first and second groups is slight, but in the third there always
results a good deal of constitutional disturbance affecting the
growth and development of the body and giving rise to flabbiness,
anaemia, and general lassitude. Medical attention was urged in all
cases, and several children were excluded from school for varying
periods.
Pulmonary tuberculosis was found in a minority of the total
cases of lung disease, 25 in all. These were referred to the Tuberculosis
Dispensary and thereafter taken in hand by the Medical
Officer of the Dispensary. Most of them have made exceedingly
good progress, and many have been able to return to school and to
renew their educational life. Further information on the incidence
of tubercular disease of the lungs amongst school children will be
found below.
COMMUNICABLE DISEASES.
At the routine inspections communicable diseases were diagnosed
in 47 instances. These included diphtheria 4, scarlet
fever 2, tuberculosis 25. These numbers are, of course, in
addition to the children who are specially examined on account
of the known prevalence of some communicable disease in the
school. Verminous cases, having been already mentioned, are not
included in this number. When any special focus of infectious
trouble appeared to be in a school special visits to the school were
made by the School Medical Officer or his assistants.
TUBERCULOSIS.
Tuberculosis is a disease which affects childhood to a very
considerable extent and is one of the principal causes of illhealth
amongst the children attending the schools. It may attack the
bones, the joints, the lymphatic glands, the membranes surrounding
the brain, or the lungs. In the subjoined table will be found
the number of children of school age suffering from these various
types of the disease, classified according to sex and age. It will
be noted that the table includes not only cases discovered at school
medical inspections, but also those notified by private medical