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140
The children in the Boys. Schools have improved to a corresponding
extent. The improvement is least among the Infant Girls.
The next table gives the percentages of children with head nits
at the ages of five, ten and thirteen, and for all including the intermediate
ages for 1912 and 1911. They are divided into three classes:—Slight, in
which the nits are so few in number as to be noticeable only on very
careful examination; Marked, in which the condition is more marked;
and Severe, in which the children are grossly verminous.

The school nurse makes special visits to the schools at intervals
and makes a rapid examination of all the children in the school, with a view
of ascertaining their condition as to cleanliness. Children with nits are
given cards to take home; verminous children are excluded. The number of
children seen in this way by the nurse during the year was 5,137.
When Miss Johnston, on June 1st, was transferred to the Public
Health Department as School Nurse and Junior Woman Inspector, she
soon after began visiting the homes of the scholars whom she„ of her own
knowledge, or by notification from the Head Teachers or Attendance
Officers, became aware that they were verminous or neglected, or both.
Good results soon followed.
Cleansing Station.
In September, the Engineer submitted to the Sanitary Committee
a rough plan of a vermin station, and he also reported that the boiler
at the disinfecting station should be repaired, so as to last a considerable
time without the addition of a superheater. It was then decided that the
Chairman of the Committee, the Engineer, the Inspector of Nuisances,
and the Medical Officer of Health, should visit vermin stations already
in operation in Greater London, and report thereon.
In November, these gentlemen presented their report to the
Sanitary Committee, upon whose recommendation it was adopted by the
Council. This report gave the summary of their observations in visiting
the cleansing stations of Woolwich, St. Pancras, and Whitechapel. The
Committee, after considering the observations of their Chairman and
their officers, unanimously came to the conclusion that it would be both
economical and! convenient to have the disinfecting station and cleansing
station in conjunction with each other and in close proximity to the Public