London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Ilford 1925
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Ilford]
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The increasing amount of work done in this department is seen from the following table:—
Total number of individual children examined by the School Oculist:—
| 1918 | 189 |
| 1919 | 368 |
| 1920 | 464 |
| 1921 | 490 |
| 1922 | 458 |
| 1923 | 585 |
| 1924 | 637 |
| 1925 | 679 |
Of the 679 cases, 560 were referred from medical inspection,
and 119 from the School Clinic.
The 679 children were not all suffering from grave defects
of vision. The following table shows the vision in the worst
eye, as tested by Snellen's Type:—
6/6 6/9 6/12 6/18 6/24 6/36 6/60 6/0
112 211 88 107 64 61 32 4
The children who saw 6/6 (practically normal vision) were
suffering from symptoms such as headaches, inflamed eyelids,
etc., which rendered further examination necessary.
Of the 679 children examined, 537 were found to require spectacles by reason of the following defects:—
| Myopia | 46 |
| Myopic Astigmatism | 70 |
| Hypermetropia | 182 |
| Hypermetropic Astigmatism | 151 |
| Mixed Astigmatism | 49 |
| Anisometropia | 14 |
| Hypermetropia with Squint | 25 |
| Total | 537 |
Of the remaining 142 children, 10 were suffering from the following other diseases:—
| Corneal Ulcers, Nebulae, etc. | 3 |
| Nystagmus | 1 |
| Persistent Pupillary Membrane | 1 |
| Congenital Capsular Opacities | 2 |
| Other Diseases | 3 |
| Total | 10 |