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 1930
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Ilford]
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139
(b) Ophthalmic Department.— During the year 1930 the School
Oculist held 86 sessions for the refraction of children suffering
from defective vision. Full details of the work are given in
Table IV, Group II, on page 164.
574 school children were examined, 116 of these being cases
from 1929.
Of the 574 cases, 458 were referred from medical inspection,
91 from the School Clinic, and 25 at the parents request.
The 574 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 |
| 109 | 83 | 88 | 94 | 67 | 73 | 33 | 27 |
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 574 children examined, 478 were found to require spectacles by reason of the following defects :-
| Myopia | 66 |
| Myopic Astigmatism | 90 |
| Hypermetropia | 70 |
| Hypermetropic Astigmatism | 165 |
| Mixed Astigmatism | 42 |
| Anisometropia | 9 |
| Hypermetropia with Squint | 36 |
| Total | 478 |
Of the remaining 96 children, 10 were suffering from the following other diseases, and glasses were not prescribed :-
| Conjunctivitis | 2 |
| Nebulæ | 1 |
| Partial Optic Atrophy | 1 |
| Strabismus | 3 |
| Blepharitis | 3 |
| 10 |