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67
Prevention of Cruelty to Children is invoked or, on occasion,
threatened. Some of the children sent up by the Attendance
Officers to Bruce Castle for special examination, or with
regard to fitness to attend school, are children found to be
suffering badly from the need of medical attention and treatment.
One small boy who was sent to me by an Attendance
Officer, as he had not been to school for 4 or 5 weeks, had
had no medical treatment, and appeared to be still ill. On
examination I found he had a huge abscess (empyema) filling
up one side of his chest to such an extent that the heart was
found to be beating: as far over to the right side as it should
have been to the left. Prompt removal to hospital and
operation undoubtedly saved the child's life. One is often
struck with the apathy of parents, their failure to observe
that the child is really ill, whilst their fatalistic attitude
toward disease is often hard to combat. "It's here-dit-ary"
is a conclusion which, if formed by parents, requires much
argument to convince them that treatment may still be
desirable. But after four years of medical inspection work in
Tottenham I think parents are beginning to realize more fully
that when treatment is advised for a child, it is not advised
as a mere pious opinion, but because it is necessary for the
welfare of the child, and must be carried out. With a good
General Hospital in the District, to say nothing of the Poor
Law, there should be no excuse on the ground of expense for
obtaining the necessary treatment. But when the parents
are out at work all day, or the mother is ill, the difficulties in
the way of getting children treated sometimes seem well nigh
insuperable, and it is only at the expense of much energy and
planning on the part of the officers or teachers that they can