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84
had to be closed on account of the prevalence of Measles
and Diphtheria respectively amongst the scholars.
It is estimated that about 40,000 children under 5 years
of age are at present in attendance at the Public Elementary
Schools throughout the administrative County of London,
and it is stated that, if the schools are closed against them
some other sort of accommodation will have to be found—at
least, for some of them—viz., creches, infants' nurseries,
etc. In this connection it must be remembered that
the conditions of school life (crowded rooms, mental strain,
etc.) are such as would not obtain in a creche, or infants'
nursery, and the vital resistance of the young children is,
consequently, greater in the latter case.
I am of opinion that the collecting of children together in
creches, or infants' nurseries, is, from a public health point
of view, less dangerous (if, indeed, any danger exists at all
therefrom) than collecting them together under the special
conditions that obtain in schools—an opinion that is borne
out in practice in the cases of such creches, or infants' nurseries,
as already exist in different parts of London and elsewhere.
I must leave the Council to decide as to what action (if
any) they advise, having regard to all the facts. My own
opinion, as the Council's Medical Adviser, is that much good
would accrue, from a public health point of view, were all
children under 5 years of age excluded from the Public Elementary
and other Schools of the Borough.
Joseph Priestley.
October 30th, 1905