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123
Re-part of the County Medical, Officer—Education.
definite instructions have been issued. Children suffering from scabies are bathed at tbe Council's
stations at Central-street, Finch-street, Fountain-road, Paradise-road, Russia-lane, Sedlescombe-road,
the station of the Corporation of the City of London, and the stations of the Borough Councils
of Battersea, Camberwell, Greenwich, Hackney, Hampstead, Islington, Kensington, Poplar, Marylebone,
St. Pancras, Southwark, Westminster and Woolwich.
The
Children's
Country
Holiday
Fund.
The total number of children suffering from scabies bathed during the year was 589; they
received a total of 3,212 baths. The average number of baths required to effect a cure was 5'4.
The school nurses again assisted the executive committee of the Children's Country Holiday
Fund by examining for the detection of any infectious disease (e.g., ringworm) or any form of uncleanliness,
the children whom it was proposed to send to the country as soon as the summer vacation
began. The scheme which was set out in the report for 1913 again worked very smoothly and gave
general satisfaction. The Executive Committee of the Fund have asked the Council to permit the
nurses to assist in the work in the current vear.
Secondary
schools and
kindred
institutions—
Verminous
heads.
The personal hygiene scheme which is applied in all the girls' secondary schools except two,
in one of the boys' secondary schools, and in several kindred institutions, was varied during the year by
the withdrawal of the more stringent regulations applied to candidates for the teaching profession. All
pupils found on examination to be defective as regards personal hygiene are now given three opportunities
for remedying the unsatisfactory condition, a period of one month elapsing between the first and last of
the series of examinations. The preliminary examinations in all cases are carried out by school nurses,
and pupils in whom unsatisfactory conditions remain unremedied are seen by an assistant superintendent
of nurses, upon whose report official action is taken. In obstinate cases awards are withdrawn
from scholarship-holders, and fee-paying pupils are permanently excluded from the institutions. Few
cases are unsatisfactory at the second examination, and a still smaller number at the third, but during the
year two pupils ware reported for permanent exclusion from the institutions, and eight for withdrawal
of scholarships owing to unremedied defects in personal hygiene. The following table shows the conditions
found during the year:—
Examination, 1914.
(1)
Number of pupils.
Number found verminous
Percentage.
Boys.
(2)
Girls.
(3)
Boys.
(4)
Girls.
(5)
Boys.
(6)
Girls.
(7)
Spring 165 4,233 - 188 - 4,44
Summer 95 4,736 - 310 - 654
Autumn 90 4,468 - 273 - 6.11
Examination of candidates.
Candidates taking up permanent appointments in the school service are examined in the public
health department before commencing work. Candidates for scholarships and the teaching profession
are also required to be examined before the awards are finally made. The number of candidates
examined was 6,015 and Appendix VI. gives particulars of the conditions noted as present.
In examining candidates for the teaching profession special regard is paid to vision. Visual
conditions which are apparently satisfactory at 15 may produce discomfort by 20, and serious inefficiency
by 25 or 30 ; in addition there may be actual deterioration from diseased or debilitated conditions. The
circumstances of the student's life during training have to be remembered, as many breakdowns are
due to visual strain ; further, the teacher in the elementary school must have good vision or the children's
features appear blurred and indistinct, especially when the teacher is facing a light. A candidate for
the teaching profession should have full visual acuity, and in order to attain this the wearing of glasses
may be necessary, but in certain cases even when full visual acuity is attained, the fatigue produced
may be such that the candidates should not be accepted. Only under very rare and exceptional conditions
should a candidate for a bursary requiring convex glasses of 5 dioptres or more, or concave glasses
of 4 dioptres or more in any meridian, at the age of 16, be accepted. Teachers with an extra dioptre
of myopia who are certificated and whose eyes have attained full growth and presumably will not further
deteriorate for many years might be accepted, but each case should be considered on its merits. Relaxation
of these rules might be permitted in otherwise healthy eyes in the case of teachers of subjects
not involving long continued eye work, or much eye strain, viz., cookery, laundry, domestic economy,
housewifery, physical exercises, kindergarten, carpentry or shoemaking. Congenital amblyopia in
former squinting eyes should not disqualify if the other eye is satisfactory. Other eye diseases such as
opacities of the media, old iritis, cyclitis and most cases of keratitis should be made the subject of special
consideration.
Teaching
candidates
Vision.
Some difficulty arises in dealing with children who have won scholarships and who are found
on medical examination to be shortsighted. Many of these children are brilliant, always at the top of
the class, and therefore favourites with their teachers. Their place in class is to a large extent the
direct result of their short sight. They cannot see so well or so quickly as their normal comrades so
that games do not attract them and the time that should be devoted to games and outdoor play is
spent at their school work. Their interests become centred on books to the further detriment of their
eyes, and sometimes of their health. When the myopia is of low degree the case can usually be dealt
with by the provision of satisfactory glasses, the new world that is presented to the child is, to some
Scholarship
candidatesVision.
27715
R 2