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8
Perhaps most important of all, in view of the straitened
economic circumstances of many families, is the fact that the
general nutrition of the children has quite definitely improved in
recent years.
The departures from health which maintain a relatively high
incidence are dental decay, defective vision and defects of posture
and general physique. Too many of the children have poor
shapes, a condition caused by lack of muscular tone, displaying
itself in round shoulders, flat chest and large abdomen. Many
of these children carry with them varying degrees of bony
deformities chiefly affecting the ribs—pigeon breast, and sunken
lower ribs forming a groove across the lower chest known as
Harrison's Sulcus. These departures from normal shape are
evidence of rickets in infancy—a condition caused by lack of fresh
elements in the diet, together with an excess of starchy foods,
such as bread, potatoes and such milk puddings as rice and sago.
Table III. classifies in 85 different categories those children
who are so physically or mentally defective as to be incapable of
receiving proper benefit from the education provided in the
ordinary elementary schools. As in former years, I have given
special attention to the completion of accurate records of these
"exceptional children." Their number is relatively small and
they are all provided for in ways suited to their special physical
and educational requirements. I have explained in a previous
report the difficulty in making any return of " delicate
children.
Table IV. gives details of the treatment carried out during
the year under the Authority's scheme of treatment, as set out in
tabular form below:—