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tuberculosis in school children
One of the official returns which every School Medical Officer has to make annually to the Board of Education and
to the Local Education Authority is the number of children suffering from the various forms of tuberculosis.
The earliest returns were made in 1913 and the chart shows in graphic form the remarkable change that has been
brought about in the incidence of tuberculosis in elementary school children in Hornsey in the last 26 years.
In the early years of this period ascertainment of new cases became more complete, and this, no doubt, accounted
for the apparent increase in incidence to 91 cases in 1922.
But the most striking feature of the picture is the virtual disappearance of diagnosed tuberculosis in school children
in the three years 1923 to 1925 inclusive. How was this spectacular result achieved? Without doubt, a chief factor
was the pasteurisation of milk, which was undertaken on a general scale by the large milk distributors in 1918. Children
born in 1918 became school entrants in 1923. Diagnosed tuberculosis in school children effects chiefly the bones, joints
and glands, and is bovine tuberculosis transmitted to infants and children by the drinking of infected milk. This form
of tuberculosis was one of the commonest causes of crippling in school children.