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the County and Borough Councils in London will be devised,
and that the various Metropolitan Health Authorities will
have some voice and some responsibility in carrying out in
practice the powers given by the legislature under Section 13
of the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907.
The medical inspection of school children will undoubtedly
have far-reaching results, and the Board of Education has
already issued a Memorandum, dealing with the subject in
Counties, in County Boroughs, in non-County Boroughs, and
in Urban Districts — London, unfortunately, not being
specially dealt with, so that it is presumable (as stated
before) that the Act is to be administered by the London
County Council. The intention of the Board of Education,
as shown in their Memorandum, is that the inspection of
school children shall be part of existing public health
machinery, i.e., the administrative Public Health Departments
of Sanitary Authorities, and these, in London, are the
Borough Councils, and should be utilised as far as practicable,
by the London County Council, which is not a Sanitary
Authority, but simply the Education Authority under
the Education Acts.
The value of the systematic medical inspection of school
children cannot be over-estimated from the point of view of
public health, as, by such means, diseases or constitutional
defects, in their early stages, will be detected, and can be, at
such early stages, the better treated or dealt with. The
result, in years to come, will undoubtedly be the improvement
of the race, physically and mentally. That such systematic
medical examination of children is needed, is shown by
a recent report dealing with the examination of infants
attending schools throughout London. Taking the Lambeth
schools (14 in all), varying from North Lambeth and Vauxhall,
through Kennington to Brixton and Norwood, it was
found that, of a total of 5,340 infants in attendance, 14.9 per
cent. (nearly one in every seven) were selected as requiring
detailed medical inspection. The medical defects found had
reference to physique," tonsils and adenoids, vision, enlarged
cervical glands, hearing, speech defects, mental defects and
discharges from the ears—the first four mentioned being
most often met with. As a matter of interest it may be
mentioned that Walnut Tree Walk School showed the least
number of defective infants (9.3 per cent.) and Lollard Street