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continuance of it. Much educational energy is at present misspent;
and the nation should, moreover, appreciate the economical advantage
of insuring that all those who are being taught, at an enormous
expense to the country, are made and kept as fit as possible to receive
the maximum benefit from that education. The need for medical
inspection of school children has been abundantly testified by the work
undertaken in this connection in other countries. The results, of
course, vary in the schools inspected; from 10 per cent. of children
requiring medical help in better-class, to as many as 50 per cent. in
schools drawing their scholars from the slums of large cities. It is a.
national shame and reproach that we threaten to be one of the last
among civilised nations to undertake this obvious duty. It matters
not what excuses are advanced or what difficulties are imagined, they
may all be met by one unanswerable retort: that what is found to be
easily practicable in Germany, Japan, and elsewhere, is practicable in
our own country.
Briefly, the aims of a medical inspection of school children are:—
The early detection of communicable diseases (including Scarlet
Fever, Diphtheria, Measles, Whooping Cough, Mumps, Contagious
Ophthalmia, Tuberculosis, Parasitic Skin Diseases, &c.).
The prompt detection of defects in sight and hearing (the two
great channels of education) and the teeth; nervous conditions, overpressure,
mental deficiency; commencing bodily deformities. The
discovery of cases of malnutrition, debility and heart disease, &c.
The collection of certain necessary anthropometrical records.
The provision of free meals to the poorer school children must be
recognised as a deplorable necessity in many cases. It is not
right that children should be punished for the short-comings of
their parents; and it is of prime importance to the community
and the State that they should grow up into healthy and useful
citizens. In order that this shall be, they must be fed properly,
clothed suitably, and housed decently. Where children are the offspring
of thriftless and drunken parents, our efforts should be to prevent