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80
Although the Report proper dealt with children under five years of age
and consisted of 44 pages, only two of these wore devoted to "the question
of infection." It was stated "that there do not appear to exist at present
any figures which show for the country generally the liability of children
unprotected by previous attack to succumb to the attacks of different diseases
at different ages, or the fatality rates among children so attacked." This is
true of the "country generally," but there were available the figures of
Dr. Theodore Thompson, C.M.G; of Dr. Arthur Newsholm, Medical Officer
of Health, Brighton, now Medical Officer, Local Goverrment Hoard; of
Dr. William Butler, Medical Officer of Health, Willesden, and of others,
which distinctly revealed a prima faric case for inquiry in regard to measles,
one of the two diseases (measles and whooping cough) of which the Report
admitted that school attendance may tend to increase the spread amongst infants.
It was assumed that even if it can be shown that children between three
and five have caught infectious diseases at school, "this evil is more than
compensated for by the great saving of infant life which can hardly fail to
result from the prompt isolation and improved treatment of every child under
five whose early symptoms of disease are detected at school." But measles is
a disease which is not admitted to hospital isolation, and the detection and
exclusion of children showing symptoms of the disease presupposes that they
already have the disease, and that it will have already spread a certain
amount of infection, so that the exclusion from the youngest and most
susceptible class is nearly always too late. As to the saving of infant life,
statistics show distinctly that measles is more fatal in the youngest class. It
cannot possibly be suggested that, in order to obtain improved treatment for
measles, it is desirable that children under five years of age should attend
school so that they may acquire the disease under conditions which may cause
it to be brought to the notice of the teacher, nurse, or doctor, when we know
that this is the most fatal age period by reason of increased susceptibility and
vulnerability, apart from treatment.
There is the further assumption that "there is another means by which the
risk of infection can be lessened amongst young infants, namely, by not
insisting in their case upon their attending school as regularly as older infants.''
This assumption is not borne out by the experience of London, inasmuch as
it has already been shown that the mortality from measles has not risen with
the increased percentage of average attendance of children a ed three to five,
but on the contrary, has fallen in direct ratio with the diminished percentage
of children on the roll compared with the number scheduled; and it may
reasonably be assumed that the mortality would fall still more if they were
all permanently excluded.
The Consultative Committee, at the end of' their Report, came to the
conclusion not to recommend "any change at present in the lower age limit,
either of voluntary or compulsory attendance, at school." The main reason
for this conclusion, although not explicitly stated, appears to be that no
proper or sufficient provision at present exists for reforming the mothering,
homing, and training of those children under five years of age who have
unsatisfactory parents and homes.— (Chap. 1 and 18 (1) ). They therefore
recommended that those unfortunate infants should attend school (Chap. 12);