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Report of the Medical Officer (Education).
123
The physique of the children has been made the subject of considerable research, the results
of which are presented in the form of charts. The various groups shown on the charts correspond
very closely with the three classes distinguished by the British Association. The correspondence of
the result with the predominant occupation of the parents [in each area is with a few exceptions
remarkably close. The lower averages are found in the riverside districts, North Kensington, and in
a central area extending from the Strand district to Bow and Bromley. The most unexpected figure
is the weight recorded for Fulham, and here the majority of the children are tidy and come from
apparently comfortable homes of the artisan and commercial class. The numbers at present available
are, perhaps, too small and liable to chance error from exceptional children; whilst from the map,
physique appears mainly correlated with social conditions, racial factors cannot be entirely excluded.
In addition to the wider racial variations to be observed in large groups of children, there are individual
differences which render comparison from one area to another somewhat uncertain during the years
of rapid growth.
During the winter of 1909-10 attention was called to the children at a school in Bethnal-green
who showed obvious signs of abnormally poor nutrition. The school doctor reported that it was not
hospital treatment but feeding that was necessary and 166 children were noted by him as requiring
special feeding. All these children received a cupful of warm milk and a teaspoonful of cod liver oil
during the morning interval, and at the end of the year it was found that a very marked physical
improvement had occurred, only nine children remaining in statu quo ante.
The Council's scheme for the provision of medical treatment in those cases where the parents
are unable to provide suitable medical treatment themselves, has been steadily developed during the
year, and while experience has been continuously accumulated, the application of the scheme has
been extended to districts previously untouched. In October, a comprehensive report was prepared
on the general question of dental treatment of children attending public elementary schools. In
this report it was stated that it was undesirable to attempt an immediate and complete settlement
of the problem, and the Council accordingly adopted the policy suggested in the report, viz., to enter
into an agreement with the authorities of two institutions to provide treatment for 6,000 children
for a period of one year, as from January, 1911, with a view to accumulating experience as to how
best to deal with the matter. In connection with these two schemes, lectures on dental hygiene were
given at five schools in the vicinity of each treatment centre by one of the assistant medical officers
(education), and general information on the care of the teeth was disseminated among teachers, parents,
and pupils by means of pamphlets, etc. A free dental clinic was also in January, 1910, opened as
part of his dispensary work by Dr. Kirby of St. George's Dispensary, and 400 children of the "Blackfriars
"school were treated during the year. At the Barrett-street school, which is situated in the
centre of the hospital area, the attempt was made to get children requiring dental treatment to go
to hospital. Ignorance is the chief cause of the neglect of dental hygiene, and the removal of this
ignorance precedes any successful work in the school. So little have the public realised the value
of dental treatment, that its development must of necessity be slow.
Medical inspection is now carried out in all the Council s secondary schools, training colleges
trade and technical schools. Each student is examined once a year, and each institution visited
once in six weeks, so that the doctor can be consulted about pupils presenting any symptoms likely
to affect their health or work. Every student has a medical record card showing, at a glance, the
condition, so that they are continuously under observation, and if through illness or other cause
students become unfit they are not permitted to continue at the institution. In the secondary schools
special attention is given to curvature of the spine. Curvatures occurring during the years of most
active growth are undoubtedly common in school children and generally of little importance, but
some are serious, and all have, therefore, to be regarded from this possibility.
Towards the end of 1909 the first steps were taken towards exercising the powers conferred
upon the Council by the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1907, in the matter of cleansing
verminous children. Small experimental cleansing stations were established at the Pulteney,
Chaucer, and Finch-street schools in October, 1909, the station at the Pulteney school being transferred
to Bath-street school in September, 1910. The Bath-street station has already effected a
considerable improvement in the children attending the schools in the neighbourhood, and one of the
encouraging signs is the fact that on a second examination the same children are not always found
to be verminous. There are a few who are always infected, but the greater number of children found
verminous are new cases. The head teachers remark on the increasing cleanliness of the children.
The working of the scheme has, however, been hindered to a considerable extent by the necessity
for serving the statutory notice under the Children Act upon the fathers of the children, who are
frequently not at home except at midnight.
Among the various ailments and diseases dealt with in detail in the report may be mentioned
adenoids, suppurating ears, and ringworm.
Great difficulties are still experienced in the provision of proper educational treatment of
epileptics, neither is there at present any special accommodation for children who are both mentally
and physically defective. Those who are unable to walk to a mentally defective school have to be
excluded altogether, though the number of such cases is small.
One of the most important innovations of the year was the hard-of-hearing class at Ackmarroad
school, which was started on 12th September, 1910, with six cases, others being added, so that at
the end of 1910 the class numbered 17. Of these 17 cases, 7 were boys and 10 were girls. The
primary cause of the defect in these cases was adenoids in 12 cases (4 catarrhal, 6 suppurative, 2
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