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Re-port of the County Medical Officer—Education.
207
The length of line should never exceed four inches. The Continental rules lay down 100
millimetres as the maximum.
The surface of the paper should also receive consideration. Whilst the paper should be as smooth
as possible, glaze should be avoided. The ink used should be as black as the price of printers' ink, which
varies greatly with quality, will allow. The extra cost is well repaid by increased legibility.
Book illustration is rather a matter for the psychologist, but clear outline is generally to be preferred
to process half-tone Work, and simple illustration to complicated pictures. Flat colour wash is
preferable to detailed tints.
The minutiae of maps should not be too detailed, and the printing of names on a lined surface
of the same colour should be especially avoided.
The learner forms a word memory which is composed of letters in a certain spatial relation, and
it will facilitate legibility in reading script if the same relative proportions, and so to some degree, the
same relative word forms are preserved in writing. For the small letters the written characters therefore
should approximate in shape to the circle or the square, and the approach, or distance between two
letters should, as in print, not exceed one-fifth of the width of the letter. This would eliminate the
handwriting exercises seen occasionally where a neat, but nearly illegible, script consists of very narrowed
letters separated by spaces of about five or six times their width crossed by oblique joining hair lines.
Attention, moreover, should be given to some of the existing copy books which undoubtedly
cause some eye strain by reason of the superfluous guiding lines contained in them. The multiplication
of lines in exercise books is also quite unnecessary, simple direction lines being all that are required.
Industrial schools.
Residential
institutions
During the year there were 7 residential industrial schools and 6 (2 blind, 3 deaf and 1 mentally
defective) residential special schools with an accommodation of 965. An additional residential industrial
school for 57 girls has since been opened and the total accommodation now is 1,022. The inmates
of each institution are under the supervision of a local practitioner.
Mayford
Industrial
School
In connection with the periodical medical inspection of the children at the Mayford Industrial
School, it was noted that a certain number of the younger children continued for considerable periods
in a sub-normal condition of health and nutrition, and that their progress in these respects though definite
was very slow. The children were ot poor stock and often a long period was required for them to recover
from the influence of previous privations. Such general features as the temperature of the dormitories
in winter, the nature of the beds and washing arrangements, however well suited for hardy elder boys,
may press a little heavily on the younger who are less able to fend for themselves. The latter are backward
mentally as well as physically and cannot be expected to make the same progress in their lessons,
or even to work continuously for so long a period, as those more happily circumstanced and of better
initial stock. The usual note with regard to the physical condition is that the child is undersized and
delicate, with perhaps a poor circulation but no definite organic mischief of any kind.
Every care and attention that the numbers permit is given by the matron and her staff to these
younger children, but it is possible that if such sub-normal children were boarded-out at a home where
they would obtain the benefits of family life and a greater share of individual attention, their progress
both physical and mental would be much greater. A certain number of the more delicate and retarded
children have now been boarded out and the reports received on their progress have been satisfactory.
There is some evidence that the accumulation of younger children in any industrial school gives
rise to difficulties in administration, especially as regards the carrying out of necessary fatigue duties
and manual labour. The younger boys cannot do as much work as the elder ones, and where the former
predominate further assistance is needed to avoid the danger of overstrain.
The attention of the superintendents has been called to the necessity of graduating the work
according to the strength of the children, but it is obvious that the presence of numbers of young, weakly
or small children must impair the value of some occupations such as farming work.
The beds Were of stretched canvas and as this had somewhat shrunk, more especially in the transverse
direction; they were practically hammocks and some of the children were found to sleep in an
uncomfortable position and to feel cold in severe weather from the absence of a mattress. The bedsteads
have been changed and mattresses provided and each boy supplied with a flannel nightgown for
use in the winter months. Since this change occurred the cases of nocturnal enuresis which formerly
had proved troublesome have been very materially reduced in number. The lavatory accommodation
has been remodelled with the result that the children remain partially stripped for a shorter period than
heretofore
Dietary—
Residential
Industrial
Schools and
Places of
Detention
Prior to the transfer of the medical supervision of the residential institutions to the public health
department there was no uniform dietary, and in view of suggestions made from time to time by some
of the managing committees it was considered desirable to frame one that would answer the needs of
all the industrial schools and places of detention. In this connection the results of the special enquiry
in regard to the cases of appendicitis at the Mayford Industrial School were taken into consideration
and it was thought advisable to modify the existing dietaries, especially in the direction of reducing
bulk while not interfering with the total nutritive value. An attempt was also made to avoid the
unappetising effects of monotony. No one dietary would meet the needs of children of all ages up to
sixteen, so two scales have been formulated, one for institutions containing children up to the age of 8,