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No apportionment of medical staff has been made on account of such inspections, but the Education
Committee directed that such medical examinations should be carried out so far as is possible
with the staff available. Fifty-five applications were received during the year, and were acceded to so
far as possible. Detailed reports were received from the school doctors in the case of 22 of
the excursions.
It was noted in several of the reports that in many cases chronic minor ailments completely disappeared
despite the fact that the excursions only lasted seven or fourteen days, and the observation was
made that a short stay at the seaside was more valuable from the health point of view than a corresponding
time spent in the country.
Remedial exercises.
A certain number of special remedial exercise classes held in ordinary elementary schools have
been in operation since 1913. Medical reports have been furnished on 14. This type of class is
arranged to take from 20 to 24 children selected on account of defective physique likely to be remedied
by regular exercises. The cases which do best include children with round backs, flat chests, winged
scapulae and various postural curvatures of the spine. At Camden-street, Dr. Norman noted that more
than half of the girls (63 per cent.) had marked flat footedness, that they were long-footed and longlimbed,
and that the chief cause of all these defects is muscular debility and slackness. At least twothirds
of the children have shown much improvement, whilst the remainder cannot be fully
assessed until they have been longer in attendance. One to two years' attendance is necessary for full
benefit. The wearing of unsuitable clothing has frequently been noted as a hindrance to success among
the girls. Milk is frequently given after the exercises and is to be recommended in the case of some
of the debilitated children admitted to the classes. An experimental class, observed by the head master
at Winchester-street, with twenty minutes daily drill showed a considerable gain in physical measurements
over a control class. All the reports agree that the classes are doing extremely useful work and
that they should be continued.
Personal hygiene.
The duties of the school nurses, with regard to cleansing were steadily pursued throughout the
year, although the absence on war duty of a large number of the more experienced nurses has naturally
affected the work to some extent. The duties consist of a general inspection of the children, and the
application of the Council schemes for dealing with those who are found to be (i.) verminous in head
only; (ii.) verminous in body and clothing; (iii.) suffering from scabies.
Rota visits—
Goneral
inspection.
The nurses visit the schools according to a rota so arranged as to ensure that every department
is systematically examined. A complete record of the number of examinations and the conditions
found was made, and the following figures show the amount of work done:—
Number of examinations, 2,444,885; number found clean, 1,755,457; number found
verminous, 689,428; percentage found verminous, 20'8.
The number found verminous includes all degrees of unsatisfactory conditions from the case of a
few nits on the hair to cases of head, body, and clothing infested with pediculi. In all schools one of the
two cleansing schemes (a) verminous heads only, (b) verminous persons and clothing, is applied ; the slight
cases, forming the great majority, are cleansed as a result of the rota inspections. Figures are given
later showing the numbers of instances in which it was necessary to take further action under each of
the two schemes.

The parents of 81 children were prosecuted and fines varying from 2s. to £1 with costs, were
imposed. The percentage, in the schools where the head scheme has been applied, of children verminous
amongst children examined, was 10.0 in 1915 as compared with 10.6 in 1914.
There are twenty-four stations for the cleansing of verminous children. The total number of Verminous
examinations made by the nurses under the cleansing scheme proper was 1,006,546, and 2.8,063 children persons and
were found to be verminous to such an extent as to call for action under the scheme; of these 14,677 clothing.
were cleansed by the parents ; the remainder, 13,386 children, were dealt with at the cleansing stations;