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more frequent., affecting 4.5 per cent, of the children examined ; this figure is practically entirely made
up of defects of articulation other than stammering.
Heart
disease.
Heart detect was found in 3.5 per cent. of the boys and 3.4 per cent, of the girls at the earlier
age, and 34 per cent, of the boys and 4.4 per cent, of the girls at the later age. This represents a
fractional increase on the previous year. The excess of about 1 per cent, in the case of older girls recurs
each year, and may correspond with some difference in the mode of life of boys and girls between the
ages of 8 and 12, but on the other hand, it is possibly connected with the greater strain upon girls of
the active growing period which occurs in them towards the end of this period, but occurs later amongst
boys.
Anaemia.
Aneenua is commoner in girls than m boys at both age periods, tne percentage being at tne intermediate
age, 3.6 in boys, and 4.3 in girls, and at the later age, 2.7 in boys, and 3.6 in girls. These
percentages are uniformly higher than in the previous year, and will be watched in the immediate future
with some anxiety.
Lung complaints,
phthisis and
other
diseases.
lhere was a rise in the incidence of lung complaints, other than phthisis, among the younger
children—viz., 4.4 per cent, in boys, and 4.1 per cent, in girls, as compared with 3.2 per cent, and 3
per cent, in the previous year. In the older children, these troubles were less frequent and practically
stationary, as compared with last year.
Phthisis was detected at the routine inspections in only 0.2 per cent, of the children examined,
and its incidence was uniform at both ages and in both sexes.
Other tuberculous conditions were also uniformly distributed, and, like phthisis, affected .2 per
cent, of those examined. It should be pointed out, however, that 18.4 per cent, of all children absent
from school for long periods on account of health suffer from tuberculosis, and of the 39,375 children
outside the age groups specially examined, 1.9 per cent, were found to be suffering from phthisis or
other tuberculous disease.
Nervous
diseases.
Amongst the younger children, 1.2 per cent, of the boys and 1.3 per cent, of the girls were affected
with nervous diseases, and amongst the older, 0.9 per cent, of the boys and 1.5 of the girls. These figures
correspond very closely to those of former years, and lend no credence to the fears from time to time
expressed that the children generally have been adversely affected by the military operations of the
enemy.
Deformities.
Deformities, chiefly those of the spine, are found amongst the older girls to a greater degree than
among the boys of corresponding age, and than among the younger girls. It might have been anticipated
that owing to the greater need for the girls' help in household tasks, there would be some increase, but
as a matter of fact, slightly less deformity was found even among the older girls than in the previous
vear—viz., 3 per cent, in place of 3.5 per cent.
Special and
urgent
inspections.
These include ailing children, not in the age groups, presented to the doctor at his routine visits
to the schools, children suspected to be mentally defective, children sent to special centres for
examination owing to the appearance of urgent symptoms, or because the doctor's next visit to the
school is too remote, children examined on account of suspected infectious disease, or to ascertain
their freedom from infection after exclusion, children examined in connection with school journeys
and playground classes, and children out of school on alleged medical grounds on whom the school
attendance officers wish to obtain an opinion.
The number of children thus specially inspected was 39,475, comprising 18,134 boys and 21,341
girls ; 11,928 (30 per cent.) of these were referred for treatment. The ailments most frequently found
were skin complaints, throat conditions, external eye disease, defects of vision, and disease of the ear.
In addition to children included in these inspections are the cases seen by the Council's ophthalmologist
and otologist. Increasing use is being made of the arrangements whereby exceptionally difficult cases
of eye and ear defect are referred by the school doctors to these specialists at the central office, and many
of the children thus seen are found to require special education. An account of this work is to be found
in the section of this report dealing with Special Schools.
Special
examinations
of
children
referred for
nursing;
treatment.
Under the arrangement referred to in the previous Annual .Report, the school doctors have
attended at the Old Ford, Finsbury, Marylebone, St. George's Mission, and Greenwich Treatment Centres,'
for a short time after school hours on certain fixed days, for the purpose of inspecting children referred ,
by care committee workers, teachers, school nurses, and attendance officers, with a view to securing
that suitable steps should be taken in each case, and that those urgent cases found to be suitable for .
treatment under the Council's scheme should be referred immediately to the proper department.
During the year, the number of children seen in this way, and the conditions found as a result of these
examinations, were as follows :—
Total number seen—2,532. Conditions of the Skin (1,465)—including impetigo, eczema, septic
wounds and abscesses, cuts, scabies, ringworm, (body and scalp), psoriasis, urticaria, chilblains, boils,
burns, herpes. Conditions of the eye (403)—Conjunctivitis, phlyctenules, blepharitis, corneal ulceration,
hordeolum, iritis, squint, tumour, dacryocystitis, foreign body, ptosis. Conditions of the ear,
nose, and throat (315)—Otorrhea, enlarged glands, tonsils and adenoids rhinitis, tonsilitis.
Conditions of the teeth (38). Unclassified (206)—including mumps, chorea, sprain, anaemia,
tuberculosis.
These urgent inspections have been much appreciated by the teachers of the schools in the neighbourhood
of the centres, and have been frequently the means of detecting contagious conditions requiring
the exclusion of the children from school. Arrangements have now been made to hold these inspections
at five additional centres—viz., Fulham, Shoreditch, Poplar, St. George's Dispensary, and Camberwell.
The regular visits by the school doctors to these centres entail additional cost in lighting and heating,
and the present allowance made by the Council does not cover the cost of the necessary drugs, dressings,
38257 D 2