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With regard to squint, Mr. Bishop Harman found a year or two ago that 2 per cent. of good
class elementary school children squinted, that squint was twice as common in girls as in boys and was
commoner amongst infants than older children.
Heart
defects and
anæmia.
The percentages of defects of the heart, functional and organic, recorded during the year are in
all respects similar to those of the previous year, but the percentage of children found with anæmia is
fractionally less. The heavier incidence of these conditions upon the older girls as compared with
boys, in again emphasised : boys, heart defects, 3.4 per cent; anæmia, 3 per cent. ; girls, heart defects,
4.6 per cent., anaemia 4 per cent. This difference, repeated year after year, calls for insistent warning
that the conditions under which the girls are brought up, lack something that is enjoyed by the boys. It
is the more striking when it is considered that difference in the incidence of heart defect between boys and
girls does not exist in the eight year old group, and is therefore developed during four years of school life.
There can be no doubt that the effect is due to the denial of opportunities to the girls which are
open to boys for participating in outdoor games and sports. " She grows as a flower does,—she will
" wither without sun; she will decay in her sheath, as a narcissus will, if you do not give her air
enough."
Lung
diseases.
There was a notable increase in the number of children found with lung complaints ; 5.2 per
cent. was recorded as against 4.0 per cent. in the previous year. The explanation no doubt is to be
sought in the widespread prevalences of influenza which occurred in the summer and autumn. By far
the heaviest incidence was upon entrant infants, nearly eight per cent. of all those examined being
found with some degree of lung trouble.
Tuberculosis
The percentage of children found suffering from phthisis and other forms of tuberculosis remains
low, 0.16 per cent. from phthisis, or less than two in a thousand, and rather more than two in a thousand
From other forms of tubercular disease. During 1917 the number of cases of phthisis found was 0.13
per cent., but the difference in the two years is not more than might be explained on accidental grounds,
rhe cases are equally distributed over all ages and in both rexes.
Nervous
diseases.
Diseases of the nervous system were recorded in 1.2 per cent., as compared with 1 per cent. in
1917, the girls showing more nervous defect than the boys. There is here little confirmation of the
nervous fears of some that the children have been subjected to greatly excessive strain owing to war
conditions. Dr. Chaikip, the acting di visional medical officer in the East End of London made throughout
the year a careful study of all school children nominated for special examination at inspection centres,
with the object of determining the proportion of children who were seriously affected by the effects of
hostile air raids. Out of a total of 1,707 special cases, only 66 were of a nervous character and of these
only 12 were attributable to air raids. In particular he notes the case of one child whose hair was turning
grey from nervous shock.
Stammering
children.
The number of children found to stammer amongst the eight year old group was 64 boys and
33 girls (.20 per cent. and .10 per cent. respectively), amongst the leavers there were 152 boys and 46
girls (.47 per cent. and .14 per cent. respectively). The number of boys in the earlier age group suffering
from other speech defects was 178 and girls 94 (.56 and .30 per cent.) and at the later age boys 109 and
girls 82 (.34 and .24 per cent.)
In previous reports attention was drawn to the classes for adults provided by the Council and
taught by teachers of the deaf by oral methods, to the instruction of the students in training colleges in
the theory and practice of speech and to the speech clinic conducted by the authorities of St. Thomas's
Hospital. These facilities were continued during the year and an experimental class in remedial exercises
for stammering children attending elementary schools has been conducted under the auspices of the
Westminster Health Society at Greek Street, Soho.
Rheumatism
Rheumatism is not separately taken out and recorded in statistical form, but Dr. Kerr, the
Council's Research Medical Officer, has analysed a special enquiry made some time ago by the school
doctors, with a view to the detection of rheumatic signs. Returns were obtained relating to 3,286
children. 336 were considered to be definitely subjects of rheumatic conditions, or ten per cent. The
incidence appeared to double in intensity during school life, increasing from 7 per cent. at age seven to
13 per cent. at age thirteen.
Rickets anc
other deformities.
Exactly twice as many infant boys as girls admitted to school presented signs ot rickety
deformities, the percentage being 3.1 in the case of boys and 1.6 in the case of girls. The number of
children in whom specific rickety defects are noted, rapidly declines during school life, but no doubt
many cases of stunted growth in after life are due to rickets, although the specific signs of that disease
may have quite disappeared. Deformities, other than rickety, on the other hand show an increase
during school life, especially affecting the girls between eight and twelve years. 2.8 per cent. of leaver
girls were recorded as presenting such deformities, as against 1.8 per cent. of boys. Attention is thus
again directed to the conditions mentioned above under the heading of heart defects and
anæmia.
Physical
condition of
mentally
defective
children.
Attention last year was drawn to the greater incidence of many of the more serious detects upon
the children in the schools for the mentally defective. This is again strikingly brought out in this
year's returns. Thus external diseases of the eyes are twice as common amongst the mentally defective
as amongst the normal children ; the percentage of mentally defective with good vision is less than half
that of normal children; disease of the ears is one and a half times as common in the mentally
defective and hardness of hearing four times as frequent.
The special incidence upon the children classed as mentally defective of defects of the sense organs
raises the question whether, if these defects could be prevented, fewer children would need to be relegated
to the special schools.