London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1919
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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| Boys. | Girls. | Total. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other physical defectives, e.g., delicate and other children suitable for admission to open.air schools. | |||
| Attending public elementary schools (c) | 7,740 | 8,143 | 15,883 |
| Attending ordinary certified day schools for physically defective children | 89 | 74 | 163 |
| Attending open.air schools | 104 | 104 | 208 |
| Attending playground classes | 1,210 | 1,970 | 3,180 |
| Attending certified holiday camp school (Bushey) | 300 | 61 | 364 |
| Not at school (a) | 127 | 243 | 370 |
| Retarded two years | 11,423 | 10,979 | 22,402 |
| Retarded three years | 668 | 630 | 1,298 |
(а) The number "not at school" includes children permanently disabled, certified as unfit to attend school
for various periods, in the country, etc. Many are in attendance at other institutions, such as hospitals, or under the
care of the Metropolitan Asylums Board.
(b) Imbeciles and idiots. These include certain children who have been transferred to institutions outside
the county, and also some under school age.
(c) P.D.—Attending elementary schools. The figures of the physically defectives in the ordinary schools are
made up from the returns of three years routine inspection and may include certain cases which also come under
other categories. The greater number of these cases would not be in any way certifiable as defective in the terms
of the Elementary Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act, 1899, the crippling not being of such an extent
as to interfere with ordinary education. At the last scheduling of the number of children who had been certified as
suitable for admission to P.D. schools only 34 were in attendance at ordinary schools.
TABLE IV.
Treatment of Defects of Children during 1919.
| Condition. | Number of defects found for which treatment was considered necessary | Number of defects for which no report is yet available. | Number of defects treated. | Result of treatment. | Improved without institutional treatment. | Number of defects not treated and still needing treatment | Percentage of defects under treatment or discharged as cured in cases reported upon. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From previous year, i.e., all cases referred for treatment in 1918, less cases noted as discharged. | New. | Total. | Remedied and discharged. | Not fully remedied. | |||||||
| Vision | 19,741 | less 2,070 | 20,800 | 38,471 | 11,151 | 12,042 | 7,794 | 4,248 | 4,614 | 10,664 | 60.9 |
| External eye disease | 5,915 | „ 1,215 | 5,194 | ||||||||
| Ear disease | 3,950 | 4,604 | 36,780 | 24,317 | 5,712 | 4,414 | 1,298 | 4,529 | 2,222 | 82.2 | |
| Skin disease | 6,820 | 11,512 | |||||||||
| Tonsils or adenoids | 14,639 | „ 1,178 | 14,329 | 30,516 | 7,410 | 6,542 | 5,876 | 666 | 6,672 | 9,892 | 57.2 |
| Defective hearing | 1,312 | 1,414 | |||||||||
| Teeth | 60,722 | „ 5,387 | 53,974 | 109,309 | 37,443 | 28,838 | 26,370 | 2,468 | 8,365 | 34,663 | 51.8 |
| Nutrition | 1,242 | „ 1,286 | 1,193 | 41,321 | 19,618 | 5,979 | 3,538 | 2,441 | 12,017 | 3,707 | 81.5 |
| Heart and circulation | 4,231 | 4,611 | |||||||||
| Lungs | 3,323 | 3,740 | |||||||||
| Nervous disease | 940 | 1,270 | |||||||||
| Rickets | 371 | 404 | |||||||||
| Deformities | 1,212 | 1,491 | |||||||||
| Tuberculosis | 795 | 1,274 | |||||||||
| Speech defects | 105 | 185 | |||||||||
| Mental defects | |||||||||||
| Miscellaneous | 7,074, | 9,146 | |||||||||
Under the scheme for re.inspection, children fouud in any term to require treatment are re.inspected two
terms later, and if not then remedied they are re.inspected a sscond time two terms later still. Only cases seen in
the first term of the year come up for re inspection in the same calendar year.
TABLE V.
Summary relating to Children medically inspected at the Routine Inspections during the Year 1919.
| (1) Total number of children medically inspected† | 265,230 |
| (2) Total number of cases J requiring to be kept under observation suffering from defects other than defects of clothing or uncleanliness | 38,703 |
| (3) Total number of children referred for treatment for defects other than uncleanliness and defective clothing | 110,338 |
| (4) The number of children (in 3) discharged at re.inspection as cured | 9,1761 |
* This figure refers only to discharged cases of those noted for treatment in the first term of the year. The
re.inspection of the second and third term cases takes place in 1920.
† Nut including children in Secondary or P.D. schools.
†The 34,856 cases seen at re.inspection represent 20,281 children for observation only. The total figure of
38,703 would represent some 22,500 children.