View report page

62
who had worked first at a restaurant and then at a cinema, who was anaemic, flatfooted, and with
defective vision (his vision had been perfect on leaving school); and a lad who had worked at a charcoal
works, and had in consequence developed bronchial catarrh.
The school doctors report that there were no difficulties met with during the inspections; that
the refusals of examination were negligible in number, and that both instructors and pupils welcomed
the visits.
One of the features of the inspections was the health talk delivered by the visiting doctor at
each inspection. These health talks proved to be of considerable value, and the appended essay in the
form of a letter selected from a number equally interesting gives an admirable side.light from the point
of view of the examinees.
"Dear ( ),
On Monday morning last a medical examiner, named Dr. R., gave us a surprise
visit at the centre for the purpose of lecturing us on the preservation of health and to examine
every boy.
His lecture was very interesting, and he warned us to keep our teeth, bodies and minds
in a state of perfect cleanliness. He also gave an emphatic warning against mixing with
unknown girls and women in the streets and the perils of that disease that contaminates the
whole system, a timely warning, I am sure, for many of us.
His examination of the boys was carried out in an ideal and systematic way. Each
examination lasted about seven minutes, and not one of these wasted. He first examined
the teeth, then the heart, the lungs, and the kidneys, followed by a swift look at the legs
for traces of rickets, or varicose veins. That finished us with the doctor. We then went to
the nurse who assisted Dr. R., to have our eyes tested, and to be weighed and measured.
This concluded the examination, and I am sure that every boy was gratified to know in what
state his health was.
Examinations such as these are highly beneficial to all concerned. It gives the superintendent
of the school an insight of the health of the boys he has to teach; it gives the examiner
the satisfaction that he has aided the boys informing them of the drawbacks to the health of
their bodies, and the person examined is grateful for the fact that he knows if there is anything
wrong with him or not.
I must now come to an end, hoping I have interested you as much as the doctor interested
me.
I remain, my dear ( ),
Sincerely yours,
Very full and interesting notes of the examinations in question were furnished by Dr. E. J.
Boome and Dr. J. H. Lloyd. Dr. Boome estimated the blood pressure in each case. In healthy persons
the systolic pressure increases from childhood to old age, and in persons from 15 to 21 years the pressure
should equal from 100 to 120 millimetres of mercury. Out of 100 consecutive cases, Dr. Boome found
77 juveniles whose blood pressure fell within the normal limits, 15 whose blood pressure was lower than
100, and 8 whose blood pressure was above 120. He noted that several boys who had been longest
employed, and in particular some whose employment dated back into their elementary school life,
had a blood pressure below the normal.
Dr. Boome discovered many cases of deformity which appeared to have been connected with
employment, and he points out that many lads with the adolescent bodies of 15 years had been doing
the work of grown men. In particular there was one case in which a lad of 16 was found to be suffering
from myositis ossificans of both forearms, which had been coming on for three months, and which was
ascribed by the boy to lifting heavy weights.
The care of the teeth was lamentable. Pyorrhoea with recession of the gums was found in between
3 and 4 per cent, of the cases.
Dr. Lloyd also found a very high degree of dental defect, and makes the same observations as
Dr. Boome on the number of cases amongst these working lads in which the gums are already secondarily
affected.
Dr. Lloyd found the older the boys, the greater the number who presented this septic condition
of the gums ; and he points out that the boys leave school before they arrive at an age when they realise
the importance of cleanliness of the teeth and the penalties for withholding it.
In some cases the gum,s were inflamed and diseased although the teeth were not carious but only
dirty. Both Dr. Lloyd and Dr. Boome found it necessary to devote a large amount of the time given
to " health talks," to the importance of care of the teeth.
Dr. Lloyd found an amount of flatfoot rising from 9.2 per cent. at 15 to 16.8 per cent. at 17; he
ascribes this condition and its increase in the first place to increase in body weight without corresponding
growth in muscular strength, and in the second place to longer hours of standing.
Five lads with inguinal hernia were found by him, only one of whom was wearing a truss.
Dr. Lloyd had no doubt that the increase in the percentage of defects from the age of 14 to that
of 17 was connected with the work which had been performed by the lads.
He states that these adolescent youths were much more curious and interested in their physical
condition than the older boys in the elementary schools, and were much more alive to the necessity of
seeking to achieve and preserve physical fitness. He anticipates important results in this direction
from the medical inspections in continuation schools, and especially from the health talks which it is
hoped will be arranged to be given by the school doctors thereat.