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Girls require more opportunities for play than they get and boys should share necessary domestic
tasks with the girls.
9,109 children or 4.2 per cent, were tound to be suffering from lung complaints the greatest
proportion by far was among the entrant infants, where the percentage is 6.6 per cent, as compared
with 2.3 per cent, in the older children. The complaints in infants are almost entirely instances of
simple bronchitis associated with rickets and other conditions of malnutrition of infancy. Fortunately
these complaints rapidlylessen during school life and only a very small proportion lead later to
Lung complaints.
culosis or other serious mischief. In fact, phthisis remains among the rarest of diseases, as only one
child out of every thousand examined is found suffering from this disease, and an identical proportion
from "other tuberculous complaints." Many additional children are, however, referred under the
arrangement with the tuberculosis dispensaries for further examination, for under the conditions obtaining
in school it is often impossible to make a definite diagnosis.
Phthisis and
tuberculosis.
Although a larger number ot children have no doubt a neuropathic tendency, definite nervous
disease is found only in 1 per cent., and speech defects (chiefly stammering) in an additional 0.5 per
cent. While stammering is found more frequently in boys, other nervous conditions are found more
frequently in girls. 242 children in the age groups and 423 at special inspections were found to be
epileptic, while 218 in the age groups and 548 at special inspections were found suffering from chorea.
Nervous
diseases and
speech
defects.
Rickets was noted in 4,733 children or 2.1 per cent. This represents an increase over 1920
when the percentage was 1.3 per cent. The chief incidence is upon entrant boys. 2,994 children,
or 1.4 per cent., were found to suffer from deformities due to other causes than rickets, a lower percentage
than in the previous year. While rickety deformities are found chiefly in entrant boys these other
deformities press most hardly upon older girls, of whom 2"9 per cent, are found to suffer from deformities
—chiefly the slighter degrees of lateral curvature of the spine.
Deformities.
There are thus three conditions found pressing most hardly upon older girls, detective vision,
heart disease and anaemia and spinal curvature, and they are all to be traced to the same set of causes,
viz. :—less opportunity for play than boys, less time spent in the open air, the performance of household
drudgery, and, in regard to school, a different curriculum.
3,250 children (1.5 per cent.) were found with skin diseases, a diminution in the numbers for
recent years. 6,415 suffered from external eye disease, or 3 per cent, compared with 3 per cent in the
previous year. These diseases are largely due to dirt and unhygienic home conditions.
Skin diseases
and external
eye disease.
A far greater number of children are found outside the age groups at special inspections suffering
from skin disease. The plague of scabies showed signs of abating in the latter part of the year, but
while 327 cases were met with at the routine inspections, no fewer than 3,259 children suffering from
scabies were brought forward by the teachers as special cases to see the doctor. This is a larger number
than in the previous year.
summing up the results of medical inspection it is found that in the three most prevalent classes
of ailments for which it has been necessary to provide treatment on a large and organised scale, namely
dental defect, defective vision and diseases of the throat and ear, a steady betterment has been produced
and large numbers are now saved from the crippling consequences of these conditions, who formerly would
have found no alleviation or relief. The nutritional state of the children has also improved, but during
1921 there were difficulties owing to economic conditions. Relief measures promptly applied have
prevented any serious suffering, so that even fewer children were reported as undernourished than in
the previous year. While, in general, the ailments from which children suffer are shared equally by
boys and girls, there is constantly a particular set of ailments which press most hardly upon older girls
due largely to the less hygienic mode of life followed in general by the girls as compared with the boys.
Summary of
results.
2,255 children in special schools were inspected at the same ages and in the same way as the
children in elementary schools. In general it was found that these children suffer to a greater degree
than others from every kind of bodily ailment, and this is specially marked in regard to ear disease and
deafness.
Routine
inspection of
children in
special
schools.
Day Continuation schools were established in London at the commencement of 1921. Subsequently
it was decided that for the present, young persons leaving elementary schools at the age of 14
should attend compulsorily at continuation schools only for one year. In the last annual report particulars
were given of the results of inspection of the first batch of these children. During 1921 the
medical examination of all entrants to these schools has been continued; 38,822 boys and 38,397 girls
have thus been examined on approaching the age of 14. Of these 13,678 boys (35.2 per cent.) and
14,367 girls (37.4 per cent.) were noted with ailments for which some form of medical treatment was
desirable.
Continuation
schools.
The general inspection of this age group enables an estimate to be made of the effect of remedial
measures carried on during the last two years of elementary school life. Attention to treatment of
dental caries produces further improvement in these years and 63.8 per cent, of boys were found with
sound teeth in comparison with 60.3 per cent, at the age of 12, while in the case of girls 64'4 per cent,
had sound teeth in comparison with 63.5 per cent, of their twelve-year old sisters.
The general nutritional condition of the fourteen year old boys and girls was also superior to that
of the twelve-year old group, 4.7 per cent, of boys and 3.8 per cent, of girls being found undernourished
as compared with 61 per cent, and 5.8 per cent, at 12 years.
In regard to personal hygiene the older children too showed a superiority. 77'7 per cent, of
the fourteen year old girls were perfectly satisfactory in regard to the condition of the hair (freedom
from nits or vermin) in comparison with 73.2 per cent, at the age of 12.
Acuity of vision also improves in the last two years, for 60.4 per cent, of the boys attain to normal
acuity in comparison with 56'9 per cent at the age of 12, while in the case of girls 56.2 per cent, have
normal vision in comparison with 52.0 per cent, at 12 years. The superiority of the boys over the girls
is still apparent.
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