London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1922
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
This page requires JavaScript
The later history of children, many of whom had been in special or other schools, shows that the types of schooling received were as follows:—
| Charge.* | Elementary schools (London). | Special schools (London). | Elementary schools (Country). | Private schools. | Not known. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wandering and begging | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Stealing | 8 | 11 | 1 | - | 1 |
| Soliciting and indecency | 15 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 3 |
| Neglect, desertion, etc | 2 | 6 | — | — | 2 |
| Total | 29 | 33 | 9 | 2 | 8 |
| Wandering and begging | 20 | 22 | 10 | — | 9 |
| Stealing | 28 | 55 | 12 | 2 | 5 |
| Drunk and disorderly, etc | 4 | 4 | 1 | — | 1 |
| Indecent exposure | 5 | 9 | 3 | — | 1 |
| Indecent assault | 6 | 8 | 4 | 2 | _ |
| Gross indecency, etc. | 4 | 5 | 2 | 2 | _ |
| Assault, etc | 6 | 6 | — | 1 | — |
| Total | 73 | 109 | 29 | 7 | 16 |
* In most cases the school attendance of these individuals was prior to general medical inspection established
under the Administrative Provisions Act.
As this represents the sum total of delinquent cases dealt with in London under
the Mental Deficiency Act up to the end of 1922, it is satisfactory to note the very
small proportion of Special School children who subsequently get into serious conflict
with the law and also to note that, in these cases, important influences appear
to be emotional instability rather than poor intellectual capacity and lack of power
to profit from special methods of education.
TABLE I. Number of Children inspected 1st January, 1922, to 31st December, 1922. (a) ROUTINE MEDICAL INSPECTION, 1922.
| Entrants. | Age 8. | Age 12. | Age 13. | Total elementary schools. | Total special schools. | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3. | 4. | 5. | 6. | 7. | Total. | |||||||||
| Boys | 4,094 | 8,685 | 14,651 | 4,671 | 982 | 33,083 | 33,514 | 34,647 | 20,138 | 121,382 | 1,032 | |||
| Girls | 3,442 | 7,921 | 14,692 | 4,523 | 924 | 31,502 | 33,151 | 33,915 | 20,193 | 118,761 | 970 | |||
| Total | 7,536 | 16,606 | 29,343 | 9,194 | 1,906 | 64,585 | 66,665 | 68,562 | 40,331 | 240,143 | 2,002 | |||
| (6) SPECIAL INSPECTIONS. (c) TOTAL NUMBER INSPECTED. | ||||||||||||||
| Special cases. | General cases.* | Total number of children examined. | ||||||||||||
| Boys | 17,119 | 16,380 | 155,899† | |||||||||||
| Girls | 17,947 | 16,025 | 153,695† | |||||||||||
| Total | 35,066 | 32,405 | 309,594 † | |||||||||||
* The general cases relate to examinations en masse where individual records are not kept unless some
defect is noted for treatment or observation
†Only 22 children were noted as having been seen previously in the same year.
164,046 children were re-inspected during the year (24,827 had been previously inspected during the same
year, and 19,442 had been previously re-inspected in the same year).