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examination in school as near their thirteenth birthday as possible. In addition,
1,395 children were seen in the age-groups in special schools.
Special exammatIon.
In addition to the routine age-group examination, special examinations are
provided for children referred by head teachers, care-committee workers, attendance
officers, etc., 19,760 boys and 19,571 girls were so examined. Amongst them were
reported 1,066 children suffering from mal-nutrition, 2,624 from skin diseases,
chiefly scabies, 1,164 with external eye disease, mainly blepharitis and conjunctivitis,
4,590 with defective vision, 654 with squint, 537 with defective hearing,
1,493 with discharging ears, 2,947 with tonsils and adenoids, 2,354 with anaemia,
611 with tuberculosis (definite or suspected), 1,099 with various forms of nerve
diseases, and 895 with deformities of different kinds. Acute and serious cases are,
of course, seen sometimes at these inspections.
Routine inspection in special school.
1,395 children of the eight and twelve-year-old groups were examined in the
special schools. These unfortunate waifs are always found to suffer to a greater inspections
degree from disease and defects than normal children, such conditions as otorrhœa
and external eye disease being specially common.
Ailing children,
The proportion of children found to be suffering from ailments for which treatment
was necessary continues to fall. 72,329 were marked for treatment during
the year, being 36.7 per cent, as compared with 37.9 per cent, in 1922, over 39 per
cent, in 1920 and 1921, over 42 per cent, in 1919, and 44 per cent, in 1918. Thus
a smaller percentage of children was found to require treatment than in any former
year, a matter for special satisfaction, as it shows that the school medical service
is acting no less as a preventive than as a curative agency.
Presence of parents.
Parents continue to show an increasing interest in the inspections of their
children, and no less than 133,240 actually attended the inspections. For entrants
the attendance of parents is over eighty per cent. The contact of school doctor and
parent is of the greatest importance as it leads to quicker appreciation of what is
required, and affords opportunities for special advice which cannot otherwise be
imparted. Even with the elder boys there was an improvement in this respect,
though one cannot avoid the reflection, in comparing the attendance of mothers
when infants and girls are being inspected with that when elder boys are being
seen, that the mothers are absent on the latter occasions through the strongly
expressed wish of the boys themselves, who consider they have outgrown apronstrings.
Nutrition,
The statistical results this year will be carefully scanned as there is an
present anxiety lest the long continued unemployment should be reflected in a
falling off of the children's condition. Visits to the schools and enquiries of the
personnel of the school medical service have given reassurance that there has not
been any noticeable falling away, and the figures for nutrition emphasise this. The
measures of social amelioration in force clearly do what they were intended to do,
and in spite of the adverse economic conditions the condition of the school child
in regard to health, nutrition and physique is to-day very much better than it was
in the decade which preceded the great war.
Among the valuable means of controlling mal-nutrition has been the practice
of giving milk or cod-liver oil in school on the recommendation of the school doctor.
The percentage of children placed in the under-nourished category was 5.9, a
fractional increase on the previous year when the percentage was 5.7. This is to
be compared with a percentage of 12.8 in 1913.
Cleanliness,
The slow but steady improvement in the personal cleanliness of the children
is maintained. 88.7 per cent, of the children at all ages were found at medical
inspections to have heads completely free from all trace of infestation of vermin
compared with 87.6 per cent, in 1922. While 10.5 per cent, were found with nits,
only .8 per cent, were found with live vermin.
The percentage of elder girls with perfectly clean heads stands now for the first
time at over 80, having been raised during the past year from 77.5 to 80.5 per cent.
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