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The percentage of cases in which deafness may be attributed to congenital
syphilis has fallen since 1919, the figures being :—1919, 9.1 ; 1920, 8.8 ; 1921, 8.7 ;
1922, 7.3 : 1923, 4.7 ; 1924, 5.2.
Ear-phones
for partially
deaf children
some children at Stanley-street (Hard-of-Hearing) School have been tested
with electric ear-phones. The investigation was carried out under the supervision
of Mr. Macleod Yearsley. The result showed that out of 32 tested the hearing
range was extended in 28, the extent of the difference of range varying from twice
to 16 times the child's ordinary capacity. Two methods of installation are possible :
(i.) to provide each child with a separate instrument; or (ii.) to install a microphone
transmitter on the teacher's table, and to connect this by wires to each of the
children's desks, each child having a receiver, plug, cord and headphones. A
minor difficulty in the latter case would be to avoid falling over the wires, unless
they are carried under the floor. Of these methods the first is probably preferable.
Each instrument could be adjusted for the individual, and as all deaf children do
not benefit by electrical appliances, there would appear to be no need to equip all
the desks. Some children, too, do better with apparatus of the speaking-tube
type.
Before any such scheme were adopted it would be necessary to consider
whether the fact that instruction can be conveyed thus would not tend to impede
the acquisition of lip-reading which is the chief feature in the education of schools
for the partially deaf. In the slighter cases, able to return to the ordinary school
when hearing has been re-inforced by sight, this would be of great importance. In
the more severely and permanently deaf anything enabling them to acquire
knowledge is of the greatest value.
Admission
to schools
for the
physically
defective

Treatment
of children
suffering
from
crippling
defects.
The general provision for the care of physically defective children was undertaken
in London at an earlier date, and more extensively than in most, if not in all,
other areas. London is exceptionally well provided both with special orthopaedic
hospitals, general hospitals with orpthopædic departments, and other institutions
which render ancillary treatment for crippling defects. There have been regular
visits from an orthopaedic surgeon to the special (P.D.) schools since September,