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mature children in the elementary schools 58.3 per cent. were below normal weight,
13.9 per cent. at normal weight for age and 27.8 per cent. above normal weight.
In 72.2 per cent. the weight is proportionately less than the height, 8.3 per cent.
have height and weight normally proportionate, and in 19.5 per cent. the weight
was proportionately greater than the height.
Several requests have been made by various bodies and institutions for facilities
for carrying out enquiries or researches of a medical character in the schools, and
reference is made in the succeeding paragraphs to some of the more important
of these.
Dr. Percy
Stocks' investigations
on blood
pressure.
Dr. Percy Stocks, medical officer to the department of Applied Statistics of
the University of London, University College, investigated blood pressure in early
life. His monograph on the subject was published as one of the Drapers' Company
Research Memoirs. 1,633 subjects were examined, and these included 540 boys
in the Council's elementary schools and 560 in the Council's secondary schools. A
continuous series of observations of blood pressure covering the period of adolescence
was obtained and continuous age curves for males for the first time established.
The following are some of his conclusions:—
The commonly accepted rule that blood pressure rises uniformly throughout life
is not supported. Up to 11 years the mean systolic pressure rises uniformly;
during adolescence the gradient is temporarily increased and the blood pressure
reaches a uniform level at the 18th year, showing no further rise beyond this up to
the age of 35 to 40. The diastolic pressure rises uniformly until adolescence, then
more slowly to 17, when it commences to rise rapidly to a maximum about 20 after
which it falls slightly to 35. Pulse pressure rises uniformly to 15, but during adolescence
rises to a considerable maximum at about 16 to 18, falls to its original level
about 20, and afterwards slowly increases to 40.
During adolescence, therefore, and particularly about the age of 16 or 17, the
heart in boys is performing more work in comparison with its weight than at any
preceding or subsequent period of life up to 40. Regular physical exercise tends
to keep the diastolic pressure at a lower level by reducing peripheral resistance,
and thereby renders the heart more efficient. In schools where a strict discipline
is maintained the average systolic and pulse pressure of the boys are appreciably
higher than in the more easy-going schools, the pulse rate being reduced in compensation
; to the healthy boy this is an advantage, but to delicate youths harm is
likely to accrue from the keying up of the blood pressure, and a selection of type
of school must be borne in mind in such cases.
Inquiry by
Drs. A-hton
and Griffiths
as to results
of operations
on tonsils
and adenoids.
At the request of the Medical Research Council permission was given to Dr.
Helen Ashton and Dr. Gwenvron Mary Griffiths, working under the direction of
Mr. Cleminson, the aural surgeon at the Evelina Hospital, to follow up in the schools
children who had been operated upon for tonsils and adenoids at that Hospital.
Only a short notice can be given, as nothing has yet been published by the authors.
500 children who had been operated upon between March, 1920, and March, 1922,
were followed up, and 500 control children who had been recommended for operation
but had failed to follow the advice given. Attention was especially given to the
permanent results of the operation on the actual disease, to the size of glands in the
neck in relation to the disease and to operation, to the relief of symptoms, to the
incidence of mastoid operations and to the incidence of rheumatic affections. The
general results of the investigation are as follows:—
(i.) Complete removal of all tonsillar tissue is desirable, as fragmentary
remains grow again in the majority of cases in which they are left.
(ii.) The removal of tonsils and adenoids is followed by definite improvement
in the case of glands in the neck.
(iii.) There is no constant relation between the size of the tonsils and the
mass of cervical glands.
11908 r 2