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With the exception of ailments of the nose and throat (chiefly enlarged tonsils
and adenoids) which tend to increase, there is some evidence in the above table
of a slight improvement generally in the health of the entrant infants, particularly
in those conditions which depend upon improved care and personal hygiene.
Analysis of
the results of
the medical
inspection of
the three
statutory age
groups.
Defects found.—86,925 children in the statutory age groups were found with
defects needing treatment. This represents 43.9 per cent. of the children
inspected, a larger proportion by 5.4 per cent, than in 1924. The apparent
increase is due to the larger numbers of entrant infants who came under review in
comparison with the other age groups.
The entrant infants, in spite of the fact that very few are referred for visual
defects, always give a higher proportion of children requiring treatment than the
other age groups, owing to the fact that they for the first time come under the
continuous care and observation, which, school attendance provides for the whole
population at school age, in a way impossible to achieve for any other section of the
population. 47 per cent. of entrant infants, 45 per cent. of eight-year old children
and 40 per cent. of twelve-year old children were recorded with ailments requiring
attention; these, however, include dental caries, a malady which is so widely diffused
amongst children of all ages.
Nutrition.
12,518 children in the age groups were found to be under nourished. This
is 6.3 per cent. of the number inspected, compared with 6.2 per cent. in 1924, 5.9
per cent. in 1923 and 5.7 per cent. in 1922. In 1913 the percentage of children
under nourished was 12.8. At the present time remedial agencies exist that were
undreamt-of in 1913, and, as the figures show, even the period of prolonged unemployment
has produced surprisingly little effect upon the nutrition of the
children.
In any survey of the condition of children in any class of school a certain proportion
will be found to be under nourished quite apart from the question of adequate
and proper supplies of food. There are many children coming from good homes
who receive every care and attention and the best of feeding who in comparison
with the average child must be regarded as under nourished. They are frequently
children of the "nervous" type who are abnormally active, both mentally and
physically, and their metabolism is continually keyed up to a high pitch. As the
result not a vestige of fat is stored in the body and they present a lean and hungry
appearance, contrasting very sharply with the chubby contours of the average child.
No amount of additional nutriment will make the slightest difference to this type of
child. Their proper management consists of wise and gentle restraint (for they
are almost always "difficult" children) insistence upon early bed time and avoidance
of all sources of undue excitement. They, therefore, profit greatly by a period
of country life where the constant and varied nervous stimuli of the town are replaced
by an equable and restful environment.
Cleanliness.
One of the most striking and gratifying manifestations of the beneficent results
of the work of the school medical service in improving the health and condition of
the children is the great and progressive increase in personal cleanliness.
In 1913 only 67.2 per cent. of the older girls in London elementary schools
were found without traces of verminous infestation of the hair. In 1916 and 1917