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140
Vision.—Eye defects of 6/12 and over are a little more numerous among the
delinquent group, but against this 70.6 per cent. of them have normal vision, as
against 56 per cent. normal in the London group.
Functional nervous disease.—Special reference must be made to functional
nervous disease which has been noted in 14.1 per cent. of cases. All abnormalities
of the system, however slight, were noted, including tremor, very exaggerated
reflexes (without definite signs of organic disease), nervous overaction and incoordination,
hippus, nail-biting, etc. It is probable that a careful scrutiny of an
otherwise normal (non-delinquent) group of children would show as high a percentage
of these minor nervous manifestations. The "nervous child" so called was rarely
seen, and there were no cases of the nervous child with symptoms of acidosis. The
only conditions noted under the digestive system were 2 cases of inguinal hernia and
2 cases of mild constipation. Indeed the whole group was remarkably eupeptic.
Enuresis was noted in 26 cases (7.3 per cent.) and stammer in 6 cases (1.7 per cent.)
only. No standards of comparison are available. Rickets shows a very high percentage
(8.2 per cent.) as compared with the London group (0.5 per cent.).
Genito-urinary abnormalities.—Under this heading were 14 cases of complete
or partial cryptorchism and 2 cases of partial hypospadias.
Stigmata.—Sixteen were noted as having marked stigmata, e.g., Hutchinson's
teeth (3 cases), prognathism (1 case), webbed toes (2 cases), adherent ear lobes
(2 cases), and 8 cases of marked epicanthus.
Endocrine Abnormalities.—Under this heading were noted the following:—
7 cases of adiposo-genital dystrophy of varying degree; 3 cases of eunuchoid tallness
with genital hypoplasia; 5 cases of hyperthyroidism of mild degree (not associated
with puberty) and 3 subthyroid cases (adiposity, dry-skin, bradycardia, etc.). Other
conditions noted were:—Left handedness in 4.2 per cent.; 56 per cent. had marks
of vaccination; 4.5 per cent. of the 15-year-old group showed complete sexual
immaturity; 50 per cent. of the whole group were brown-eyed; 23.8 per cent. were
in need of treatment—usually for defects of vision and carious teeth.
Educational and mental levels.—An estimation of the educational (reading and
arithmetic) attainments and the mental age was made in all cases. Records of 340
cases are available for examination. The object of the examination was again
primarily to determine the fitness or otherwise for ordinary certified schools. For
the educational level Burt's standardised scales were used, and for the intelligence
tests the Stanford revision of Terman's scale, reinforced by the Healy formboards
and completion test, and the Porteus maze test. No attempt was made to determine
intelligence quotient as being unnecessary for the object in view, but the
mental age was fixed as accurately as possible on the child's total performance.
The results of the examination are set out in the following tables.