London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1930
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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71
The figures this year are complicated by the fact that certain children who had
been kept in institutions formerly under the charge of the Metropolitan Asylums
Board under the provisions of the Metropolitan Asylums Board (mentally defective
persons) Order, 1911, had to be notified through the Education Committee as a
necessary preliminary to action under the Mental Deficiency Acts. It is therefore
necessary to correct the foregoing figures by separating the numbers for the ordinary
work from those for the "comb out" in the institutions concerned:—
Ordinary
school work.
Ex M.A.B.
institutions.
Feeble-minded—
detrimental 20 8
ineducable 16 21
Imbecile 143 232
Idiot 27 31
Totals 206 292
Cases in the institutions, of course, supply no leavers as these were not technically
"schools." No doubt in past years some of the cases now called feeble-minded
(ineducable) might have been deemed to be high-grade imbeciles. The difference
in assignment to either of the two categories of any individual case on the border-line
is affected considerably by the personal equation factor on the part of the certifying
officers. It must always be a moot point whether a distinction can be made between
one who cannot, quite, be taught to manage himself or his affairs and one who is very
clearly in need of supervision and control for his own protection.
Statement of the Number of Children notified during the year ended December 31st, 1930, by the Local Education Authority to the Local Mental Deficiency Authority. Analysis of 887 children notified:—
| Diagnosis. | Boys. | Girls. |
|---|---|---|
| 1. (i) Children incapable of receiving benefit or further benefit from instruction in a special school: | ||
| (a) Idiots | 34 | 24 |
| (b) Imbeciles | 208 | 167 |
| (c) Others | 20 | 17 |
| (ii) Children unable to be instructed in a special school without detriment to the interests of other children: | ||
| (a) Moral defectives | — | — |
| (6) Others | 16 | 12 |
| 2. Feeble-minded children notified on leaving a special school on or before attaining the age of 16 | 179 | 210 |
| 3. Feeble-minded children notified under Article 3, i.e., "special circumstances" cases | — | — |
| 4. Children who in addition to being mentally defective were blind or deaf | 1 deaf* | 2 blind† |
| Totals | 457 | 430 |
*—This case is included in 1 (i) (6) above.
†—These cases are included in 1 (i) (c) and 1 (ii) (6) above.
With a view to seeing if the passage into law of the Mental Deficiency Act,
1913, which stressed more prominently the social aspects of mental deficiency, had
influenced the proportions admitted to the special schools Dr. Shrubsall has analysed
all the records from the year 1902 to the present time. The Mental Deficiency Act
introduced definitions of the terms idiocy and imbecility which were not mentioned
in the Education Act of 1899 save by the terms that the children admitted to special
schools were not to be imbecile. During this period 40,208 children out of the total
numbers seen at admission examinations have been deemed to be mentally defective
and of these 3,953 or roughly 9.8 per cent. were deemed to be ineducable in special
schools on the grounds of idiocy or imbecility. Dividing the period into two sections