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7
children. Such records were made in the two last terms of the year, and the results
were as follows:—
Percentage of Vaccinated.
Entrant boys 50.6 50.3
„ girls 50.1
Intermediate boys 50.5 50.2
„ girls 49.9
12-year-old boys 54.9 56.2
girls 57.4
14-year-old boys 57.51 56.2
„ girls 58.9 58.2
About half the entrant children (ages 4-5) were found to have the marks of
vaccination. Among the 14-year-old age group the percentage was 58. Either
vaccination was more frequently carried out in 1916-17, when the older age group
children were born, than it was in 1925-6, when the entrant children were born, or
there were many cases of vaccination carried out after school age was reached.
It is interesting to compare the numbers of entrants and leavers recorded
as having vaccination marks respectively in the boroughs where smallpox had
appeared in 1928, the first year of any considerable prevalence, when there were
296 notifications allocated as follows:—
Wandsworth, 88; Poplar, 68; Lambeth, 53; St. Marylebone, 30; Southwark, 21;
all other boroughs, 36.
Percentage reported in
1930 as vaccinated.
Entrants. Leavers.
Wandsworth 61 61
Poplar 26 48
Lambeth 53 60
Marylebone 78 75
Southwark . 48 54
From this table it is seen that while in Wandsworth and St. Marylebone the
proportion of children vaccinated does not alter much between the two groups, in
Lambeth and Southwark the proportion of leavers vaccinated is somewhat higher
than among entrants, while in Poplar it is nearly doubled. This indicates that when
smallpox occurs in an area where vaccination in infancy is commonly neglected, a
number of school children are given the protection of vaccination.
Although the infants are found to be well nourished on entering the schools
and compare favourably with other groups both in this respect and in that of personal
hygiene, they present a large number of defects mainly due to defective surroundings
and faulty nurture antecedent to school life: 47 per cent, of boy entrants have
manifestly carious teeth as do 478 per cent, of girl entrants, while 14.8 per cent,
have serious dental diseases compared with 6.8 per cent, of the 8-year-old children
and only 1.8 per cent, of the 12-year-old children; 10.3 per cent, of entrant boys
and 9.2 per cent, of entrant girls are referred for treatment for enlarged tonsils and
adenoid growths, compared with 5.7 per cent, of the 8-year-old group and 3.6 per
cent, of the 12-year-old pupils.
The condi
of the
entrant
infants.
Other conditions in which the entrant infants suffer to a much higher degree
than do the older children, are otorrhœa, lung trouble, external eye diseases and
rickety deformities. Much light is thrown upon the condition of entrant infants in
the second interim report of the Board of Education's Committee on Adenoids and
Enlarged Tonsils. This report gives an account of an investigation into the
association of rickets and dental diseases with adenoids and enlarged tonsils.
It is not intended here to discuss the main purpose of the investigation and
the Committee's findings upon the results, but to point out (which might easily be
overlooked) that the statistics compiled by the Committee give very valuable
information as to the condition of the entrant children. The children examined
were unselected children, aged five, in the London elementary schools and the work
was carried out mainly by medical officers of the Council: 1,638 five-year-old
children were examined in 33 elementary schools by three medical officers who
confined their examination entirely to the detection of nine bony abnormalities