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 1932
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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The following table shows the number of cases notified by the education authority under Section 2 (2) of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, as amended by the Mental Deficiency Act, 1927, during the year 1932 (the figures in brackets being those for the previous year):—
| (a) Feeble-minded— | Boys. | Girls. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 124 | (205) | |||
| (2) Detrimental | 3 | (4) | ||
| (3) Special circumstances | (3) | |||
| (4) Ineducables | (5) | 15 | (4) | |
| (b) Imbeciles | 78 | (93) | (76) | |
| (c) Idiots | 3 | (5) | 4 | |
| (d) Moral defectives | 0 | (0) | 0 | |
| (319) | 233 | (315) | ||
| Total | 455 | (634) | ||
Mental
Deficiency
Acts. Cases
notified to
the local
authority.
After-careers.
The chief officer of the mental hospitals department lias furnished the following return for the year 1932 on after-care of children formerly attending special schools for the mentally defective, but whose names were not notified to the Mental Hospitals Committee as being cases in which the Education Committee were of opinion that further aid in the form of supervision, guardianship or institutional care under the Mental Deficiency Acts was necessary:—
| Classification. | Male. | Female. | Total. | Grand total under headings. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1) Number of children born in or subsequent to 1914 who have left special schools and who were on the books of the supervision section on 31st December, 1932 | 501 | 761 | 761 | |||
| (2) Number who after trial have proved themselves to be incapable by reason of mental or physical defect of undertaking remunerative employment | 5 | 4 | 9 | 9 | ||
| (31 Number emnloved as under:— | ||||||
| (a) Industrial or manual occupations (i.e., factory work, trade or any part of a trade) | 164 | 424 | ||||
| (b) Agricultural or rural occupations | 3 | — | 3 | |||
| (c) Domestic occupations— | ||||||
| F. | 48 | 59 | ||||
| (1) Receiving remuneration 8 | 39 | 47 | ||||
| (2) Required for work at home 3 | 9 | 12 | ||||
| (d) Commercial, shop assistant, or selling behind a counter, office boys or girls | ||||||
| 14 | 1 | 15 | ||||
| (e) Gone into Army, Navy or Merchant Service | — | — | — | |||
| (f) Blind alley or other precarious occupations (i.e., vanboys, newsboys, errand boys and girls, selling from a barrow) | 119 | 125 | ||||
| (g) In work, but no details as to nature of employment | 7 | 1 | 634 | |||
| (4) Number judged to be employable but out of work | 64 | |||||
| (5) Number whose careers have not been traced:— | ||||||
| 15 | 7 | |||||
| (b) Visited but no information obtainable | 3 | 11 | 14 | 36 | ||
| (6) Cases dealt with in addition to above include those who have since :— (a) died | 1 | 4 | 5 | |||
| (b) attained the age of 18 years | 304 | 193 | 497 | |||
| (c) been dealt with under M.D. Act | 19 | 19 | 38 | |||
| 10 | 16 | 556 | ||||
N.B.—In addition to the 761 after-care cases shown in the above return there were
554 boys and girls between 16 and 18 years of age who had left special schools and were
under statutory supervision on 31st December, 1932. These also were on the books of the
supervision section for placing in employment.