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Again 1,531 children suffering from malnutrition were brought forward at special
inspections while the lesser number of 1,109 were found at routine inspections of the
age groups.
It is clear, therefore, that full advantage is being taken of the doctors' visits
to the schools and that really ailing children are promptly brought under medical
advice.
One disturbing feature is the continued increase in the number of cases of scabies
amongst the children. It will be noted above that 1,912 cases of this disease were
brought before the school doctors in 1932, whereas in 1931 the number was 1,098.
This continued increase in the number of cases of scabies, which was nearly doubled
during the year, has been apparent for some years : possibly examinations of the
skin associated with the prevalence of smallpox has brought these cases to light.
Conclusions.
In 1932 the general improvement which had taken place during the preceding
years has strikingly continued, and new records have been achieved. Personal
hygiene in particular has again made noteworthy advance; the nutritional state of
the child while in attendance at school has been maintained. Nowhere is there
any sign of falling off. Although minor conditions of departure from health remain
common, yet the grosser manifestations of disease are becoming more and more rare.
The progress during school life is towards healthier conditions, and the "leaver"
child is the healthiest of all the groups, both in boys and girls, save for a failure
to maintain the improvement in dental conditions, and the continued slight increase
of spinal curvature in the older girls, who, at the end of elementary school life, are
growing faster than the boys.
The work of the school medical service may therefore be regarded with satisfaction
though not with complacency. The mountain of physical defect, which the young
organisation faced at the beginning of the present century, has been attacked with
success, and the physical condition of the school children is very greatly improved—
even beyond expectation.
There still, however, remains much to be done, and, although progress in children's
care has been continued in spite of the adverse economic conditions and the children
as a whole have not been allowed in any way to suffer, it is reasonable to suppose that,
had it not been for the heavy additional burdens imposed by the war and the succeeding
economic crisis, progress would have been more rapid, and the condition of the
children at the present time would have been nearer that ideal state which it is the
ambition and aim of the school medical service to achieve.
It is greatly to be desired that it will not be found necessary to curtail in any
essential feature this fundamental work, whose aim is to secure such a foundation
of health for the industrial population on leaving school as will stand the nation in
good stead in the long struggle ahead in the economic sphere.
Medical inspection at secondary and trade schools.
In the maintained secondary schools medical inspection has been carried out
by the school medical staff over a very long period of years.
The pupils are, in accordance with the instructions of the Board of Education,
inspected in detail on entrance, again at the age of 12, and at the age of 15; in the
intervening years the records of all pupils are reviewed, but a detailed examination
is only carried out when there is some special indication or request.
The figures subsequently analysed are derived only from the schools where the
medical inspections are carried out by the Council's own staff. No detailed reports
of medical inspections are received from the schools at which the pupils are examined
by the doctor appointed by the governors, but the record cards of all scholarship
children examined are sent for the school medical officer's inspection at the end of
each term.
Including students in training colleges, 14,222 pupils were examined during the
year, a decrease of 62 compared with the previous year, and in 3,979 cases records