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Deformities.
19
Spinal curvature accounted for 612 cases (.4 per cent.), the same proportion
as last year. Of these 256 (.9 per cent. of those examined) were among the 12-year
old girls, while the 12-year old boys showed .3 per cent. Other deformities were
present in 1,515 children (.9 per cent.). This is a decrease of .1 per cent. on 1932.
Vaccination.
Records are made of the presence or absence of vaccination marks when children
are stripped for medical examination, but no inquiries are made. The following
are the results of the doctors' observation of the percentage of children having
vaccinal scars: entrants, 46.6; 8-year olds, 49.3; 12-year olds, 50.7; and
"leavers" (13½), 55.1; compared with, in 1932, entrants, 47.7; 8-year-olds, 53.1;
12-year-olds, 52.1; and "leavers" (13½) 55.5. These figures show that the
percentage of children with obvious vaccination marks is less than last year, just
as last year's percentages were less than those of the previous year.
Thus the number of children protected from smallpox by vaccination grows
less with each succeeding year, in spite of the fact that smallpox, of a mild character
it is true, is still present in the community.
The health
of the
leaving child.
The Council has undertaken the examination of a fourth age group, namely,
children who are leaving school. This examination takes place in the term prior
to that in which the children are due to leave school. The results of this examination
are available at the school-leaving conference, and are of assistance in determining
the choice of a suitable occupation. Coming at the end of the school career, the
examination is useful in estimating the results of medical attention received since
the children entered school.
This year's "leaver" group was formed of the children born in the year 1919-20
and consequently the numbers are much larger than in the previous year, consisting
of 28,788 boys and 27,872 girls. In nutrition they were found to be better than
the younger groups, only 3.7 per cent. of the boys and 2.7 per cent. girls being classed
as subnormal, compared with 3.8 per cent. boys and 3.2 per cent. girls in the
previous year.
In personal cleanliness this group also shows an improvement on the 12-year
olds, 98.4 per cent. boys and 95.6 per cent. girls having perfectly clean heads. The
dental condition of this group was found to be slightly inferior to that of the 12-year
old group, for both boys and girls, the percentage with satisfactory mouths being
74.4 in the case of boys, and 75.5 in the case of girls, compared with 75.8 and 77
respectively in the 12-year old group. In other respects the "leaver" children
showed an improvement in health over the 12-year old group.
Spinal curvature in the "leaver" girls was reported in .8 per cent. of the cases
compared with .9 per cent. at age 12; on the other hand heart defect in the "leaver"
girls was 1.9 per cent. identical with the figure in the 12-year old group.
The falling off in the condition of the teeth of the "leaver" children is not a
satisfactory feature of the school medical work. It is due to the fact that skilled
inspection of the teeth by the inspecting dental surgeons does not extend in all cases
to the children aged 12 and 13 years, but ceases at the age of eleven in some schools.
This should be remedied by increased dental inspections so soon as the time is
favourable.
The reorganisation of the tops of schools has also placed much difficulty in the
way of following up the older children.
The condition of the "leaver" children of 1933 was better than that of those
of 1932. The latter were children born towards the end of the war. They were in
the main the children of fathers unfit for military service. It may therefore be their
defects were due to nature and not to nurture.
In the second year of the war the birth rate fell to an unprecedently low level
and continued at this low level throughout the war.
The recruiting authorities are this year drawing attention to the falling off in
physical condition of the recruits. The reason probably is that they are now
beginning to recruit from the children of those years of low birth rate during the war
whose physique was poor not because they were affected by war conditions (for