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next step was encouragement in the establishment of open-air classes in association
with tuberculosis dispensaries, and five such schools were established. From 1918
onwards in place of the dispensary schools the Council established day open-air
schools to which children suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis or from tuberculous
glands with no open wounds who do not require residential treatment are admitted.
In 1933 it was decided to extend the use of these schools so as to include children who
are suspected to be suffering from, or who are living in surroundings rendering them
particularly liable to, the disease. There are now six such schools with accommodation
between them for 515 children. The boarding-out scheme was commenced in
1925 to provide for the removal of children from heavily infected and over-crowded
homes occupied by a member of the family suffering from advanced tuberculosis, and
children who cannot otherwise be satisfactorily provided for while their mother, or
in special circumstances the father, is undergoing residential treatment for tuberculosis.
The children are boarded-out mainly in homes in the country by the
Invalid Children's Aid Association, who make the necessary arrangements at the cost
of the Council and supervise the foster-parents. The number of children so dealt
with in 1934 was 246.
Mental
Deficiency
Acts.
The Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, had as its object the making of better provision
for the protection and control of mentally defective persons who could not satisfactorily
be dealt with under the existing powers.
It made the Council the local authority for the purposes of the Act, and laid
upon it the duty of providing the necessary care and control of (a) defectives who
were neglected, and (b) defective children who were ineducable or who, on leaving a
special school, were notified by the Education Committee as being in need of further
care, supervision and control.
It also made the ascertainment of all defective children a statutory duty, and,
in conjunction with the Education Act of 1914, made the provision of special schools
for the mentally defective a statutory duty instead of a permissive power.
The primary duty of ascertainment rests with the Council as a mental deficiency
authority for all ages below 7 and above 16, and as an education authority between
these ages.
The Mental Deficiency Act, 1927, was an amending Act which had as its main
object changes in the definition of defectives to enable certain forms of mental
deficiency due to disease or injury to be dealt with.
Since 1914, when the Mental Deficiency Act came into force, the number of
those persons below 7 or over 16 years of age examined and ascertained has increased ;
but the Council, having from the beginning carried into effect the permissive powers
as regards special education, there was no sudden change in 1914, and the numbers
of those of school age found defective have diminished pari passu with the population
at risk.
Blind
Persons
Act, 1920.
The Blind Persons Act, 1920, made it the duty of the Council to make arrangements
to the satisfaction of the Minister of Health for promoting the welfare of blind
persons ordinarily resident in the county. A scheme had to be submitted to the
Minister of Health, and, as part of the machinery for carrying out the scheme, a
proper system of registration of blind persons was necessary.
In the early years after the passing of the Act, the persons examined by the
Council's medical officer were applicants for vocational training and were few in
number. In 1931, the Council, on the suggestion of the Minister of Health, decided
that no person should be registered until he had been examined and certified by a
medical officer with special ophthalmological qualifications, that the cases of persons
already on the register should be reviewed, and that, if necessary, they should
be examined. This entailed the overhaul of the whole register of blind persons
numbering some 6,700. This work has been carried out since 1931, together with
the examination of new applicants.
One of the most notable improvements during the past 25 years has been seen Midwives.
in the general standard of the work of midwives, and without doubt the steady