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that time, larger than in the previous year. They comprised 31,801 boys and 31,832
girls. In nutrition they were found to be better than the younger groups, only 3.5
per cent. of the boys and 3 per cent. girls being classed as subnormal. They compared
with 3.7 per cent. boys, and 2.7 per cent. girls in the previous year.
In personal cleanliness this group also shows an improvement on the 12-year-old
group, 98.7 per cent. boys and 96.6 per cent. girls having perfectly clean heads. The
dental condition of this group was found to be slightly inferior to that of the 12-yearold
group, for both boys and girls, the percentage with satisfactory mouths being
75.1 in the case of boys, and 75.8 in the case of girls, compared with 75.9 and 77.9
respectively in the 11-year-old group. In other respects the "leaver" children
showed an improvement in health over the 11-year-old group.
Spinal curvature in the "leaver" girls was reported in .8 per cent. of the cases,
identical with the percentage at age 11; on the other hand, heart defect in the
" leaver " girl was 2.1 per cent., compared with 2.2 in the 11-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 many schools.
This should be remedied by the increased dental inspections which are to be carried
out under the 3-year programme shortly commencing.
The reorganisation of the tops of schools has also caused some difficulty in the
way of following up the older children.
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, 45.9; 7-year-olds, 50.4; 11-year-olds, 55.1; and
"leavers" (13½), 52; compared with, in 1933, entrants, 46.6; 8-year-olds, 49.3;
12-year-olds, 50.7; and "leavers" (13½) 55.1. 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.
Vaccination.
In 1934 a condition was noted chiefly in the north-eastern division which was
apparently epidemic amongst the children in some schools. It had never previously
come under the notice of the school medical service of London. It consisted in
painful warts on the soles of the feet.
Dr. Chaikin, the divisional medical officer, followed up the cases and has written
the account which follows:—
It was reported from a school in this division that there were several children suffering from
warts of a painful nature, on the feet, and that one of these children and others were under the
care of the local foot hospital. Four children were found at this school, two of whom were attending
the foot hospital, one, the London hospital, and one not under treatment. Twelve others
were, also, on the books of the hospital, but only five could be traced to Council schools. All
were examined by Dr. G. W. Bamber, who diagnosed the condition as plantar warts.
The Council's consultant dermatologist was consulted and X-ray treatment was recommended.
The local foot hospital authorities were agreeable to this, and arrangements were
made for treatment at the London hospital of those whose parents were willing, subject to the
form of treatment being decided by the physician of the skin department of that hospital. It
was ascertained that each child at the school, who went to swim, had a separate towel. The
children atfected discontinued attendance at the swimming lesson.
The view of the Council's consultant dermatologist on the subject was as follows : " All
three common varieties of warts, namely, juvenile flat-warts, ordinary warts, and plantar warts,
are contagious and auto-inoculable, but not every individual is susceptible to them. Since the
classical experiments of Wile and Kinger, in 1921, it has been generally accepted that all warts
are due to a filter-passing virus. Whether or not the viruses of plantar warts and ordinary
warts of the hand are identical, has yet to be decided. Plantar warts occur at all ages, and in
epidemic form, in schools. It seems to me most probable that the virus is locally inoculated
in walking on an infected cork or wooden grid in the bathroom.
"With regard to prevention, it is important that children should not run about wards or
bathrooms with bare feet, and after the bath it is better that they should stand on a concrete
floor than on a wooden grid or cork mat. The ideal is for each child to have its own towel to stand
on. If there are cases in an institution, it would be well for the feet of the children using the same
bathroom to be sponged with methylated spirit after the bath. It is advisable, also, to have the
shoes swabbed out occasionally with a 1 in 40 lysol solution.
Plantar
warts.