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London County Council
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1936
VOL. Ill (Part II)
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL MEDICAL OFFICER FOR THE YEl~R 1936.
By Sir Frederick Menzies, K.B.E., M.D., LL.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.S.E., County
Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer.
Introduction
In the pages of this, the thirty-third annual report on the school medical
service in London, the story of the physical progress of the children is continued.
Betterment in social conditions and the work of the school medical staff and care
committees have brought about progressive improvement.
In the early stages this improvement was comparatively rapid, in later years
it has been naturally less rapid, but none the less sure and steady. Each year a
" peak " in one or other respect has been established and very rarely has there
been a slipping back.
The year 1936 now under review is no exception, and in many directions the
children have been found to present less sickness and defect. In the last two or
three years have been experienced a new wave of interest and a fresh urge with
regard to the children's health, which has expressed itself in anxious concern for
their nutritional well-being, for the progress of physical culture and for improvement
in environmental conditions both in and out of school.
Particulars of the work of the nutrition centres, first founded in 1935, will be
found on page 19 ; a contribution by Mr. Gem and Miss Grant Clark, the
Council's organisers of physical education on page 50 ; and a section on the
improvement in school buildings and amenities on page 6.
In cleanliness, in the incidence of heart defect and anaemia found at medical
inspections, and in a large number of other particulars reviewed in the section on
medical inspection, results are indicated which are better than any before recorded
(pp. 9-16).
Although the state of perfect health for all children may be. impossible of
attainment, it is at least heartening to see that each successive year records a step
forward in the direction of that ideal.
Staff
The public health department is organised in three branches, (i) special hospitals,
including control of the acute infectious diseases and of the ambulance and pathological
laboratory services; (ii) general hospitals and district medical work transferred
from the late London poor-law guardians ; and (iii) general public health administration,
including housing and the school medical service. A principal medical
officer is in charge of each of the three branches, viz., (i) special hospitals, etc., Dr.
J. A. H. Brincker; (ii) general hospitals and public assistance medical administration,
etc., Dr. W. Brander; and (iii) general public health administration, etc., Dr.
W. A. Daley. With the exception of the administrative work in connection with
infectious disease in schools, which is directed by Dr. Brincker, assisted by a
principal assistant medical officer (Dr. J. G. Forbes), the work of the school medical
service falls entirely in the branch directed by Dr. Daley and is organised in two
main sections.
One of these sections, of which the senior medical officer in charge is Dr. C. J.
Thomas, embraces the medical and dental inspection of school children, the medical
and dental treatment and cleansing of school children, open-air schools and general
school hygiene. For purposes of routine medical inspection, etc., London is divided
into five divisions, north-west (divisional medical officer, Dr. R. H. Simpson) ; north
(divisional medical officer, Dr. Margaret C. Hogarth) ; north-east (divisional medical
officer, Dr. G. Chaikin) ; south-east (divisional medical officer, Dr. H. R. Kidner) ;
south-west (divisional medical officer, Dr. C. N. Atlee). Dr. Hogarth during the
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