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16
Defects
found in
failed
children
The clinical examination of the failed children conducted by the assistant otologists revealed
the following defects, which were partly or wholly responsible for their loss of hearing:—
Catarrhal condition of middle ear 2,267
Wax 1,196
Rhinitis 1,423
Deflected septum 95
Otorrhoea 444
Sclerosis 1,340
External otitis 1
Tonsils and adenoids 364
Old mastoid operation 263
Polypus 3
Nerve deafness 6
Foreign body 4
Congenital malformations 8
Sinusitis 16
Stenosis of meatus 1
Nothing abnormal found 60
Among 4,657 children who failed, 966 were treated by diastolisation treatment, and 507 of
these benefited sufficiently to enable them to pass their final test, after the completion of their
treatment. The results of 121 were unknown owing to their either having left school or lapsed
from treatment.
Among the 70,960 children tested by the gramophone audiometer, there were 119 who gave
no better response than the 18 decibel level or worse in the better ear at their final test, and who
consequently were potential cases for special educational facilities. All these were invited to
County Hall and were given a complete test, with the result that 88 were found to be suitable for
ordinary school, and these should be known as grade I children. Nineteen were able to benefit
educationally in the ordinary school with special facilities, such as favourable position in class;
these should be known as grade IIa children. Seven needed education in a partially deaf school;
these should be known as grade IIb children. Five did not attend.
The nutritional state of the London school children
Unremitting care and attention continues to be paid by the school medical
service to the nutritional state of the children, and, compared with earlier years, there
is no doubt that it has vastly improved.
The emergence of new knowledge, especially in regard to the accessory factors in
diets, has resulted in a revision of standards which is still progressing. Comparisons
year by year of the figures returned under these changing conditions need therefore
to be received with caution. An increase in the number of children classified as
subnormal, so far as London is concerned, most certainly reflects a change in standard
and not a deterioration in reality.
The high standard of general health, the almost complete disappearance of
rickets as a crippling disease in London, the improvement in the death rate, the small
incidence of tuberculosis, all deny the existence of any serious amount or degree of
• malnutrition.
Alarmists have caused much apprehension by exaggeration, so that some teachers
anxious about the condition of their charges have even questioned whether the children
in their schools are generally fit for physical exercises.
The spontaneous activity of the children themselves is sufficient refutation of any
such notions. Let but a barrel organ appear in the alley, and the latter is at once
filled with a happy crowd of vivacious dancing youngsters.
Distinguished medical officers from the British Dominions overseas visiting our
schools compare the children favourably with the bonny specimens of the race in their
own land.
Of general deficiency of food there is no evidence. There is, however, as there
has always been, and in former years to greater degree than now, partial deficiencies
in specific ingredients in the dietaries of the people, which are with difficulty made up,
especially during the winter months. It is vitamin hunger due to such deficiencies
which causes the city man to take his family annually to the seaside, sets the schoolboy
robbing the farmer's orchard, drives the indigenous population of the East End en
masse to the hop gardens of Kent, and which sent our Viking ancestors foraging and
pillaging in the southlands. Further consideration of this problem of dietetics is
given later in this report (p. 47) under the heading of the " Oslo experiment."
The Board of Education schedule provides for every child to be marked during
routine inspection as "1," "2," "3," or "4"; 1 being exceedingly good nutrition,
2 normal, 3 subnormal, and 4 definite pathological malnutrition. Bearing in mind
the above considerations in regard to the limitations of the clinical assessment of
nutrition, the figures for London give astonishingly consistent results. From year