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It was also stated in the annual report for 1911 that ringworm was costing the
Council not less than £7,000 per annum in the service of doctors, nurses and hospitals
and in the loss of fee grant entailed. Details of each case of ringworm as it became
known were entered upon a special card and the school nurse followed up the case to the
best of her ability. If any child was alleged to be under treatment by a doctor, no further
consideration was given and children said to be treated by a chemist or at home were
offered X-ray treatment but if this was refused no action was taken. This was the weak
part of the scheme. Certain other cases, however, were followed up and treated under the
Council's schemes. About 20 per cent. coming under treatment in 1911 were being
treated by Roentgen rays but up to the end of that year, there had been no noticeable
diminution in the number of cases reported. The Council's laboratory rendered all
assistance possible in the diagnosis of the disease.
By 1919, however, the number of cases of ringworm discovered in the schools had
been diminishing steadily for several years, and, although there was some retrogression
in 1919 and 1920, the number dropped again in 1921 and the following years, so that, in
his annual report for the year 1924, the School Medical Officer was able to refer to the
success achieved in the prevention of the disease among elementary school children in
recent years, and to state that this success might be ascribed to the efficiency with which
new cases were promptly discovered by the school nurses and the increasing number of
children treated by means of X-rays. In 1911, when 6,214 fresh cases had been
discovered, only 30 per cent. had received X-ray treatment, and this percentage had
progressively increased year by year until, in 1924, as many as 70 per cent. of the cases
were X-rayed. A great advantage of the X-ray treatment was the avoidance of much
loss of school attendance, for whereas a child treated in this way was ordinarily able to
return to school in two months or less, children receiving ointment and other forms of
treatment might have been away from school for years, to the detriment of their whole
career.
By 1933, the number of schoolchildren suffering from ringworm of the scalp had
sunk to the comparatively insignificant total of 178, and the incidence of the disease
continued to be comparatively rare up to the outbreak of war in 1939.
Throughout the war years, the incidence of the disease in London was small, but
extensive outbreaks were reported from other parts of the country. With the cessation
of hostilities the return of children from all over the country was almost certainly the
cause of a marked increase in the number of cases in London. Treatment by X-ray
continued to be the method of choice and, in addition to arrangements made with
certain voluntary hospitals, facilities were provided by the Council for out-patients at
Hammersmith Hospital and for in-patients at Goldie Leigh Hospital. During 1946,
there was again an increase in the number of cases of scalp ringworm, when there were
311 new cases, but there was a marked falling off in 1947 to 150 cases and this trend has
continued.
Favus
A number of cases of favus, a parasitic disease of the hair which chiefly affects the
scalp, though occasionally found on other parts of the body, were found to exist among
the school population of East London in 1904. The disease was almost entirely of foreign
importation, and occurred chiefly among the alien population of the East End. At that
time, there were 79 known cases of favus in one small area of the East End, of about one
square mile in extent, and 34 cases outside that area. A detailed inspection of the pupils
in 21 schools, situated chiefly in the affected area, resulted in the detection of 51 further
cases. The opportunity was thus presented for making a new departure in the method of
prevention of the disease by forming a special class or school for children suffering from
favus, where treatment could be supervised while, at the same time, school work could
be carried on. On 28th February, 1905, the Council agreed to establish a favus school, and
on 6th June, 1906, the school was opened, with a roll of 61 children, in a temporary
building situated in Finch Street, Whitechapel. At first, treatment was not included in
the scope of the work, but the school was supervised by a medical officer who arranged
for the heads of the children to be cleansed and disinfected daily, and for the treatment
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