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largely to a reluctance to have "cutting operations." Parents
are not ready to believe that deafness, a vacant look, and general
backwardness are due to enlarged tonsils and adenoids, and
expect the child to " grow out of it."
At the end of last year the Committee appointed a Surgeon
and Anaesthetist to operate in cases selected by the School Medical
Officers. The operating rooms will shortly be ready for use, and
it is to be hoped that when we can offer treatment the percentage
of neglected cases will diminish. There is no argument for treatment
so impressive as a successful case, and parents who can
make their own arrangements are likely to be convinced of the
value of early operation when they see the improvement in their
neighbours' children.
Teeth.
There is no reference in the Table to the treatment of teeth.
The enormous amount of decay present can be seen in the Table
of Defects found at medical inspection, but, speaking generally,
there has been no treatment up to the present. What little there
was, was confined to the extraction of septic teeth, and there was
no attempt at conservative treatment.
The Table of Defects found at the medical inspection of school
children shows the extent of dental caries in the district, though
such records refer only to obvious dental disease, and take little
or no account of the earlier indications of decay which reveal
themselves only to the dental probe and mirror. It is usually
found that the percentage of dental caries appears highest in those
districts where a dentist conducts the examination.
As a result of the medical inspection of over 10,000 children,
it was found that 86 per cent. of the children had obvious dental
caries. In Cambridge, where the teeth were examined by a dentist,
96 per cent. had dental caries.