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68
From the Welfare Centres, 4 mothers and 10 children were
seen. 3 mothers and 7 children were provided with spectacles.
3 were cases of external eye disease and 6 were children with squints
who are being kept under observation at the Clinic.
23 cases of external disease of the eye were treated at the
Clinic. These were not severe in character, for the most part, and
not of such a nature as to result in permanent diminution of visual
acuity, save in one or two instances.
75 children referred for examination were found to require
no treatment. This figure illustrates the care with which the children
are examined prior to their appearance in the ophthalmic
clinic, since all presented symptoms or signs which might have been
due to ocular defects.
Certain practical difficulties arise in all clinics in cases in
which prolonged treatment is indicated. Especially is this so,
when children are referred on account of squint. These cases require
early and prolonged treatment and observation extending
over a period of years, together with the goodwill and active cooperation
of patient, parent, and school teacher.
It is found that many parents do not realise the seriousness
of the condition. Some consider that the mere prescription of
glasses for the child relieves them of all further responsibility in
the matter. Though the prescription of correcting lenses, where
necessary, is the foundation upon which further treatment is based,
it frequently happens that the degree of squint is not materially
reduced thereby. It is not perhaps surprising therefore, that parents
are apt to conclude that their children are not receiving any benefit
from the fact of wearing spectacles, &c., and the children of such
parents are often inadequately supervised at home as regards
occlusion and so forth.
The fact remains, that in default of treatment, most squinting
eyes suffer a great reduction in visual acuity, which may fall
to 6/60 of normal or even lower. Further, this reduction of acuity
will, in untreated cases, become permanent.
Every opportunity, therefore, is taken to bring these facts
to the parents' notice, and it is pointed out that apart from the
handicap under which these children labour, in virtue of their personal
appearance, they are automatically debarred from employment
in most branches of the Navy, Army, Air Force, Police, Railways,
and engineering and transport generally.
In recent years, there has been a great improvement in the
technique of treatment of cases both of manifest squint and in cases
of smaller defects of muscle balance,