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life. The value of an open-air school for such cases is very
great, playing, as it does, the part of a preventorium where children
while attending usually remain remarkably free from further
evidence of activity of the disease.
(b) Uncleanliness.—This defect in more recent years has
shown a constant and satisfactory decline. Owing to the condition
of some of the homes from which the children come, and
of the other inmates, this defect cannot be stamped out by the
School Medical Service alone. In this connection, close cooperation
with the sanitary authority is valuable.
Surveys under the above heading were carried out at (a)
routine medical inspections, and (b) special inspections conducted
oy the school nurses.
(a) At the former, 305 children out of a total of 2,316, or
13 per cent., had nits in their hair, while 6 of 0.25 per cent.
had head or body vermin. As formerly, cases were seen at the
School Clinic after exclusion by nurses or teachers, of which
number 108 had nits and 58 head or body vermin.
(b) During the vear the school nurses made 17,504 individual
investigations, compared with 13,632 in 1924, of which number
2,170 children were found to have nits in the hair only, 170
harboured nits and head vermin, whilst 21 had verminous bodies
and clothing.