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233
The routine work of the dental clinics has been dislocated owing
to the number of children coming up as urgent cases with toothache;
and in some of these it has been ascertained that conservative
treatment offered previously had been refused.
The special reports on the Rheumatism and Ionization
Clinics are again included. It is hoped, if the exigencies of
routine work permit, to analyse the findings of these clinics when
they have dealt with a sufficient number of cases. The analysis
of relatively small numbers is fallacious. In connection with
the Rheumatism Clinic the Convalescent Home at Coombe
Cliff has been of much service, enabling children not quite fit
to return to school to have a period of convalescence, after which
they have gone back to school with every prospect of maintaining
their health.
The summary of findings at Routine Medical Inspections
shows that the most common defects necessitating reference for
treatment are, in the order of their incidence, defects of the Nose
and Throat, Dental Disease, Enlarged Glanas, Defective Vision
and Circulatory defects. The first three of these groups of defects
are most prevalent in the Entrant group of scholars; the other
two increase in incidence as school age increases. It follows,
therefore, that if there is to be a decrease in the number of
children with unsatisfactory nose and throat conditions, or with
dental disease and enlarged glands, preventive measures are
required before the statutory school age. The causes of these
defects have been in operation since shortly after birth, and,
although no specific cause or causes can be dogmatically stated,
the remedy lies in medical inspection and the necessary facilities
for treatment during this time. The position at the moment for
this age period is much the same as the position was for the school
child before the inception of routine medical inspection and the
formation of school clinics.
It is repeatedly put forward as an extenuation that the parents
are insufficiently educated as to the necessitv for careful medical
supervision of their children before school age is reached, and
this explanation no doubt contains much truth, but without the
necessary instructors for the parents, and the necessary facilities
and guidance, not much real prevention is likely to result.
Circulatory defects and defective vision are in a different category
and are the results of a different set of causes. These defects