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258
Defects of the nose and throat are once again the commonest
defects found and show an increase on last year's findings; the
Entrant group is still worst, and the Leaver group the best.
For nutrition, the Leaver boys gave the worst figures, whilst
as a group the Entrants showed the best findings. The percentages,
as compared with last year, show a distinct falling-off
in the standard. Taking all the groups examined subnormal
nutrition was recorded in 19.1% of the children as contrasted with
15% in 1933.
Enlarged cervical glands were recorded most often in the
Leaver group in both sexes, a finding probably due to the
cumulative effects of dental caries, enlarged tonsils and deficient
diet.
The influence of school work on eyesight is shown by the
higher figures for the Leaver group, and if these figures are contrasted
with those for secondary school children, it is seen that
the latter are even less favourable. This is not the actual amount
of defective vision, as children whose vision is normal by the aid
of spectacles, are classified as having normal vision. It is
probably certain that there is a general deterioration in the
standard of vision and that a steadily increasing proportion of the
population wear glasses for the correction of visual defects.
The number of children suffering from circulatory defects is
high, and is mainly caused by the ravages of rheumatism upon
the heart and its valves. The figure is higher than for last year.
The average standard of cleanliness showed a slight decline,
which was more noticeable among the girls. This drop is hard
to explain except in any other way than that it is caused by
parental carelessness. Quite a number of cases occur in children
who live under good housing conditions with bathing and other
modern facilities.
The following Table was compiled from the findings at
routine medical inspections, in order to ascertain the amount of
visual defect in the particular children examined in the various
schools. It relates only to children who were referred from