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Economic Status.
The economic status of the families from whom patients were
examined was as follows:—
Poor in 9; average working class, 65; better working class,
19; clerical work, 8; and superior, 4.
The interior home conditions were classified as follows:—
Clean, 68; moderately clean, 29; superior, 8; unsatisfactory,
nil.
BLIND, DEAF, DEFECTIVE AND EPILEPTIC CHILDREN.
Full statistical details are given in Table III. of the Tables
required by the Board of Education, Appendix III.
Blind Children.
Seven boys and 3 girls are resident at special schools for the
blind. The institutions which these children attend are as
follows:-Royal Normal College for the Blind, 4 boys;
Chorley Wood Blind College, 1 girl; Barclay Blind School,
Brighton, 2 girls; Abbotskerswell, Devon, 1 boy; Sunshine
Home, East Grinstead, 2 boys; (these are residential).
St. Luke's Special School For Partially Sighted Children.
At the end of the year there were 34 children in attendance.
Of these, 23 were cases of myopia, 9 were non-myopes, and 2 had
myopia combined with some other ocular defect.
The curriculum is that usually laid down for the myope and
partially sighted, respectively, but is under constant review,
and changes are introduced according to experience. Both boys
and girls have attended domestic science classes, and the system
of mixing the children with those in the ordinary elementary
school for certain lessons, introduced last year, has been continued.
Again physical exercises, suitably restricted for certain
children, are in regular use, with a noticeable improvement in
carriage and posture.
Nominally the myopes leave school at 14 years of age, and
the others at 16, but no strict rule can be enforced, and much
depends on the type of case and the earning capacity. The Head
Teacher is alive to the need for supervision in the selection of jobs