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53
In addition to those inspected at school by the School Nurse,
62 other children were sent by the teachers for examination by
the School Medical Officer. All of these were excluded as affected
with pediculosis.
The total number of exclusions for verminous condition
during the year was 306.
Summonses were issued by the Attendance Officers with
respect to six of these cases which were not cleansed within a
reasonable time, a fine of 5s. being imposed by the Justices in
two cases, and a fine of 10s. in four cases.
In dealing with these verminous cases, great assistance has
been obtained from Mrs. Byles, the Woman Attendance Officer,
who was appointed in February, 1918. Although her appointment
was in the nature of an experiment, the results of her work have
amply justified the appointment. At the suggestion of the School
Medical Officer, the work allotted to Mrs. Byles consisted of the
general supervision of the attendance of two schools, and of the
supervision of all the cases excluded from all the schools in the
Borough on account of verminous conditions of the head or body,
impetigo, scabies and ringworm.
After the exclusion of such children, there has always been a
great difficulty in getting them submitted for re-examination,
resulting in the children remaining out of school for an unreasonable
length of time. Since the advent of the Woman Attendance
Officer, these children have come up for examination with remarkable
regularity, even in cases where the parents have been
loud in their expostulations and vehement in their assertions that
the children would not be brought for examination, showing that
by the exercise of tact and the adoption of a reasoning attitude
much can be done to make the mother realise what she has to do.
In cases of verminous condition, the Woman Attendance Officer
can give instructions how to clean the child and how to keep her
clean, instructions which are more acceptable when given by a
woman than by a man, while in cases of impetigo, scabies or ringworm.
she can see whether treatment is being properly carried
out at home, or she can persuade the mother to submit the child
tor treatment at the School Clinic.