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114 Crippled Children.
Children under five years of age are being dealt with
by the Maternity and Child Welfare Committee, those
requiring treatment being sent to the Ealing King
Edward Memorial Hospital, which has placed six beds
at the disposal of the Committee for all children under
five years of age requiring medical or surgical treatment.
It is hoped that arrangements may be made by which
such cases as require massage and electrical treatment
may be treated as outdoor cases. In this way many of
the cases of paralysis resulting from poliomyelitis may
receive suitable treatment so as to prevent wasting of
the muscles and to correct deformities before structural
changes occur in the bones and other tissues.
The Education Committee has just completed arrangements
with the King Edward Memorial Hospital
by which crippled school children, tuberculous, paralytic,
or other cases, may receive indoor treatment, embracing
surgical measures if necessary, and outdoor treatment
by means of massage, special exercises or electrical
treatment. It has been estimated, in the first year
of the experiment, that ten cases shall receive indoor
treatment for three weeks each, and ten cases outdoor
treatment once a week for twelve weeks. As the demand
for treatment at the local hospital increases greater
provision will be made.
Of the 44 cases of crippling due to tuberculosis or
poliomyelitis, all except two are receiving treatment,
and that at London hospitals. The treatment so far
away from their homes is apt to make it less continuous
and less thorough, especially as regards remedial exercises,
massage and electrical treatment, than it ought
to be, but the provision of treatment near their homes
may be the means of securing continuous treatment and