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were examined. In 1932, 1,845 children were examined. The
records of the examinations are in some respects difficult to compare
or even to co-ordinate, because no fewer than four medical officers
have been engaged in the work and each has a standard of his
or her own in regard to such conditions as nutrition, the presence
of rickets, enlarged tonsils, etc., which may differ somewhat from
that of another. In addition, changes in the staff have added
to the difficulties of standardising methods and results. Nevertheless,
the examinations are bringing to light defective conditions,
for which active or preventive treatment has been advised
or has been supplied through the School Clinics. All forms of
treatment, dental, throat, orthopaedic, etc., which are available
for school children are also available for pre-school children.
Steps have been taken in the way of standardising the methods of
the examinations and of co-ordinating results 6o as to render them
comparable and so of better value from the preventive aspect of
the work.
DENTAL TREATMENT OF EXPECTANT AND
OF NURSING MOTHERS.
During the year 29 fewer mothers attended the clinic for
dental treatment than in 1931. The increased unemployment
could scarcely be put forward as the cause as each mother is charged
for the treatment according to the means of the family, and when
the husband is unemployed the treatment is almost invariably
given free of cost. A large number of those mothers dealt with
paid the nominal charge of only one shilling for full or partial
dentures. Ten mothers paid half the cost and six paid the full cost
of the dentures. It is probable, however, that the reduction in
the number of cases dentally treated is due to the reduction in
the number of mothers admitted to the Maternity Hospital owing
to the restriction in the number of cases admitted at a time. It is
a condition of admission to the Maternity Hospital that patients
must undergo dental treatment if this is advised by the medical
officer and this often is the only means by which mothers can be
persuaded to have their teeth treated. Unfortunately, mothers
often submit themselves for dental treatment and undergo extensive
extractions before going into the hospital and when they go home