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that the children are being as ably and successfully dealt with
as they could be in a special class and are making progress which
reflects the highest credit upon those in charge of them. It is
unfortunate that circumstances do not permit this in all cases,
but exigencies of accommodation and the amount of time demanded
of the teachers make it impossible as a general thing. Moreover,
the attitude and influence of the parent are incalculable factors
which, none the less, are potent to enhance or nullify the pains taken
by the teacher.
" In view of the seriousness of squinting in small children,
it is very gratifying to note that there is an increase in the number
of children sent up by the Welfare Centres, both as new cases and
for re-inspection. In 1932, eleven new cases were submitted,
all with squint, while in 1933 this number increased to twenty-one
with squint and two with inflammatory conditions. The remaining
fourteen patients from the Welfare Centres were nursing or expectant
mothers complaining, in the main, of headache. At the same time,
however, no fewer than twenty-five children of school age, suffering
from squint, were seen for the first time, showing that there are
still young children who are not being treated early enough for
this important defect.
" Emmetropia, or normal sight, was found in sixty-four
children submitted for examination, thirty-four new cases and
thirty re-inspections. The latter were mostly long-sighted
children who, their symptoms relieved by glasses, had lost their
disability. The former were referred for testing on account of
conjunctivitis, one case, headache, five cases, visual defect at
non-routine inspection, 10 cases, visual defect at school medical
inspection, 18 cases. In those suffering from headache, refraction
was carried out to exclude any visual defect as a cause, and, if
no such disability was found, treatment along other lines wr.s
advised.
" In those children who appeared to have defective vision at
routine or non-routine inspection and were yet found to be emmetropic,
the apparent defect can be ascribed to such factors as
nervousness or defective illumination of the test type and, a common
cause, to the fact that during the testing of the first eye, the second
has been covered in such a way that the eyeball has been pressed
and its vision temporarily dimmed. For this reason the child