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77
“Groups 3 and 4, with inflammatory conditions and headaches,
always contain a considerable proportion of emmetropes. While
a serious refractive error almost always results in a certain amount
of headache, eye-ache or inflammation, the converse is by no
means true and, while it is wise in children with these symptoms
to carry out retinoscopy to exclude any refractive error, the troubles
of many of them are attributable to such general conditions as
faulty diet, inadequate sleep or exercise and excessive reading in
bad light.
"Group 5 needs little explanation. When a child wearing
glasses obtained elsewhere attends school medical inspection the
parents are advised, even if the visual acuity is normal, to have a
further test.
"Group 8 comprises those children who were referred on
account of squint but for whom no glasses were prescribed. Certain
of these proved, on examination, to have no squint, but to possess
some such condition as epicanthus which misled the original observer
or the parent. The remainder in this group, while suffering from
actual squint, had no error of refraction and were dealt with by
occlusion of the fixing eye. They will return for further examination
from time to time.
"It is easy for the inexperienced to imagine that the testing
of these 162 children for whom no glasses were prescribed was an
unjustified expenditure of time. This is by no means true. So
frequently do serious degrees of refractive error produce but slight
subjective symptoms that the conscientious medical officer must
always incline to err on the side of caution and, up to a point, the
proportion of emmetropic children in the records is a sign not of
inadequate care, but of great thoroughness.
"On surveying the year's work there seems to be every ground
for satisfaction and, in view of the changes and developments
foreshadowed, every reason to expect still further progress and
improvement during the course of 1935.”