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19
The percentage of children found at these surveys to be of
slightly subnormal nutrition is less than half the percentage of
children found to be slightly subnormal at routine medical inspection.
Perhaps the difference is due to the fact that at routine
inspection the examination of each child is more thorough than at
the nutrition surveys with the consequence that more subnormal
children are found. In any case the figures are highly
satistactory and indicate that tne nutritional state cf the children
is apparently not affected by conditions associated with war.
One good result of the surveys was that attention was drawn to
those schools where the largest number of subnormal children were
to be iound ana so indicated those in which any scheme for the
provisions of meals should first be made to operate.
I
UNCLEANLINESS.
As in previous years all school children in the elementary
schools in the Borough were examined on three occasions, namely,
after the Easter holiday, after the Summer holiday and after the
Christmas holiday. The actual examinations were 25,615, a smaller
number than in 1939 and still smaller than in 1938 owing to the
evacuation of many of the children. In the following table it
will be seen that as a result of the examinations 466 children were
excluded because they had lice or more than 10 nits in the hair,
and 325 were the subject of warning notices because they had nits
but less than 10 in number. This means that 791 or 3 per cent, of
the children were found on the average to be unclean on each
occasion. Put in another way, these figures mean that 97 per cent,
of the children attending public elementary schools in the Borough
can be stated to be clean. This percentage can be considered very
satisfactory when compared with other parts of the country.
The table also shows that the state of cleanliness has not deteriorated
during the war, for the percentage for 1940 is the same as the average
for the previous four years.