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At last I am pleased to report that provision will he made for the
installation of electric light at the Pymmes Park Clinic.
At present the Ophthalmic Surgeon brings the desired instruments, but I
am hoping that shortly the Committee will prowide a fully.equipped and
modern Consulting Ophthalmic Clinic—a necessity much over-due in a district
of a school population of 15,000 school children.
(e) Nose and Throat Defects.
The treatment of ear, nose and throat defects is under the supervision
of the Committee's Consultant, Mr. William Ibbotson, F.R.C.S., and
during the year he examined 234 children, composed of 112 New cases and
122 Re-examinations.
Children found to require tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy are
admitted to the Prince of Wales's General Hospital through the Committee's
Scheme after the necessary dental treatment has been carried out wherever
possible.
Close contact is maintained between this service and the Speech Clinic,
where children attend after the operation for speech correction exercises.
Mr. Ibbotson has submitted the following report on the Edmonton Aural
Clinic covering the year 1938:—
"The vast majority of the children were suffering from the serious
effects of chronic pharyngeal infection, as evidenced by such symptoms as
Chronic Nasal Obstruction (resulting in chronic mouth-breathing, with all its
pernicious sequelae), Deafness, Aprosexia, etc. The chief clinical signs were
found to be Infected Tonsils, with Nasopharyngeal Adenoid Excess, Aural
Suppuration, Cervical Adenitis, Nasal Suppuration and General Toxicity.
"Treatment viz.: Removal, by operation in the Prince of Wales's
General Hospital, of the infective lesions, and of mechanical nasal impediments,
followed by courses of instruction in nasal breathing in Miss Oldrey's
Speech Clinic, and non-operative measures in the Aural Clinic itself, is
resulting in very marked improvement, so that not only is the General Health
restored to a much higher standard, with disappearance, in a large number
of the children, of Nervous Instability (so frequently associated with the
above lesions), but Aural Suppuration, and its accompanying Deafness,
Headache, etc., have often entirely disappeared, thus rendering the serious
operation of Mastoid Drainage unnecessary.
"In my opinion the value of this Clinic is being proved, in so much as
it is helping to reform these children into healthy, happy and, therefore,
valuable citizens."
The following is a copy of the report submitted by the Speech Therapist,
Miss I?. N. Oldrey, M.S.S.T.
" Work in the Speech Clinic has progressed steadily during 1938.
" At the beginning of the year there were 100 cases on record, since then
01 new cases have been seen and diagnosed. Of a total of 1G1 : 52 have
received regular treatment, once or twice weekly ; four have been removed
from the books, either to attend special schools or because they have left the
district; two are receiving adequate treatment elsewhere; and three have
voluntarily ceased attendance. Of the 52 who have received treatment, 20
have been discharged; 32 children are therefore receiving treatment already,
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