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56
for a fixed sum of money the hospital will undertake to admit or
treat as out-patients such cases as are sent from the school ophthalmic
clinic. I would like to make special reference to one case.
A child was found by the Assistant School Medical Officer, to be
suffering from defective vision and was referred to the School
Ophthalmic Specialist. After examining the child Mr. Macky
referred the case to the Western Ophthalmic Hospital for further
opinion. This further examination demonstrated that the
child was suffering from a septic focus and that this focus was
probably the teeth. It is interesting to note that the mother of
the child had previously been told that the child was suffering from
dental caries and had been advised to obtain treatment for it and
that the parent had refused. This child's teeth have now been
treated, the septic focus removed, and the child's vision is steadily
improving.
In drawing attention to the report of the School Aural Surgeon,
it will be noted that children are now attending for treatment from
the Council's Maternity and Child Welfare Centres, and it is to be
hoped that the treatment of these children at an early age may
result in the avoidance of the permanent ear trouble that is apt
to arise if these children are neglected until they enter our elementary
schools.
Much has been written during the year concerning malnutrition
in school children, and I think there has been a tendency to assume
that malnutrition is confined to those whose means are so limited
that their children are unable to obtain a sufficient quantity of the
right kind of food, or who are so ignorant that they are unaware
of the right type of food that should be given to children of school
age. Dr. Forrester and I realise this possibility and are aware of
the statement that removal of children to council houses has not
always resulted in their better nutrition, due to the increase in rent
that has to be paid, and the consequent diminution of the money
available for food. We, nevertheless, feel that there is much
malnutrition among the better class children of the district, and that
certain factors of an entirely different nature are responsible for this.
The children that we are classifying as suffering from malnutrition
are those who are to the lay observer, listless, anaemic, debilitated,
or underweight. We admit that we are adopting no scientific
standard for we know of none that can be safely applied to denote
malnutrition. On the other hand it is a fact that there are a large
number of children who obviously are not in that state of health
which normal children should possess; so obviously so that the
untrained observer can detect them. It is to this class of children
that the following remarks refer.
Investigations were carried out at the following schools:—