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17
Dr. Hardie writes:—
I should like, if the Committee will permit me, to
offer my personal opinion upon the results of the work I
have been engaged upon during the last seven years.
We cannot expect to see the immediate effect of Medical
Inspection appear at once upon children examined. It
must take many years before the full effect becomes
apparent, but contrasting the general condition of children
now, with what it was ten years ago, I am certain
that the improvement is very marked indeed. In the
elder children of 13 years, as they come up for their final
inspection before leaving school, very few cases of defects
are to be found. Many of them at this period owe
their improved condition to the advice offered them, and
to the treatment meted out to them at the Clinic in previous
years, so that they are now free from the defects
noted before, and have had time to recover after remedial
measures had been taken. Especially does this apply to
children suffering from slight chest affections, in which
care, attention and precautions have been taken, and thus
have been prevented from developing into Tuberculous
Disease.
Fewer cases of this plague are met with in the children
of our schools to-day, than formerly, and I believe,
as our knowledge and our Service become more perfect,
fewer will in the years to come.
Another factor in the well-being of the child, is the
possession of sound teeth, for the proper mastication of
its food, and a mouth free from the septic matter, consequent
upon the presence of carious teeth.
The detriment to the child's condition of health by
the absorption of such poisonous matter into its blood
needs no explanation.
The great improvement which has arisen in the condition
of the teeth of the children who come before me
to-day adds considerably to my feeling of well-doing.