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Child, but it is questionable whether some more economical
method of discovering the relatively small number of children
with defects, and the still much smaller proportion of children
with serious defects could not be found.
In this area 84 sessions per year are devoted to Routine
Medical Inspection or nearly a quarter of the Assistant Medical
Officer's time. Everybody who has carried out these examinations
over any length of time will agree that the constant
examination of normals tends to blunt clinical enthusiasm, and
there appears to be a real risk that minor variations from the
normal may achieve undue importance in consequence. The
disadvantages of conveying the impression to parents, teachers
and even the child itself, that he or she is not in all respects
normal are obvious.
Malnutrition.
On referring to table B, and comparing these figures with
last year's, the following fat ts emerge.
In the first age group, Entrants, there were 9 per cent, in
A (excellent), an increase of (5 per cent.; 67 per cent. were in
B (normal), an increase of 2 per cent.; 22 per cent. in C
(slightly sub-normal), an increase of 4 per cent.; and there
were .5 per cent, in 1) (bad), which shows little change.
In the second age group, 8 year olds, there were 17 per
cent, in A, an increase of 4 per cent.; 60 per cent. in B, a
decrease of 4 per cent.; 22 per cent. in C, no change; and
0.3 per cent, in D, a decrease of 50 per cent.
In the third age group, leavers, 15 per cent, were A, an
increase of 8 per cent.; 58 per cent. were B, a decrease of 18
per cent.; 25 per cent. were C, an increase of 10 per cent.;
and 0.4 per cent. were in D, a decrease of 1 per cent.
Comparing totals of children examined with last year's
figures, there are 249 children in A Group, an actual increase in
number of 47. There are 1033 in B Group, a decrease of 27.
There are 400 in the C Group, an increase of 90, and there are
7 in the D Group, a decrease of 2.
It will be appreciated that the numbers involved do not
justify any startling conclusions. These figures are of far more
value in assessing the nutritional state of the school children
in England and Wales than they are of measuring the possible
change from any one year to another in the nutritional state of
the school children of a Borough with a school population of
5,000. There is nothing to suggest any significant change in
the nutritional condition of the school children from last year.