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to require treatment. In this district there has been no
evidence of any deterioration in the nutrition of the school
children during- recent years.
(b) Uncleanliness.
A very serious attempt is made to keep the standard
of cleanliness as high as possible. New admissions to the
schools take place on Mondays only and on these days the
school nurses visit all schools and examine these children,
who are allowed to remain in school only if they are perfectly
clean, while those who are unclean are sent home and
not admitted until their condition is satisfactory. All children
in the schools are examined by the school nurses at the
commencement of each term and the unsatisfactory ones are
seen at frequent intervals. Children who have been excluded
for uncleanliness are seen in school by the school nurses
before they are allowed to return to their classes.
The nurses paid an average of 75 visits to each school
for uncleanliness inspections during the year; 18,363 inspections
were made and 232 individual children were found
not to comply with the rigid standard which is enforced.
At routine medical inspection the heads of 74 or 5.53%
of the children were found not to be entirely satisfactory
while 3 or .22% had dirty bodies.
(c) Minor Ailments and Skin Diseases.
Few cases of minor ailments are found at routine inspection
as these are sent to the school clinics by parents,
teachers, and school nurses as soon as they are discovered.
Two cases of impetigo were found at routine inspections,
while at special inspections eight cases of ringworm of the
body, 46 cases of impetigo, 13 cases of scabies, and 36 of
other skin diseases were discovered.
(d) Visual Defects and External Eye Disease.
Twenty-eight or 2.09% of the children at routine inspection
were found to be suffering from some fairly serious
defect of vision while 44 others were found at special inspections.
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