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97
Total School Medical Service Cases 1997
Total Maternity and Child Welfare
Cases 195
2192
ORTHOPTIC TREATMENT OF SQUINT.
The following report was submitted to the Council on the 9th
September, 1935:—
This treatment consists in training the squinting eye to coordinate
with the good eye.
In many cases although the squint has to all outward appearances
been corrected it is found that no real co-ordination between
the two eyes is taking place and that while the aesthetic result
is excellent, the practical result falls short of it and the child has
not achieved normal bi-focal vision, the lack of which is a
disability.
A technique has been evolved by which the defective eye can
be trained to co-ordinate with the good eye, this training has
in addition an advantage that it of itself tends to cure many
sq/uints by strengthening the external eye muscles and in certain
cases eliminates the necessity for operative interference.
The value of this additional method of treatment is becoming
increasingly recognised so much so that the eye hospitals are
training women to carry out this work under the supervision of
the ophthalmic surgeons.
The Council's Ophthalmic Surgeon, Mr. J. G. Milner, is
anxious that facilities for this form of treatment should be made
available for the elementary school children in the Borough who
are suffering from squint as he feels that he cannot otherwise do
the best possible for these children.
There are over 130 cases which require this treatment and
approximately 50 new cases of squint are discovered each year
amongst school children. While it is possible to send a fewselected
cases to Ophthalmic Hospitals, and this is in fact being
done, it does not give an adequate solution to the problem as the