Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Leyton]
This page requires JavaScript
129
symptoms of fatigue, listlessness, etc. This probably accounts
for the higher percentage of "anaemic" children who had a low
haemoglobin index in the smaller series of cases. The figures for
undernutrition and debility are too few to be able to draw conclusions,
and indeed it was very difficult to separate the group
of "debility," "undernutrition" and "anaemia" from each
other. It was surprising at times to find that a badly undernourished
child, well below average height and weight, flabby and
with poor muscle tone, had a haemoglobin index of over 100 per cent.
In this group of cases 85 per cent, has not been taken as the
lower limit of normal haemoglobin level. In my opinion 90 per
cent, appears to be a more reasonable limit, since it was found that
children under this level raised from 10 per cent, to 15 per cent,
by the administration of iron and ammonium citrate. If it is
possible in from three to six weeks to raise a haemoglobin level
by this amount, then one is entitled to suggest that the original
level was below normal. Only a few children were unable to take
the iron tonic.
Table II.
Defect. | Haemoglobin percentage. | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
70— | 75— | 80— | 85— | 90— | 95— | 100— | Total. | |
"Anaemia" | 3 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 15 | 10 | 19 | 79 |
Debility | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 33 |
Undernourished | — | 1 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 34 |
Boils | — | — | — | 1 | —' | 1 | — | 2 |
Styes | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | 2 | 3 |
Blepharitis | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | 2 | 3 |
Sores | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | 2 | 3 |
Bronchitis | — | — | 1 | — | 1 | — | 1 | 3 |
Anaemia and adenitis | 1 | — | — | 1 | — | 1 | 2 | 5 |
Anaemia and monorrhagia | — | — | 2 | 2 | — | — | 1 | 5 |
Muscular rheumatism | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Totals | 5 | 11 | 18 | 30 | 32 | 25 | 51 | 172 |
2.9% | 5.3% | 10.4% | 17.4% | 18.6% | 14.5% | 29.6% | — |
Table II shows in tabular form the haemoglobin level of 172
children in the smaller series. The close agreement between
Tables I and II is evident, though this does not extend to the
subdivisions of "debility" and "undernutrition."