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The children were inspected by the same School Medical Officer during the survey.
They were seen four times in all, at the beginning of the survey, once each term and
at the end of the survey. If a girl developed a verruca between the Medical Officer's
inspections the Physical Education Mistress recorded the fact on the inspection sheet.
The great majority of verrucas were treated at the local clinic, very few girls going
to their own doctor. Girls who developed verrucas during the survey wore shoes afterwards
unless they were in the bare-feet group and expressed a desire to continue the
activities bare-footed.
The Physical Education Organiser tested the girls feet for flexibility at the
beginning and the end of the survey. This attribute was marked on a four-point scale
taking into account:-
(a) Degree of mobility of the bones in the foot and ankle.
(b) Strength and muscle tone of the foot and ankle.
At the final test no reference was made to the marks given in the first test.
SUMMARY OF TOE INCIDENCE OF VERRUCAS
School A - Girls' Grammar School
Eight classes in the second and third year were inspected, 230 girls in all.
At the first inspection 11 girls were found to have verrucas, i.e. just
under 5%. Three of these children were under treatment at the first inspection
and eight were found by the Medical Officer.
One hundred and twelve girls continued to work bare-foot for the period of
the survey, 13 months in all.
Seven girls wearing shoes developed verrucas during the period of the survey.
Six girls without shoes developed verrucas during the same period.
At the final inspection 206 girls were seen, six having left the school,
four having dropped out of the experiment because of intercurrent illness
and 14 being absent on the day of the inspection.
At the final inspection six girls were found to have verrucas, (four already
under treatment and two were discovered on that day). This gives a rate of
just under 3%.
The results of enquiry at the school after the survey and investigation of
verrucas treated at the local foot clinic did not suggest that the 24
absentees could have had verrucas on the day of the inspection so that the
figure of less than 3% is not an under estimate of the incidence at the
final survey.
At the initial inspection the percentage of cases found was almost 5% and
at the end of the survey slightly less than 3% of the girls had verrucas.
It would seem, therefore, that the conclusions to be drawn are that whereas
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