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71
The vision of over 10,000 children was tested under the
scheme. On the whole, the teachers have done the work satisfactorily,
and the resulting advantage to scholars with defective
vision is very great. In some of the schools, however, the regulations
of the Education Committee have been wholly disregarded,
no attempt having been made to test the vision of any of the
scholars. In others the instructions have been followed so carelessly
that the results are quite unreliable, and children reported with
seriously defective vision have been found to possess quite normal
sight. The inadequate lighting of some of the older schools is in
some measure responsible for the errors in testing, while in still
larger measure it is responsible for many of the visual defects
themselves.
The vision of 41 per cent. of the boys and 51 per cent. of the
girls was found to fall short of the normal, while 24 per cent. of
the boys and 29 per cent. of the girls tested exhibited, according
to the returns, serious visual defects.
Headache is a common symptom of defective vision, and of
the scholars reported subject to this affection 14.5 per cent. of
the boys and 14.1 per cent. of the girls were found to have
defective sight; 7.8 per cent. of the boys and 6.6 per cent. of the
girls reported as so suffering had normal visual acuity.
Considerable difficulty is experienced in many cases in getting
the parents to have the eyesight of their children attended to
when the existence of error is pointed out to them. Even of the
gratuitous attention they can receive at the hospitals they will
not avail themselves, and one is tempted to think, in many cases,
that everyone is more careful of the welfare of the children than
the parents themselves.
Neglect to relieve the remediable defects of vision is a grave
offence against the. child and against the community. Defective