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 Willesden]
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to the almost uniform enthusiasm with which the work has
generally been taken up.
The work undertaken by the teacher in pursuance of the
supervision of the health of the children, it will be understood,
has varied in different schools, but as the work progressed, and
its importance and value were more and more appreciated, a
broad uniformity of co-operation has been secured.
The Head Teacher is generally present at the examination
of the child, and next to securing medical treatment of the
affections discovered, and the co-operation of the parent to this
end, there is probably no more important circumstance than the
presence of the teacher at the time of its examination by the
Medical Officer.
It is then and then only that the particular directions which
the healthy physical and mental development called for by the
peculiarities of individual children can be given.
The regime of school life is for many of the children
the most efficacious treatment of their defects; but that
it may be so, this regime must take cognisance of the
particular conditions which are sought to be modified.
It is not sufficient, for instance, in the case of mouth
breathers to remove the obstructions so commonly associated
with their habit; the importance of systematic and sustained
breathing exercises must be impressed upon the teachers and in
turn these must be supervised and insisted upon as an element
in the education of the child. Innumerable instances will suggest
themselves where the co-operation of medicine and education can
be secured only by the joint presence of their respective representatives
at the medical inspection. In addition to the time
given to this work, and in assisting to prepare the children for
examination, the teachers have performed a large amount of
clerical work in sending out notices and forms to parents and to
the School Medical Officer, in weighing and measuring the