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children, and in making the preliminary test of visual acuteness.
The mental condition of the children, their normal state as regards
cleanliness and clothing—in contradistinction to their appearance
when presented for examination—and the standard and regularity
of attendance are matters on which the knowledge of the teachers
has necessarily had to be relied upon.
Altogether medical inspection has brought a large amount of
increased work to the teacher, and 1 desire to acknowledge, both
on my own and on behalf of the Assistant School Medical Officers,
our appreciation of the valuable assistance they have given.
SCHOOL NURSES AND LADY HEALTH VISITORS.
At the commencement of the work of medical inspection
two additional Assistant Lady Health Visitors were appointed.
For some years the duties of the Lady Health visitors already
appointed had included much of the work of School Nurses. It
was considered desirable rather than to appoint a separate staff
of School Nurses to increase the staff of Health Visitors, and to
include among the duties of all the Health Visitors those also
of the School Nurse. The Health Visitor and School Nurse are
alike concerned in one province of public health administration,
that of domestic hygiene, and to distinguish as a separate concern
of such administration the school children as apart from other members
of the family is not only irrational but irritating and mischievous.
In health and in sickness, the mother and the children
occupy a province which it would be fatal to consign to possibly
conflicting authorities. The Health Visitor is the friend and
trained counsellor of the mother in the hygiene of the home, and
it is when her services are most required, when the problems of
infancy and the troubles of children's illnesses beset the mother
that they are proffered.
It has been urged in criticism of this arrangement that the
health visitor is less of a nurse engaged in practical nursing, and