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24
DEFECTS AND DISEASES.
That in something fewer than 11,000 inspections over 21,000
defective temporary, and more than 4,000 decayed permanent
teeth should be found, is an appalling revelation to those who
understand the significance of this widespread unsoundness of a
particular tissue in reference to permanent bodily health and
sound, resistant physical structure. About 2.5 per cent, of the
children examined were found to be suffering from inflammatory
affections of the ear, mostly of a chronic character, while between
4 and 5 per cent, in addition suffered from defective hearing.
Over 12 per cent, were diagnosed or suspected of suffering
from adenoids, while nearly one-third were found to have in
greater or less degree enlargement of the tonsils, and about onefourth
to possess enlarged submaxillary or cervical glands.
These for the most part are affections in themselves not of a
deadly character, but their neglect means a vast amount of
physical and even mental incapacity, and in later life a crippling
of efficiency which, reduced to terms of mere earning capacity,
may safely be said immeasurably to outweigh the immediate cost
of remedying the conditions. That about 7 per cent, of the
children are mouth breathers may not sound very formidable, but
the part which this habit plays in the more serious diseases of
later life makes its removal a matter of medical and educational
concern of no insignificant moment.
The large proportion of children shown in the tables to be
suffering from seriously defective vision, can barely have affected
our mortality rates, by which the public health has hitherto
been mainly judged, but if the public could realise the personal
loss and suffering entailed by, but not necessarily ascribed to these
remediable defects, it would not be permitted that the cruel
injustice of their neglect should continue. When we turn to
affections of the more vital organs, classified under columns Nos.
20-27 of the Board's Schedule—see tables—the proportion of