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The provision of suitable lenses has cured numbers of headaches,
thus allowing the children much increased ability to receive
instruction.
(h) Ear Diseases.
A discharging ear not only adversely affects the child so
afflicted, but sometimes his neighbour as well, because of the
odour. It is, in most cases, secondary to a diseased condition of
the throat and nose, and is, moreover, the precursor of deafness in
after-life, so that every effort is made to cure the complaint.
We have, during the year, many cases of this kind, and some of
them are very intractable if operative treatment is not adopted.
Unfortunately, very little notice is taken of this trouble by
many parents. Scarcely a session of Medical Inspection passes but
that we have a deaf mother visiting us. Deafness is such a serious
hajidicap to our safety in life—and so much impairs social intercourse,
work and pleasure—that it behoves all parents who have a
child suffering from this defect to see to it that suitable treatment
is obtained without delay. Childhood is the one time of life that
earache is specially prevalent.
The teeth may be at fault sometimes, but more often it is due
to the condition of the back of the nose and throat.
(i) The Care of the Teeth.
There is no department of the School Medical Service that is
making, and still more is going to make, such an improvement in
the general health of the community. A sound and regular set of
teeth in a clean mouth is a possession beyond all price; and those
parents who do not, and will not, trouble to take the advantages
offered to them at the Dental Clinic at Stuart Villa, are foolish
and standing in the way of their children's bodily welfare. Of
course, if they prefer the services of a private Dentist, well and good
-a course which allows the time of our excellent Surgeon Dentist to
be otherwise employed.
The majority of both boys and girls now leave our Schools with
their mouths in a very satisfactory condition.
(j) Crippling Defects.
A register is kept, and frequently revised, of all cases of
paralysis, lameness, spinal curvature and the like, and each child
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