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treatment, while of 288 children examined at other ages, 18 or
6.25 per cent. were found to require treatment. In the different
age-groups, the percentages were: entrants 7.5, second age-group
10.25, and third age-group 11.2. These percentages compare
favourably on the whole with those for the previous year.
(a) Malnutrition.
Thirty-three children were recorded as suffering from malnutrition.
There were many others of course whose state of nutrition
was for one reason or another not altogether satisfactory, but in
these thirty-three the defect was apparently due to some failure or
neglect to provide sufficient or proper nourishment, or to inability
on the part of the child to profit by the nourishment provided.
There is, I am glad to say, not much evidence of actual neglect
on the part of parents, but in many cases the family circumstances
are such that it is difficult to provide a sufficiency of good food for
the children. In these cases the Care Committee is of very great
assistance in providing meals at the feeding centre, or milk at
school, or malt and oil or virol at the School Clinic. In previous
reports I have stressed the importance of the provision of a sufficiency
of milk for the proper nutrition of the growing child, and I have
little doubt that the spread of the milk habit which appears to be
taking place among the school children is causing a definite improvement
in their nutrition. In the great majority of the schools,
milk clubs have been in existence for the past few years, and a
varying number of children in these schools are supplied daily with
a bottle containing a third of a pint of milk at a cost of one penny
per bottle. The average number of children taking advantage of
this provision is rather less than a thousand, and I would like to
see it very much increased, but in addition there are many children
who have a regular and adequate supply of milk at home.
(b) Uncleanliness.
The standard of cleanliness among the children remains very
high, and reflects great credit on the vast majority of the mothers.
Over 50,000 individual inspections of school children were made
during the year, and the number of exclusions on account of verminous
conditions was only 195. In some cases the same children were
excluded on more than one occasion, so that the actual number of
offenders was even smaller than this figure would indicate.
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