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92
child, and much of the time of the medical staff is
expended on these examinations at the expense of the
normal child, the direction on prevention of defectiveness
and the maintenance of nutritional fitness. That the
Local Authority should treat the minor ailment in order
to prevent permanent impairment is a fundamental factor
in the School Medical Service, but whether this would or
could be. done by a private service without State control
is indeed doubtful. There remains, however, a line of
demarcation between domiciliary treatment by the private
practitioner and clinic treatment by the Local Education
Authority with a happy co-operation between both
services.
I am convinced that physical training is not by any
means fully developed so as to have an effective result on
the physique of our school children. There appears to be
a general slackness in posture especially marked in the
leaver group. I have noted too that in this respect
schools vary, and that where children have attended the
Orthopaedic Clinic for remedial exercises the good results
are obvious even months after the attendances have ceased.
I believe that if we are to improve the posture of the young
child, physical training in our schools must be placed on
a more advanced basis than it is at the present time, and at
the same time we must inculcate a pride in the physical
fitness of the child through inter-school sports and
organised games.
There is a tendency to-day to rush the child hack to
school long before it has sufficiently recovered from
illness; the desire to maintain a 90 per cent. attendance
may be economical when considered financially but it is
certainly not so when considered from the view point of
the physical welfare of the child.
One factor which is largely outside the control of the
School Medical Authorities is the tendency of parents to
allow their children late hours and insufficient rest, with
consequent lowered resistance to disease. I believe much
chronic rheumatism in children has its origin in this factor
of fatigue. Home circumstances may prevent the twelve
hours rest in bed, but there are cases where the selfishness
of the parents demands that the child must either be left