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93
Introduction.
In spite of the many anxieties of 1938, I have much
satisfaction in reporting that the School Medical Service
continued to function during the year as a co-ordinated
unit of the Health Services of the Borough. The work
was, however, curtailed in that many hoped-for investigations
into the health of the school child were prevented
by our efforts to make civil defence, so far as casualty
services were concerned, an efficient force. The investigation
by Dr. Macdonald into the rather common complaint
of enuresis in school children could not be continued
owing to this fact.
The leisure time of the staff outside the routine hours
of duty has been given without stint and the Local
Authority must be duly appreciative of the service given.
The appointment of Dr. Macdonald in February of
1938 was the only addition to the medical staff during the
year and his services were invaluable to me in the Air
Raid Precautions services.
The report follows on the lines of previous reports,
and although I regret the delay in publication there has
not been sufficient time available to complete it earlier.
The statistics which follow the report are the best
indication of the amount of work carried out during the
year. There still remains much work to be done in the
School Medical Service, especially in the provision for
the early admission to school of the unbalanced, nervous
child.
I would, however, make special reference in this
introduction to the nutrition of children. The subject is
bristling with difficulties not only in the classification of
children but also in the best method of treatment of the
fluid who has been classified as mal-nourished. There
is no physiological standard upon which to base the normal
child but I can sav this without hesitation: that the
nutrition of the school child Bromley is high and where
nutrition does fall below the average it is not due to lack
of tood but rather to constitutional and environmental
actors. The school meal is being provided in three
school in Bromley at the very small cost of 3d. per head.