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ties are just the same. In these cases the child is, of course, not losing
suitable schooling, but is kept at home in the care of parents or guardians—in
some cases much to their distress—although the latter naturally
depends largely on how bad the child is.
There seems no immediate prospect of these conditions being
alleviated, but 1 feel justified in drawing your attention to them.
This year I have thought it wise to bring a fresh mind into this
Annual Report, and I have asked Dr. Currie his views of the School
Health Service in Bromley. Dr. Currie has been Assistant Medical
Officer in Bromley since 1946, and he reports as follows: —
" No observations upon the present state of health of the children
would be complete without some reference to past reports and statistics.
For this reason I have been studying the Annual Reports since
1909. To have attempted to compile graphs or columns of comparative
figures for these forty odd years would have been a very ambitious
undertaking requiring consideiable skill if a true picture was to be
obtained. During the period of the last war, for example, considerable
evacuation of the child population occurred, making accurate records
and therefore conclusions impossible. In view of this and as most
of us do not appreciate long columns of figures by themselves, I propose
just to note down a few of the more interesting—even startlingfacts
which caught my particular attention.
1909. The average time (for treatment) of some of the cases of ringworm
was 9 months, and in many cases over one year.
15% of the children examined had defective vision—six cases
of opacities and five of cataracts were observed.
Seventy children had defective hearing.
81% (of 1,076) children confessed to never cleaning their teeth.
1913. 5% of 1,328 children had rickets.
1917. 31 cases of ringworm were seen. 3% of children were infested
with "pediculi," and,
1923. 3.4% were found to be unclean. 70% of children at routine
inspection actually required dental treatment—which corresponds
to the figure indicated by the Chief Medical Officer of the
Board of Education.
So much for the first twenty-five years—the next period reveals
a steady all-round improvement. This can also be shown by a study
of the number of children found requiring treatment at routine medical
inspections. These have shown a variation from 12% (1923) to 9%
(1951), but have not fallen regularly and uniformly, but 1 feel sure the
general trend is to lower figures still; so much so that the question
has been raised as to the necessity of these examinations. A very
good case can be made out for their discontinuance; as I admit that it
comes as quite a surprise to discover an abnormality nowadays—quite
the converse of my colleagues' experience half a century ago. Further,