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43
have been able to lay down some rales for the guidance of teachers,
to enable them to recognize infectious diseases, and they asked for
an expression of opinion as to the length of time children suffering
from this or that infectious disease should be kept away from
school? The Council, to which the matter was referred, carefully
considered a set of questions that had been drawn up embracing
the topics discussed between the Deputation and the Society, and
ultimately presented a Report, which having been adopted by the
Society may be fitly reproduced here, the subject being one of
undeniable importance in a sanitary point of view.
"The Council beg to report that they have considered the question
referred to them of the best means to be adopted to prevent the spread of
infectious diseases by children attending School Board Schools, and have also
had the advantage of discussing this subject with B. W. Richardson, Esq.,
M.D. F.R.S. and Professor Gladstone F.R.S., members of the School Board.
The points mainly to be considered are :
a. The course to be adopted for preventing children suffering from
infectious disease attending school during any period of their
illness, from the moment they are first attacked until the time
when they are free from infection.
b. The necessity of preventing children attending school, who are not
themselves suffering from illness, but who come from houses
where they are more or less closely associated with infectious
persons, and who therefore are themselves possible carriers of
infection.
With regard to the first point the Council think that it is impossible to
convey to a person not possessing medical knowledge, the information that
would be necessary to enable the teachers in schools to recognise the
symptoms of infectious diseases in their early stages. But they are of opinion,
that if a child be ill from any cause it is desirable for his own sake, as well as
often for the sake of other children, that his attendance at the school, should
at once be discontinued by direction of the teacher.
Moreover, if a child be away from school for more than a few days on
account of illness, it is desirable that the cause of his absence should be investigated
by a medical practitioner, and that the teacher should in such a case
require the production of a medical certificate, stating the cause of the child's
absence, and his fitness to return, before he is allowed again to present
himself at the school.
Again, if a child is known to have been absent from school through an
attack of an infectious disease, it is especially necessary that medical testimony
should be produced that the child and his clothes, as well as the
house from which he comes, are free from infection before he is allowed to
return.