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96
To the School Medical Officer,
County Borough of East Ham,
Education Committee.
Dear Sir,
I have pleasure in sending you my report of the work of the
Ophthalmic Clinic during the past year.
During this period I have examined 890 cases of defective
vision referred to me by the School Medical Officers at their routine
examinations, and have also re-examined 645 children kept under
observation for Myopia or some other condition which was likely
to become worse.
Such supervision lengthens the waiting list and increases the
work of the clinic to a considerable extent, but it is the successful
management of such cases which prevents their drifting into
Myopic schools, and later, when they come to compete with
normally sighted persons, falling into the lower ranks of wage
earners through no, fault of their own.
I would once more draw attention to the need, in East Ham,
for a special school for weakly children (not necessarily those with
defective sight). In many instances the natural reluctance of
mothers to part with children who have occupied so much of their
thoughts prevents their being sent to a residential school—at
present the only course open to us.
I have also treated 49 cases of eye disease—generally corneal
ulcers and phlyctmular conjunctivitis. These conditions are
almost entirely preventable by improving the conditions of life, and
attending to the health of the teeth, tonsils, and hair of those who
attend the schools, and friendly co-operation of parents is essential
if we are to prevent these diseases—which look so innocent at their
commencement—from resulting in serious impairment of vision
and disfigurement. Those cases which do not improve we still
send to Miss Hudson's Home at Bushey Park, and we have to
thank her ,for some remarkable results.
One or two children I have had up to the Royal Westminster
Ophthalmic Hospital, and have seen them in consultation with
my colleagues there and at Charing Cross Hospital.
Working in a large Clinic such as that in East Ham one
is distressed by many cases of squint. This deformity results from