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141
The increasingly low percentage of children found, at routine
medical inspection, to require treatment is worthy of further comment.
The steadily expanding interest in health generally, and
particularly in regard to the health and physical development of
the growing child, which has been fostered by the persistent
efforts of the School Medical Department, is tending to ensure
the treatment of defects at their inception. Consequently the
discovery, at school medical inspection, of gross, old-standing or
neglected defects is becoming less and less common. Reference
to Table II will provide additional evidence of this fact, since the
routine examination of 5,810 children revealed only 858 defects
requiring treatment, whereas there were 3,094 conditions referred
to the School Clinics by teachers, nurses, parents, and attendance
officers.
There has been a noteworthy reduction in the number of
cases of skin infection, especially impetigo, in the number of cases
of external eye disease, and of catarrhal chest conditions.
(a) Uncleanliness.
The School Nurses have carried out three cleanliness surveys
of all children in the elementary schools during the year 1937.
During the year the School Nurses made 41,725 examinations,
as compared with 44,145 in 1936. Of this number 146 children
showed vermin and many nits in the hair (157 in 1936), whilst
1,349 children showed only a few nits (1,354 in 1936).