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known to the School Medical Officer who have been infested
with lice for months and even for years. By far the
greater number of the cases of infection found in the
schools are of slight degree, and indicate recent contamination
by a dirty child, for which the parent of the clean child
cannot always be blamed. But few parents will be now found
who will excuse the presence of living vermin in the hair, as
used to be done in old days. There still remains, however,
a remarkable indifference in some mothers to the presence of
the eggs or ova in the hair. The excuse is often made that
the eggs are dead. It cannot be too strongly insisted on
that the presence of the eggs, whether dead or alive, is the
mark of a loathsome insect, and should not be tolerated by
any mother who is proud of her children.
Mental Condition.—Many children were found to be
markedly below the normal level of intellect. There were
also some apparently dull children seen who were found on
careful examination to be partly deprived of the "avenues
of sensation" owing to deafness or defective eyesight. Some
children, again, were merely backward owing to long absence
from school. Occasional children are met with in which the
dulled mentality is due to chronic under-feeding or underclothing.
The most important event of the year making for the
welfare of these children was the passing of the Mental Deficiency
Act, 1913. While this measure only deals in general
with mentally defectives over 16 years of age, it will probably
be completed by the passing of the complementary bill now
before Parliament dealing with Mentally Defective Children.
In future a new duty will fall on the Local Education
Authority, that of ascertaining the names and addresses of
all children who are mentally defective. This will add appreciably
to the work of the School Medical Officer, and throws
on him a great responsibility, that of deciding whether a
child is mentally defective or not.