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21
"In. some patients where nasal obstruction and mouth'
breathing have been present for a long time they will continue
breathing through the mouth even after the nasal airway obstruction
has been relieved. It is necessary to re-educate these patients into
the correct way of breathing through the nose. A course of special
breathing exercises is required and among these, Plescher's method
has been used at the clinic and after a short time the child learns
to breathe naturally through the nose, and the parents notice a
decided improvement. The method is simple and consists in empty
ing, by forced nasal inspiration, and expiration by mouth a winchester
size bottle filled with water and inverted in a large bowl partly
filled with water so that the mouth of the bottle is under water.
Only two cases required hospital operative treatment.
"The usual annual clinical session was held at the School for
the Deaf and those cases which required ear and nasal attention
were referred to and treated at the E.N.T. clinic. There was only
one case of ear discharge in the school—a recurrence of discharge
in a case of chronic otorrhoea which had been 'dry' for a couple
of years after treatment by zinc ionization. Zinc ionization was
repeated and the discharge ceased in a few days.. The head teacher
of the Deaf School is very keenly on the look out for any ear, nose
or throat signs which may require attention and promptly reports
these cases."
"The numbers of cases who attended the clinic during the
year and the total attendances are shown in the statistical summary
at the end of this report."
Audiometry Survey.—Mrs. M. Dodd, the County Audiometrician,
commenced an audiometry survey of children attending
secondary modern and junior schools in the Borough at the beginning
of February.
9,226 children had their hearing tested at school, and of these
288 were referred to the medical staff for further investigation.

146 cases were referred to Dr F. Clarke at the E.N.T. Clinic,
and at the end of the year 49 had yet to be seen and 66 were still
under treatment.