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to continue at school and to attend at the Health Centre daily
for treatment. A considerable amount of loss of school attendance
is obviated in this way and no difficulties have arisen as
a result of the cases continuing at school.
(d) Visual Defects and External Eye Disease. There were
twelve cases of external eye disease amongst the 1,999 routine
children examined. This gives a percentage of 0.60%. Eleven
of the cases were due to blepharitis and some of these were
very mild. In addition, there was one case of conjunctivitis.
No case of keratitis was discovered.
At the special inspections there were sixty-six cases or
2.72% due to external eye disease. Thirty-three were due to
blepharitis, thirty-one to conjunctivitis, and two to keratitis.
Serious conditions such as keratitis and corneal opacities are
fortunately not commonly found amongst the school children in
Wimbledon.
Defective vision is one of the most important defects discovered
amongst school children. At the routine medical
inspection fifty-nine children were found to be suffering from
defective vision requiring treatment, and thirteen to be suffering
from squint. This makes a total of seventy-two cases requiring
treatment or 3.60% of the children examined. The figure for
the previous year was 4.14%. The actual incidence of defective
vision requiring treatment is, however, higher than 3.60%.
Of the 1,999 children examined as routine cases six hundred and
thirty-five were entrants and in the majority of these it was
impossible to carry out subjective visual tests on account of their
age. In addition, ninety-nine children with slighter degrees of
defective vision were found at school. These cases did not
require treatment but required to be kept under observation.
In the absence of medical inspection a large number of children
would undoubtedly be handicapped in their school life by uncorrected
defective vision, and their education would suffer very
considerably.
Of the children examined as special cases at the Health
Centre there were forty-three with defective vision and four with
squint requiring treatment, and eight with defective vision or
squint requiring to be kept under observation. The cases which
are kept under observation and not referred for immediate treatment
are those with minor defects of vision.
These children are re-examined by the Medical Officer when
the school is next visited. If necessary, they are then referred
to the Refraction Clinic for examination by the Ophthalmic
Surgeon.
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