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37
HEAD-LICE.
During the year under review the position has been as follows:
Children.
Total number of inspections -of children made in the
schools by the School Nurses 4,803
Number of individual children found to be unclean at
above 181
Number of ditto found to be unclean at School Medical
Inspections 5
Proportion of children found unclean at all inspections 3.76%
Number successfully cleansed by parent or guardian without
requiring exclusion for more than 24 hours 178
Number excluded for longer than 24 hours 8
Number of cases in which legal proceedings were taken
(a) Under the Education Act 1921 2
(b) Under the School Attendance Byelaws Nil
Adults.
Number of adults with head-lice referred from factories
Number of adults applying for treatment independently 5
It will thus be seen that, unlike Scabies, infestation of the head
remains a problem largely of school-children, among whom it has been
well described as the most stubborn remaining obstruction to the
securing of a really national system of education.
Further, an analysis of case-names reveals that head-infestation
tends always to repeat itself in certain families, of which in Richmond
there appear to be some fifty. In course of time the children of these
families have been listed by the School Nurses, whose duty it has
become urgently to review their state of cleanliness whenever school
re-opens, and in some cases after each weekend. Special visits are
also paid to the home in these cases so as to give encouragement and
help to the mother; it has been found that more can be achieved in
this way than by older methods.