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In addition to the usual routine examinations, many children attend for treatment of
external eye diseases and a few minor operations are carried out in the clinic. Others attend
for repair of broken glasses, some are seen in the main eye clinic to decide if repair should
be done or whether a re-examination is necessary for a new prescription, but many go straight
to the optician for adjustments and repair.
The orthoptic department is also working well and with the close co-operation between
orthoptist and myself, the results obtained from treatment for squints are very satisfactory.
The squint operations are as usual performed at Whipps Cross Hospital as are other eye operations
on children from this clinic.
Children referred from the Child Welfare Clinic as well as school children are seen
regularly, and the young children attend more frequently for treatments, as results are better
where treatment is commenced and carried out regularly while young.
The number of attendances in the eye clinic during 1954 was 7,427; of these 1,116 were
under school age; and 1,590 pairs of glasses were ordered. Seventy-one squint operations and
4 ptosis operations were performed on children from the West Ham clinic in Whipps Cross
Hospital.
Attendances to the optician numbered 5,348. From the number of prescriptions given
1,193 were dispensed in this clinic, 397 were taken to outside opticians. The other attendances
to the optician were for repairs, replacements and adjustments.
The number of attendances in the orthoptic clinic was 2,520, and of these 460 were
under school age.
This clinic is administered by the West Ham Group of the Hospital Management Committee
but is held at the Stratford School Clinic, 84, West Ham Lane, E.15. The clinic is open
between the houys of 9 a.m. and 5.15 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. and 12 noon on Saturdays.
DEFECTIVE COLOUR VISION. The Confusion Chart Test designed by Professor Ishihara, of
Tokyo University, and known as the Ishihara Test, is a satisfactory test for general use in
the School Health Service. The test has been used here for many years, but only in the case
of children attending grammar schools and other higher schools, for boys who have entered for
Sea Training Scholarships, and for those children who propose entering services where correct
colour discrimination is necessary. Women are frequently carriers of the defect without
themselves having defective colour vision and, therefore, the incidence of the defect in girls
is very much smaller than it is in boys. Defective colour vision is of fairly frequent
occurrence in males - about one in every twenty being affected, but in girls, as stated, it is
much less common.
The colour defective boy may be at a serious disadvantage in any profession or trade
which demands accurate colour discrimination. Among the various industries in which colour
discrimination is important are the following - textile manufacture, electrical trades,
drapery and photographic industries, printing ink manufacture, the paint industry, painting,
pottery and allied trades, the chemical industry and in industrial laboratories.
Since it is a severe handicap in certain occupations it is clearly in the child's
interests that it should be discovered before his career is decided. The test, which is
given quickly, easily explained and understood by the pupils, is given at the age of 14
years. In many cases, the boy and parent, when informed of the defect state that they are
aware of it- they often explain in various ways how they became aware of it. When a defect
Is found the parent is advised and the head teacher informed.
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