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51
6 cases were found in 1080 older boys examined, only 2 in
the older girls, 1 amongst the infant boys, and 1 amongst
the infant girls.
The case of a boy, not in the routine age groups,
presented to me by the Head Teacher, was one of the worst I
have ever seen, the facial and bodily contortions accompanying
the attempt at speech being painful to watch. Such children
require to be dealt with very patiently. I have noted with
pleasure the improvement made in several cases where the
teachers have made the children do the special deep breathing
exercises which I have advised, for many of the cases are
cured when they have learnt to expand the chest fully before
attempting to speak.
In 12 children the speech was nasal owing to the
presence of large tonsils and adenoids. Cleft palate accounted
for 4 cases of defective speech, and deafness was the responsible
cause in others. A child who only hears very indistinctly will
only reproduce his words indistinctly, consonants being more
badly produced than the vowels, vowel deafness being a
degree worse than consonant deafness.
MORBUS CORDIS.
Heart disease was found in 1.2 per cent, of the older
boys, in 2.1 per cent. of the older girls, and in
1.6 per cent. of the infants. Most of the cases
were due to rheumatism, a few only being congenital in
origin. Cases undoubtedly functional in nature are not
included in the above figures. In all cases general advice was
given as to avoidance of damp and cold, the necessity for the