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Ophthalmic Clinic.
During the year there was a total of 486 errors of
refraction, including 58 children suffering from squint.
In 349 instances spectacles were prescribed, and in every
case these were obtained.
The' difficulty usually experienced in causing a
sensitive school child to wear spectacles was minimised
by a periodic checking on the part of the school nurses,
and by ensuring through the medium of Toddler Clinics, that
treatment was instituted before the child actually
commenced attendance at school, In many instances,
a potential squint was treated before the actual
development of asymmetry, thus forestalling all risk of
amblyopia at a later date.
Aural Clinic.
The Visiting Aural Surgeon, Dr. Clarke, reports that
"The Aural Clinic has been carried or without interruption
during the year 1941 at the Municipal Medical Centre, Park
Lane. For the greater part of the year there was one
session weekly-(a wartime measure)- but as the numbers
increased towards the latter end of the year It was decided
to revert to the original two sessions weekly. One of
these, once a fortnight, is now devoted to the special
treatment of tonsils by Tonsil Suction.
For the first five months of the year there was a
rather large number of absentees from the Treatment Clinics,
no doubt largely due to the continued air raids and evacuation
during this period. As conditions quietened down during the
latter half of the year, the attendances noticeably improved.
As a fixed objective, for some time, special attention
has been given to the sorting out, and detection of predisposing
causes' of aural and nasal troubles in pre-school
children. In 1941, 42 pre-school children were ' examined
and prescribed for at the Clinic fcr nasal defects, alone.
This is an increase of 40 over the normal pre-war year of .1938.
Whether it is just a coincidence or not, a parallel fall has
occurred in the number of similar group children seen for
Acute Otitis (middle ear inflammation), There were 4 in 1941
as against 28 in 1938.
There is no doubt that the best way of "treating" Otitis
or ear inflammation in children is by prevention, and as
practically all acute ear troubles in young children arise
through predisposing farters in the nasal mechanism, the early
detection and efficient treatment of these nasal factors is
the method of choice towards prevention.
There has been r steady decline in the number of cases
of Chronic Otorrhoea, The total number seen at the Clinic for
the year was only 29, and of these 11 were cases where a radical
mastoid operation had been done, in some cases, years
previously. The tendency to chronicity in this type of case
is well known. Zinc Ionisation has been the main method of
treatment and its results in our experience, far outweigh
that of any other known to us.
We wish again to emphasise the great importance of
including infants and pre-school children in the scheme of
approved aural and nasal treatment.