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On average, there has been a very good attendance, of children, school and
pre-school, at all the clinics throughout the year, and in those instances requiring
special treatment over a long period attendance was equally good, almost all
completing the courses prescribed for them. The results were, on the whole, very
satisfactory and appreciated by the parents.
The primary object of these special clinics since their establishment in the
early twenties has been chiefly in the field of prevention. In no other group can
the ideals of preventive medicine be better illustrated, or the excellent effects
of its correct practice be more clearly demonstrated than among school and preschool
children.
It is well known that many of the chronic ailments and debilitating conditions
met with among the adult public had their origin during school age, and are the
results of undetected, or incorrectly treated, or neglected symptomatic predisposing
factors in childhood. During childhood there are many signs, symptoms or
"complaints" which may be considered only trivial by parents but which to the
trained and competent observer indicate, if not treated a portent of serious consequences
to follow - perhaps a permanent disability in later life. It is to these
"complaints" among school and pre-school children that this preventive work can
be most suitably adopted, by detecting, investigating and treating the very earliest
stages of many diseases and abnormal conditions and thus prevent their development
into a chronic form requiring perhaps later, radical surgical procedures.
The frequency with which the early signs of certain serious defects occur
in the ear, and nose particularly - less often in the throat - among children of
school and even pre-school age would appear not to be sufficiently realised.
They are often very slight but significant symptoms and may sometimes pass
unnoticed or incorrectly appreciated. This tendency may be due to a too cursory
general examination, or to the situation of the symptoms being remote from the
ear or nose their relationship with their real site of origin is not suspected. As
well, the symptoms may be slight and cause no great discomfort at this stage and
so their presence is not regarded as of much consequence.
In the case of the ear, perhaps the most common defect is deafness in school
and adult life, which can be traced in very many instances to an otitis media,
neglected or improperly treated during early school or pre-school years. We have
found from experience that the correct treatment can be carried out satisfactorily
only at the clinics. Home treatment is usually unreliable. Chronic deafness,
t oo, can be due to abnormal conditions left untreated in the nose, such as "nasal
obstruction", sinusitis, rhinitis, whose early symptoms are quite common in young
children. They act by interference with the necessary aeration of the middle ear,
or by the extension of infection into the middle ear and set up a suppurative
otitis media which may progress to the chronic form and permanent deafness.
The normal functions of the healthy nose owing to their controlling influence
over the fine working of the chest organs, lungs, heart and circulation, certain
abdominal organs, and the brain are of special importance in the maintenance of
the health of body and mind. Many of the early signs of defects which interfere