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vii.
objects. He does not know that he is working harder than other children to
see, but the effect of the strain is revealed by headaches and weariness, and
eventually by the defect in the eyesight becoming too great for the natural
powers of accommodation to overcome. Proper lens would not only remove
the strain, but in most cases would cure the condition. It does not follow
that because a person has to wear spectacles for some years in childhood
that he will have to wear them all his life. But the error of refraction does
not cure itself, and tends to become worse if left untreated. I have little
doubt that nearly all parents would themselves take steps to rectify these
errors did they but know of them. It is surely the duty of the Education
Authority, which stands in loco parentis to the child, to discover and point
them out.
In the great majority of these cases the glasses required would be of a
simple kind, and the cost of a pair of spectacles probably not more than a few
shillings, perhaps from 2/6 to 3/6 a pair. The question of the provision of
spectacles is considered in the Report, and various instances are quoted where
arrangements are made to assist the parent too poor to buy them unaided.
(Vol. I., page 28, par. 105). The plans adopted at Bolton and Salford seem to
be the most practicable, as by them the parent eventually pays the whole cost,
and probably therefore takes care that they are properly used.
Defective Hearing and Teeth. Defective hearing is not so common
as faulty eyesight, and the proportion of cases in which treatment shows
immediately beneficial results is far smaller. Nevertheless there are a few cases
in which the deafness can be remedied by simple means, such for instance as those
due to adenoid growths, but I am not enthusiastic enough to expect any very
great general benefit to result from medical inspection of children with defective
hearing. Nor do I anticipate that much improvement would result from
inspection of the teeth of the children, becausc I am not prepared to urge the
appointment of a School Dentist. But it is an undoubted fact that defective
teeth are a frequent cause of ill-heath, and that many young adults, in all other
respects perfectly fit, are annually refused entry into the Army on account of
bad teeth. The greatest benefit that would result from periodical inspection of
teeth would be noticed after the children had been taught how to take proper
care of them and to keep them clean.