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IX.
Turning now from the general aspect of the question of medical inspection,
it may be well to consider it more particularly with reference to our own
district, and its importance in connection with certain specific diseases.
The history of the proposed appointment of a School Doctor by the
Education Committee, the various stages the matter has passed through, and
its present position is fully stated in Appendix I. of the Second Annual Report
of the Education Committee, published in April, 1905. The proposed duties
of the Medical Officer there set out, are practically those that I suggested to
the Committee, but they were drawn up on the assumption that the doctor
appointed would give up his whole time to the work. I am still of the opinion
that a whole-time doctor for the Schools in this district would find plenty of
work to keep him very fully occupied, but I think that the time is not yet ripe
to ask for this, and that the ratepayer will have gradually to be shown the good
that would result, and be educated to understand the importance of medical
inspection, before he will cease to oppose such an appointment. A part-time
doctor would probably not be objected to, and might even be approved of by
some of the more enlightened inhabitants. Half a loaf being better than no
bread, I think those members of the Committee who supported the original
idea, might modify their views and be content for the present with a more
limited one. This would of course necessitate a modification of the scheme of
duties to be carried out.
A definite schema cannot be properly made till the amount of time that
the Medical Officer would be expected to devote to it has been settled, but there
are certain main points to be insisted on, leaving the details to be arranged
later on.
I suggest the following, simply as the basis for discussion:—
The duties of a Medical School Inspector may be divided into three chief
groups:—
1. The general inspection of the children and teachers in the schools.
2. The special inspection of the abnormal and unhealthy.
3. Detective and preventive measures in connection with infectious
diseases.
(1). The ideal thing under the first of these headings would be a careful and
systematic anthropometrical survey of every child every year, including records
of weight, height, chest measurement and details of the physical development