Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Ilford]
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(g) Advising the authority on special points; lecturing
to the teachers and advising them as to the curriculum
for certain children, and as to general matters of
health.
(h) Examination of the health of teachers and other
employes.
The report goes on to state that it must not be assumed
that all these duties are assigned to every Medical Officer,
and in point of fact very seldom are all assigned to him.
In Ilford, most of the duties stated above are carried out,
and I trust as time goes on, that they will all be attended to
and carried out in their entirety.
One of the most difficult would be (e) the making of an
anthropometric survey, as it involves a great amount of time
and detail; but it is one that would be most interesting, and
could be tried as an experiment in two of the schools—say
one of the Council schools and one of the non-provided schools.
An interesting comparison could then be made between the
physique and stamina of the two sets of children.
The following extract from the list of duties of the
Medical Officer for Kidderminster shows the possibilities
which lie before a sympathetic Officer.
"The funotion of the Medical Offloer in relation to the
children in the schools is preventive, and in
individual cases only applied to matters involving
educational questions. The conditions of the special
senses, the avenues of knowledge, are of great
importance with regard to educational success. The
officer can call attention to the need of glasses, but
has nothing to do with prescribing them. He may