London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Ilford 1905

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Ilford]

This page requires JavaScript

87
school after 5, than those who started before. It is a
matter which requires careful consideration, and the effect
studied.
UNDERFED CHILDREN.
A good deal of attention has been paid to this matter
during the year, but the amount of underfeeding in Ilford,
is not great. In most of the schools 2 or 3 children in each
department was about the average, and these were generally
examples rather of bad feeding than under feeding. I
examined about 40 of these children and most of them were
suffering from malnutrition. I then personally visited most
of the homes concerned. The father was generally out of
work, or they were children of widows; so that in about
two-thirds of these cases, there was real need of some help.
It is a very difficult matter to deal with, as the supply is very
apt to create the demand, and that was the case in about onethird
of the cases mentioned above.
During the year I was appointed to act under the
Epileptic and Defective Childrens' Act, and one severe case
of Epilepsy in a boy 12 years of age, was examined and sent
to Lingfield School. There are about a dozen defective
children scattered through the schools, who are deriving no
benefit from their present instruction.
VISION.
Out of the number of ohildren who have been examined
for defective vision, 27 have been advised to seek medical
advice, and a certain proportion have had spectacles in consequence.
Some did not need them and in other instances