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63
German school, with the idea of seeing how this scholar
examination is conducted in that country :—
"One morning, at 9 o'clock, I went with one of the
school doctors to an elementary school in one of the poorest
quarters of Wiesbaden. We proceeded direct to the department
where the infant boys were. The class teacher, a man,
had already received notice of the visit. He had, in a simple
portfolio, a series of schedules, printed back and front. On
the schedules he had already entered the names, addresses,
ages, names of parents, occupations, class, the height and
weight, and one or two other particulars. The portfolio was
handed, with some explanations, to the Doctor, who forthwith
proceeded to examine the children in their order. He
did so in the class-room, for in this school there is not a
doctor's room. He had meanwhile secured from a higher
class two boys whose duty is was to assist in undressing and
redressing the children. He examined first the general
condition, and I must say most of the children were thin.
They did not seem to me any better nourished than our own
children of the same grade; but, as simple inspection is very
deceptive, I make this remark subject to the correction
afforded by the heights and weights. The doctor recorded
the nature of the constitution as good, medium, bad. He
examined the throat and teeth, using a separate piece of
wood as a tongue depressor for each child, and throwing it
away to be burned afterwards.
"He examined nose, ears, eyes, skin, bones, joints, spine,
heart, lungs, ascertained the presence or absence of hernia
(rupture), measured the chest, tested the speech by making
the child repeat certain test words, tested the eyesight
roughly, and the hearing roughly. In suspected cases, eyes
and ears are afterwards examined more thoroughly. Any
defects requiring correction or further expert examination
are referred to the parents, who receive either a verbal or a
written message, saying that the child should be taken to