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 Walthamstow]
This page requires JavaScript
| Boys. | Girls. | Totals. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convergent Squint | R | 23 | R | 15 | 38 |
| „ | L | 19 | L | 40 | 59 |
| Divergent Squint | R | — | — | — | |
| „ | L | 1 | — | 1 | |
| Occasional Squint | — | 1 | 1 | ||
| Alternating Squint | 8 | 8 | 6 | ||
| 46 | 59 | 105 | |||
The above table shows the nature and sex incidence of this deformity.
Thirty-seven children showed evidence of Unilateral Convergent Squint,
six children had Alternating Squint, one child a Divergent Unilateral
Squint, and one child squinted occasionally.
The left eye is much more frequently involved than the right.
GROUP B.
Ninety-seven per cent of the children submitted for treatment had
defective sight, due to errors of refraction, a condition in which the
eye is slightly out of shape, or has a difficulty or insufficient power of
focussing.
The optical conditions associated with defective sight are known as
(1.) Hypermetropia. (2.) Astigmatism. (3.) Myopia.
Odd eyes is a condition in which one eye is Hypermetropic, the
other Myopic.
The appended Table II shows the relative proportions of the various
forms of error of refraction:—
TABLE II.
| Totals. | Per cent. | |
|---|---|---|
| Hypermetropia | 245 | 45.63 |
| Hyp. Astigmatism | 158 | 29.43 |
| Mixed Astigmatism | 22 | 4.09 |
| Myopia | 59 | 10.99 |
| Myopic Astigmatism | 24 | 4.46 |
| Odd Eyes | 29 | 5.40 |
| 537 | 100.00 |