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HEALTH OF LONDON SCHOOL CHILDREN:
524
by education and the practice of hygiene must be pressed into the service. Not by treatment of the
HEALTH OF LONDON SCHOOL CHILDREN:
worst cases, but by prevention at the outset, will No practical suggestion success finally be achieved." is offered in regard to prevention, and the report possibly does not mean us to infer that there is general agreement as to how dental decay is to be
REPORT FOR 1920 OF THE SCHOOL MEDICAL OFFICER, L.C.C.
prevented.
VOLUME III. of the annual report of the London County Council, which has just appeared, may be obtained from P. S. King and Son, Ltd. (No. 2104. Price 2s. 6d.). It contains in two parts the public health reports of Dr. W. H. Hamer, County M.O.H. and S.M.O., the second and longer part being headed " Education." It is this chapter which is here briefly summarised. The report, it may be remarked, has high literary merit and contains dissertations and digressions of a technical nature which add greatly to its interest.
Open-Air Education. A hopeful account is given of the treatment of suppurating ears by ionisation. Satisfactory results are reported from the classes for stammering children. The difficulties encountered in following up children suffering from defects are set out at some length. Some interesting notes by Dr. C. T. Thomas on the medical examination of school children employed in entertainments are given. Definite progress has been made during the year in the provision for open-air education. During 1920, 2700 boys were admitted to the King’s Canadian Camp School, Bushy Park (opened in August, 1919), with satisfactory results. Wanstead Houqe Camp School, accommodating 64 girls, was opened in August. Of the 2000 places in open-air day schools estimated to be required in London for non-tuberculous children, 410 places have been provided and 600 are proposed : of the 2000 places needed for tuberculous children 290 have been provided and 100 are proposed. We agree with Dr. Hamer that these open-air schools should not be closed for the summer holidays, " just at the time when the maximum benefit is being received by the children." In addition to the openair schools, much good work has been done for ailing children by the establishment of open-air classes in connexion with elementary schools.
General Pi-ofiress. Dr. Hamer opens with the statement that the results obtained during 190, so far as school medical work is concerned, were favourable beyond all expectation. The figure of 76-9 per cent. of children found satisfactorily dealt with up to the time of the second re-inspection is the highest on record sinee the Council undertook to provide treatment for ailing children. In respect of physical conditions the great gains claimed during the year are those accruing from (a) medical oversight of continuation school young persons and of children coming within the scope of the new by-laws as to employment: (b) extended medical treatment scheme affecting elementary school children, secondary school children, and any young persors unable to obtain treatment save under the Council’s scheme; and (1’) materially improved methods of cleansing now being put into operation throughout London.
Physical
Culture.
A noteworthy event of the year has been the establishment of a College of Physical Education for Tenses and Adenoids. London teachers. Facilities for attendance at the An interesting event was the opening of a centre College have been offered to teachers in the service in Woolwich at which children operated upon for and accepted bv large numbers, so that ere long the will show itself in improved enlarged tonsils and adenoids are kept for two days effect of the at the Council’s schools. Special training physical to After from this subsequent operation. discharge in physical exercises for children suffering special centre each child returns to the local centre classes for breathing exercises under the supervision of his from incipient deformities have given good results This during the last few years, and it is hoped to increase own surgeon until finally discharged as cured. is a great advance, as the results of these operations the number of such daily classes to 100 during the in out-patient departments without after-care have coming year. An experiment is recorded at Vauxhall been unsatisfactorv. It would be interesting to learn Street School, where the head teacher has endeavoured what interval usually elapses between the operation to found all the educational activities of the school The effects and the final discharge as cured, and whether the upon a basis of physical training. were shown by increased attendance and by the as are able to breathe cured patients discharged physical, moral. and mental improvement of the comfortably through their noses both when awake scholars. and asleep. There has been a considerable increase in the Nutrition, Cleanliness, Teeth,. of meals as compared with the previous provision Medical inspection during 1920 revealed a slight Thus in the last 12 school weeks of 1920, year. improvement in clothing, a continuation of the 191,514 elementary school children were fed, as deterioration in nutrition which was noted in 1919 compared with 113,747 during the corresponding (following the war years during which there was a period of 1919. notable improvement), and a continual steady Dr. A. G. W’ells deals with the difficulty of " diphimprovement in cleanliness. There has been, Dr. theria carriers," and is inclined to favour the view Hamer writes, a 30 per cent. improvement in seven that the rules as to their exclusion from school may years in verminous conditions, and this improvement haveto be relaxed. Other matters of interest dealt has been accelerated during the last three years, with are School Holidays in Relation to the Spread during which a great forward campaign against of Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria," " Scarlet Fever infestation by vermin has been going on since the and Diphtheria in Relation to Flea Prevalence," and Council made addition for the purpose to the personnel ’’ Diagnosis of Mental Defect." of th school nursing staff. The report is a record of useful work and progress Slight ground is said to havebeen gained as regards during a year in which the general death-rate and dental conditions. The report recognises the immense infant mortality of London were lower than ever problem that remains to be solved. Forty-six dental before. centres have been provided and are working at full pressure, and although the numbers of children at the WATER-SUPPLY FOR CARAVANNERS.-A Cheshire older ages with serious dental caries have been halved since provision for treatment began to be made, yet farmer was summoned at Birkenhead last week for failing 40 per cent. of the children leaving school still have to provide a sufficient supply of wholesome water to a caravaiiiier who was renting a field from him. The obligation obvious dental caries. " Now," Dr. Hamer writes, rests on a by-law made by the Ministry of Health under dental decay is held by all to be a preventable the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1885. As it was disease, and it is clear that in order to cope with this the first case of the kind the farmer was let off with the great mass of trouble all the aid that can be given payment of costs.
College
li
"
by education and the practice of hygiene must be pressed into the service. Not by treatment of the
HEALTH OF LONDON SCHOOL CHILDREN:
worst cases, but by prevention at the outset, will No practical suggestion success finally be achieved." is offered in regard to prevention, and the report possibly does not mean us to infer that there is general agreement as to how dental decay is to be
REPORT FOR 1920 OF THE SCHOOL MEDICAL OFFICER, L.C.C.
prevented.
VOLUME III. of the annual report of the London County Council, which has just appeared, may be obtained from P. S. King and Son, Ltd. (No. 2104. Price 2s. 6d.). It contains in two parts the public health reports of Dr. W. H. Hamer, County M.O.H. and S.M.O., the second and longer part being headed " Education." It is this chapter which is here briefly summarised. The report, it may be remarked, has high literary merit and contains dissertations and digressions of a technical nature which add greatly to its interest.
Open-Air Education. A hopeful account is given of the treatment of suppurating ears by ionisation. Satisfactory results are reported from the classes for stammering children. The difficulties encountered in following up children suffering from defects are set out at some length. Some interesting notes by Dr. C. T. Thomas on the medical examination of school children employed in entertainments are given. Definite progress has been made during the year in the provision for open-air education. During 1920, 2700 boys were admitted to the King’s Canadian Camp School, Bushy Park (opened in August, 1919), with satisfactory results. Wanstead Houqe Camp School, accommodating 64 girls, was opened in August. Of the 2000 places in open-air day schools estimated to be required in London for non-tuberculous children, 410 places have been provided and 600 are proposed : of the 2000 places needed for tuberculous children 290 have been provided and 100 are proposed. We agree with Dr. Hamer that these open-air schools should not be closed for the summer holidays, " just at the time when the maximum benefit is being received by the children." In addition to the openair schools, much good work has been done for ailing children by the establishment of open-air classes in connexion with elementary schools.
General Pi-ofiress. Dr. Hamer opens with the statement that the results obtained during 190, so far as school medical work is concerned, were favourable beyond all expectation. The figure of 76-9 per cent. of children found satisfactorily dealt with up to the time of the second re-inspection is the highest on record sinee the Council undertook to provide treatment for ailing children. In respect of physical conditions the great gains claimed during the year are those accruing from (a) medical oversight of continuation school young persons and of children coming within the scope of the new by-laws as to employment: (b) extended medical treatment scheme affecting elementary school children, secondary school children, and any young persors unable to obtain treatment save under the Council’s scheme; and (1’) materially improved methods of cleansing now being put into operation throughout London.
Physical
Culture.
A noteworthy event of the year has been the establishment of a College of Physical Education for Tenses and Adenoids. London teachers. Facilities for attendance at the An interesting event was the opening of a centre College have been offered to teachers in the service in Woolwich at which children operated upon for and accepted bv large numbers, so that ere long the will show itself in improved enlarged tonsils and adenoids are kept for two days effect of the at the Council’s schools. Special training physical to After from this subsequent operation. discharge in physical exercises for children suffering special centre each child returns to the local centre classes for breathing exercises under the supervision of his from incipient deformities have given good results This during the last few years, and it is hoped to increase own surgeon until finally discharged as cured. is a great advance, as the results of these operations the number of such daily classes to 100 during the in out-patient departments without after-care have coming year. An experiment is recorded at Vauxhall been unsatisfactorv. It would be interesting to learn Street School, where the head teacher has endeavoured what interval usually elapses between the operation to found all the educational activities of the school The effects and the final discharge as cured, and whether the upon a basis of physical training. were shown by increased attendance and by the as are able to breathe cured patients discharged physical, moral. and mental improvement of the comfortably through their noses both when awake scholars. and asleep. There has been a considerable increase in the Nutrition, Cleanliness, Teeth,. of meals as compared with the previous provision Medical inspection during 1920 revealed a slight Thus in the last 12 school weeks of 1920, year. improvement in clothing, a continuation of the 191,514 elementary school children were fed, as deterioration in nutrition which was noted in 1919 compared with 113,747 during the corresponding (following the war years during which there was a period of 1919. notable improvement), and a continual steady Dr. A. G. W’ells deals with the difficulty of " diphimprovement in cleanliness. There has been, Dr. theria carriers," and is inclined to favour the view Hamer writes, a 30 per cent. improvement in seven that the rules as to their exclusion from school may years in verminous conditions, and this improvement haveto be relaxed. Other matters of interest dealt has been accelerated during the last three years, with are School Holidays in Relation to the Spread during which a great forward campaign against of Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria," " Scarlet Fever infestation by vermin has been going on since the and Diphtheria in Relation to Flea Prevalence," and Council made addition for the purpose to the personnel ’’ Diagnosis of Mental Defect." of th school nursing staff. The report is a record of useful work and progress Slight ground is said to havebeen gained as regards during a year in which the general death-rate and dental conditions. The report recognises the immense infant mortality of London were lower than ever problem that remains to be solved. Forty-six dental before. centres have been provided and are working at full pressure, and although the numbers of children at the WATER-SUPPLY FOR CARAVANNERS.-A Cheshire older ages with serious dental caries have been halved since provision for treatment began to be made, yet farmer was summoned at Birkenhead last week for failing 40 per cent. of the children leaving school still have to provide a sufficient supply of wholesome water to a caravaiiiier who was renting a field from him. The obligation obvious dental caries. " Now," Dr. Hamer writes, rests on a by-law made by the Ministry of Health under dental decay is held by all to be a preventable the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1885. As it was disease, and it is clear that in order to cope with this the first case of the kind the farmer was let off with the great mass of trouble all the aid that can be given payment of costs.
College
li
"