LONDON’S POOR

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 892, 8 February 1930, Page 28

LONDON’S POOR

MANY CHILDREN SUFFER FINE MEDICAL WORK Although the child crossing-sweeper whose cry of hunger Dickens voiced so poignantly is nothing more than a memory, there are thousands of children in London who still do not know what a square meal is. There are, according to the medical officer for the London County Council, no fewer than 10,000 children in poor districts who are suffering from malnutrition, says the “Star.” This is the kind of thing which the Special Services of Education In London are trying to remedy. About 3,000 youngsters are having dinners every day, while 9,000 mouths open wide for doses, not of brimstone and treacle, but a tastier and more nourishing mixture. The London County Council’s activities are not merely educational. As an interesting little volume published by the University of London Press rej veals, there is a splendidly organised 1 service which ministers not only to the mental, but the bodily welfare of the young Londoners. The work is carried on by the London County i Council as part of its work as the i local education authority—an example ! to lesser cities whose problems may | be almost as severe. I Many ill-nourished children are found by the doctors at the school I medical inspections. One doctor re-

cently said:—“We find that often the children who are badly nourished are the children of the very respectable type. This is because the income goes in keeping up respectability. “The parents of these children will never ask for help.” There is a depth of tragedy- in that doctor’s words. “Thorough” is the watchword of the medical services, which have had an amazingly beneficial effect on the health of the children. The first careful weighing and measuring in London schools was carried out in a group of South London schools in 1904. Twenty years later in the same schools it was found that the average eight-year-old boy was half an inch taller and three-quarters of a pound heavier than his forerunners had been. “There are officers in the service of the L.C.C.,” it is stated, “who can remember in the early days of medical inspections, when children were actually found to have been sewn into their clothes for the winter.” Bad teeth, defective eyesight and physical defects are gradually becoming things of the past, and special attention is being paid to youngsters suffering from tuberculosis. As soon as a child enters school life he is medically examined and there are three other regular inspections—the second at the age of eight, the third at 12, and the final one on approaching the age of 14. The parents are invited to attend the inspections. Under the council’s scheme, 30,000 pairs of spectacles were prescribed the year before last. Similar progress is being made with dental treatment. “Facilities for treatment are available at centres covering practically the whole of London,” it is stated. ‘From one dental surgeon the number had increased by 1927 to 86. From one chair in the corner of a borrowed room the accommodation has increased to 61 dental centres.” Play centres, holidays, cleanliness, the prevention of cruelty, after-care, open-air schools, and the treatment of juvenile delinquents are subjects embraced by the expansive work of the Special Services of Education in London.