ENGLAND DEVELOPS SCHOOL HYGIENE.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1918, Page 7

ENGLAND DEVELOPS SCHOOL HYGIENE.

CHECK ON HUMAN WRECKAC.E. The results ot an exhaustive btudy of the syst?m of medical inspection of schools in Great Britain by Dr. L. 1,. Roberts, chief medical examiner of public schools of Nashville, Tenn., have just been published by the Bureau of Kduc.itiou of the Department of the Interior. Dr Roberta went int> the history, the methods of administration, the medical procedure of examinations, and the remedial measures in general use, and, while he made, no comparison with the machinery of school hygiene in operation in this country, he showed that Great Britain hits elaborated gradually a system which inspects the child at the outset of its Bchool career, adapts its environment and its education to its need, watches it step by step during its growth, and endeavors to salvage, so far as possible, all those neglect of whose special needs led them in former times to become eventually bits of human wreckage, dependent upon the communities in which thev lived The writer recites that the work began in London several years before it was made a legal requirement for the whole country, and that the scope given to the work in the metropolis awl the complexity of the problems which there oevolv«d upon the medical officer have given great weight to its example and counsels. "London," he points out in his summary of his work, "has maintained additional features which it should be impossible to exteud to smaller areas, but which have yielded results oi universal value. For example, a research laboratory was established in the capital as early as liJOi, and its administration provided for the systematic records of all observations conducted by the experts in charge; these records have been steadily maintained up to the present time. "From the beginning," he writes, "it has been the aim of the British system to relieve children suffering from hunger, disease, and infirmity, as well as to discover the cases needing relief. The treatment provided by the State is thorough. ft does not stop with the present condition of the child, but seeks for the cause in the home conditions, the social or industrial environments of the child, in the belief that the removal of the cause may prevent a recurrence of the condition, if a school child is the victim of a filthy condition in the home, the whole familv may be taken to a cleansing station for treatment and the home itself subjected to a complete renovation. 'The authority given to the Board of Education in respect to the medical inspection of schools is explicit; no school medical officer can be employed without the approval of this body, and no plan of medical inspection can be put into operation without first passing under the | scrutinising eyes of the board's medical staff. All plans of school feeding must also be passed on by the 'board'before they can be put into operation by a local authority if they provide for an expenditure out of the rates (local taxes). Thus Hie Board of 'Education has control of one branch of health ' work, while the general health officers have charge of the other, and they work in close union tor the amelioration of suffering ajid the upbuilding of the majjjiood of the nation."