504 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Table II 



Indicating Place of Treatment, of Defects Other than Teeth, as Eeported 



on School Cards. 



Table III 



Indicating Place of Treatment of Defective Teeth, as Eeported on School 



Cards. 



The same to a much greater degree is true of dental work. 156 

 private dentists were consulted as against 40 in the clinics. It is a re- 

 markable showing, considering that three of the four schools are in the 

 poor sections of the city. The conditions can be ascribed to the follow- 

 ing three causes : (1) parents do not want to pauperize their children in 

 taking them to free dispensaries; (2) people have not strong faith in 

 the effectiveness of dispensary treatment; and (3) the hours of the dis- 

 pensaries are in many instances not suited to the convenience of the 

 children and, furthermore, going to a dispensary, under the present 

 conditions of overcrowding, entails long hours of waiting. 



All of the figures quoted in this inquiry must, of course, be taken 

 with many grains of salt. The element of negligence and error on the 

 part of the physicians and nurses making out the records must be taken 

 into consideration. Then, the four schools selected out of a total of 513 

 public schools of the city of New York may not reflect prevailing condi- 

 tions adequately. These considerations lead one to insist on the im- 

 portance of a similar study on a large and comprehensive scale where the 

 element of error would be minimized and the conditions in a majority of 

 schools in all parts of the greater city analyzed. Meanwhile, the present 

 fragmentary study tends to indicate: (first) that although the difference 

 in the economic and educational status of the various classes of the 

 population is a factor to be reckoned with in adopting measures leading 

 to efficiency of medical inspection of school children, yet the average 



