1904-5.] THE MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOL CHILDREN. 193 
Health Officer or local Board of Health,” on forms supplied by the school 
authorities, and authority is given the teacher to (Public Health Act, 
sec. 103, sub-sec. 3) prevent the attendance of said pupil or pupils until 
medical evidence of the falsity of the report has been obtained.” And 
to further this, medical inspection was made compulsory in February, 
1903, when a series of regulations were passed by the Provincial Board 
of Health, and approved of by an Order-in-Council, having special re- 
ference to diphtheria and scarlet fever, (Regulation re Diphtheria, sec. 
8: Re Scarlet Fever, sec. 9) wherein provision was made, ‘“‘whereby the 
Medical Health Officer shall personally, or through another physician, cause 
a daily examination of all the children of the school room, for at least 
one week from the date of the occurrence of the last case amongst the 
children, and further, provided that absentees from the same school 
should be similarly examined at their own homes’’; these provisions ap- 
plied to both diseases, and speaking recently on the Regulations, Dr. 
Sheard, Medical Health Officer, of Toronto, said: (Sanitary Journal, 
P.B°H. 1904, page 19) ‘‘The Provincial Board of Health last year 
very properly provided for the personal inspection of every pupil 
and every absentee, where a case of scarlet fever or diphtheria 
appeared amongst the pupils of a public school. I will not say 
that in Toronto that has been done with mathematical exactness, 
because we have over 30,000 school children to supervise, but I am 
proud to say the work has been done in the spirit and with the as- 
surance that it would prove satisfactory to all who care to study our 
methods.”’ 
With this review of the Educational and Health requirements as 
set forth in the Statutes of the Province, it will be noticed that so far 
as Ontario is concerned, it has in part adopted the principle set forth 
by Dr. A. Watt Smith, a recent writer on the subject, in the following 
words : 
“The state having made education compulsory, cannot divest it- 
self of the responsibility of taking reasonable precautions to ensure that 
the conditions under which children are instructed shall not be such 
as to disseminate infectious diseases or produce physical deteriora- 
tion.” (Physical Deterioration; Its Cause and Cure. A. Watt Smith, 
page 117). As to how we stand in comparison with other countries 
and municipalities, will be seen in the following review of the situation : 
The first system of medical inspection was that established in the 
City of Brussels, some thirty years ago. This has from time to time 
been improved upon ; marked changes being made twelve years ago, 
these partaking of the nature of a medical control, in addition to an in- 
