DR. DAVID FORSYTH'S PAPER 131 



affected in each year, summarizes the incidence of the 

 more important defects : 



O year I year 2 years 3 years 4 years 



Teeth ' ... ... 2*6 ... 18-1 ..*. 34-0 ... 63-6 



Tonsils ... ... 7-8 ... 16-9 ... 24-0 ... 26-9 



Adenoids ... 1-5 ... 10-4 ... 22-9 ... 38:0 ... 33-3 



Rickets ... 13-0 ... 25^9 ... 9*6 ... 8 m o ... 3*0 



Diet modified ... 49-6 ... 22*8 ... 6-0 ... ... 



The practical conclusion from the point of view 

 of prevention and curative treatment hardly needs 

 stating. Suffice it to say that there is no reason to 

 suppose that the children examined at the Centre 

 differ materially from other children of their class, 

 at any rate in urban areas, and it is highly probable 

 that, as similar Inspection Centres are organized 

 elsewhere, the results will be, in the main, similar 

 to those in Westminster. In other words, large 

 numbers of children, healthy in all respects at birth, 

 become, within five years, the physically defective 

 entrants whom the Education Authority is required, 

 at no small cost, to restore, so far as possible, to their 

 original state of health. Yet most of these cases are 

 preventible, or, if taken in time, can be remedied 

 more speedily, and therefore more cheaply, than if 

 left until school age ; by which time not a few will 

 have received permanent damage, physical or mental. 

 The problem of the defective child largely resolves 

 itself into the problem of the under school age child, 

 and seems hardly likely to be solved by any scheme 

 short of a national one ensuring to all children regular 

 medical supervision from birth to school age. And 

 this, to be fully successful, must run side by side with 

 educational measures for instructing the mothers 

 themselves who, from ignorance far more than from 

 wilful neglect or even from indigence, are unable to 

 safeguard their children's health. 



