MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS 



tion, cleanliness, and water supply. Visits are made to each 

 school room and a general inspection of the pupils conducted. 

 Following this general inspection, individual examinations are 

 conducted in the inspector's private room. The children examined 

 are of three classes: first, those whom the physicians have selected 

 as apparently needing special attention; second, those referred 

 to them by teachers and parents; and third, those who have 

 returned to school after absence because of illness or some unknown 

 cause. 



The first object of the examinations referred to is to detect 

 and exclude cases of contagious disease. In addition to these 

 inspections each child, during the first months of his school life, 

 is given a thorough physical examination, and a careful record of 

 the findings, entered on an individual record sheet, follows the 

 child through his subsequent school career. Every six months 

 measurements of height and weight are made and the results 

 entered on these record sheets, together with data of any illnesses 

 suffered during the period, and the results of subsequent physical 

 examinations. Parents are informed of any defect or disease 

 discovered and urged to secure remedial treatment. 



In other cities of France the systems followed are modeled 

 after that of Paris, but in general are less thorough, and in the 

 smaller places are not infrequently restricted to inspections for 

 the detection and exclusion of cases of contagious disease. 



GERMANY 



In Germany the city of Dresden began medical inspection 

 in 1867, when tests of vision were instituted. The first genuine 

 system of medical inspection, however, appears to have been 

 inaugurated by Frankfort-on-the-Main, which appointed a school 

 physician in 1889, an example which was soon followed by many 

 other localities. 



In the city of Wiesbaden a plan was developed that was 

 widely copied and became a model, not only throughout the 

 empire but in other countries. The plan adopted by the physi- 

 cian on his monthly visits to each school closely resembles that 

 already described as being followed in Paris. General inspec- 

 tions are first made of class rooms and school premises and these 



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