MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS 



As yet the movement for the employment of school nurses 

 has not made great progress in Germany, Charlottenburg and 

 Stuttgart being, in 1910, the only cities having nurses. On the 

 other hand, notable progress has been made in the development 

 of other movements closely allied to medical inspection, such as 

 open air schools, school feeding, dental inspection, and the organi- 

 zation of special classes for exceptional children. 



GREAT BRITAIN* 



In England and Wales the medical inspection of schools is 

 carried on under the provisions of the Education Act of 1907 which 

 is mandatory in nature. In Scotland the work is carried on under 

 the Education Act of 1908 which confers on school boards the 

 powers necessary for a universal system of medical inspection. In 

 Ireland alone compulsory medical inspection does not exist. Such 

 work as is carried on is in the main performed by the school in- 

 spectors of the national board of education, who are not medical 

 men. 



The object of medical inspection in Great Britain, as stated 

 by the memorandum of the board of education, is "to secure 

 ultimately for every child, normal or defective, conditions of life 

 compatible with that full and effective development of its organic 

 functions, its special senses, and its mental powers, which consti- 

 tute a true education. "f 



While medical inspection in England has been universal and 

 compulsory only since the passage of the Act of 1907, it has 

 existed in London since 1891, when the first school physician was 

 appointed. From that date up to the passage of the National Act 

 the development of the movement was sporadic. The details 

 of organization are in the main left in the hands of the local 

 authorities, subject to the minimum requirements laid down by 

 the memorandum of the board of education. These minimum 

 provisions include the physical examination of each pupil at the 

 time of his entrance to a public elementary school, and if possible 

 three subsequent examinations, the first of which takes place 

 during the third year of school life or about the seventh year of age, 



* For full discussion of the English law, and methods of enforcement, see 

 p. I74ff- t See p. 176. 



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