HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS 



DEVELOPMENT AND PRESENT STATUS IN THE UNITED STATES 



Boston was the first city in the United States to establish 

 a regular system of medical inspection, starting in 1894 with a staff 

 of 50 school physicians. The movement came as a result of a 

 series of epidemics among the school children. Chicago began in 

 1895. New York City followed in 1897 when the board of health 

 appointed a corps of 134 medical inspectors for the public schools, 

 and Philadelphia in 1898. In all these instances medical inspec- 

 tion in its inception had as its sole object the reducing of the 

 number of cases of contagious disease among the pupils. The 

 movement rapidly spread from the greater cities to the smaller 

 ones, the first step in many cases being taken by a local med- 

 ical society offering to carry on the work for a limited time with- 

 out expense to the municipality, in order to demonstrate its 

 desirability. 



BEGINNINGS OF STATE LEGISLATION * 

 So rapidly and convincingly did the movement establish 

 itself that it was soon provided for by laws in the more progressive 

 states. In 1899 the legislature of Connecticut passed a law provid- 

 ing for the testing of vision in all the public schools of the state. 

 New Jersey authorized boards of education to employ medical 

 inspectors in 1903. In the following year Vermont enacted a law 

 requiring the annual examination of the eyes, ears, and throats 

 of school children. 



The first mandatory legislation providing for state-wide 

 medical inspection in all public schools was passed by Massachu- 

 setts in 19064 From these beginnings the movement spread 

 rapidly until by 1912 seven states had passed mandatory laws, 10 

 had passed permissive ones, and in two states and the District 

 of Columbia medical inspection was carried on under regulations 

 promulgated by the boards of health and having the force of law.J 

 The fact that the Massachusetts statute, passed in 1906, is the 

 oldest of the laws now in force, shows that the whole body of 

 legislative enactments which crystallize the views, beliefs, and the 



* See also Chap. XII, Legal Provisions, p. 164 ff. 

 t See pp. 164, 168, and 177. I See map, p. 165. 



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