CHAPTER I II 



INSPECTION FOR THE DETECTION OF 

 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 



NEARLY all American systems of medical inspection have had 

 for their object at the time of their inception merely the 

 detection of cases of contagious diseases in their early stages. 

 To this simple aim have always soon after been added the detection 

 and exclusion of parasitic diseases. 



In towns and small cities medical inspection of this sort is 

 a comparatively elementary matter involving few difficulties in 

 organization or administration. In such places the teacher who 

 thinks she sees suspicious symptoms in one of her pupils, and fears 

 they may portend the beginning of some illness, notifies the 

 principal of her fears. He notifies the school physician by tele- 

 phone or messenger and the physician comes to the school and 

 examines the pupil, sending him home if necessary. In addition, 

 provision is frequently made, as in the Massachusetts law, that 

 the school authorities shall refer to the school physician for exami- 

 nation and diagnosis every child returning to school after absence 

 on account of illness or unknown cause. 



BLANKS AND FORMS 



Such simple systems as those outlined require little in the 

 shape of blanks or forms. Notification cards or blanks are used 

 for informing the parents of the exclusion of the child, and weekly 

 or monthly reports are made out by the school physician stating 

 how many children he has examined, how many he has excluded, 

 and for what diseases, and what other diseases he has found which 

 did not require exclusion. A good example of such an exclusion 

 card is the one used in Brockton, Massachusetts. 



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