PHYSICAL EXAMINATIONS 



child is examined upon his entrance into the public school, and re- 

 examined in the third, fifth, and eighth school years. The memo- 

 randum of the English board of education provides for four 

 examinations during the child's school life, upon entrance, and 

 re-examination in the third and sixth years and upon leaving. To 

 the date of its last report in 1911, however, the board had required 

 in its code of regulations for public elementary schools only two 

 examinations, one of "entrants" and one of prospective "leavers/' 

 although the known intention of the board ultimately to demand 

 the inspection of a third intermediate group had been anticipated 

 in 1910 by some hundred local authorities. In America the ideal of 

 annual examinations, almost universally held, is even reflected in 

 several of the state laws. 



Unfortunately, this ideal has far outrun accomplishment and 

 in few instances has any American city succeeded in examining all 

 of its children in any one year. In the accompanying table figures 

 are presented showing the number of pupils enrolled in the day 

 schools of nine cities and the number and per cent of children who 

 received physical examinations in the same cities. 



TABLE 14. ENROLLMENT IN DAY SCHOOLS AND NUMBER AND PER 

 CENT OF PUPILS EXAMINED IN NINE CITIES 



a Partial data. 



b Figures for 1908-09. 



The percentages given, though indicative in a rough way 

 of the proportions of the field covered in the several cities, should 

 not be taken too seriously. Thus, in view of the impossibility of 



