CHAPTER VI 

 MAKING MEDICAL INSPECTION EFFECTIVE 



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EDICAL inspection came into being when educators 

 awoke to a realizing sense of the intimate relationship 

 existing between physical vigor and mental efficiency. 

 Physical examinations have become the most important feature 

 of medical inspection because of the great mass of data showing 

 that a large proportion of all school children suffer from entirely 

 remediable physical defects, the very existence of which was 

 formerly unsuspected by the teachers, by the parents, and by the 

 pupils themselves. 



The theory underlying the conduct of physical examinations, 

 as we have noted, has been that it is the function of the school 

 medical department to discover these defects and bring their 

 existence to the attention of the parents. Wherever inspection 

 has been carried on for any considerable time, experience has 

 demonstrated that this procedure is not sufficient. After the first 

 interest dies down, mere notification does not suffice to secure 

 action on the part of any large proportion of the parents. In 

 order that the work may be effective, the cases must be followed up, 

 the parents convinced that some action is necessary, and the 

 community educated up to a new standard of applied hygiene. 



SECURING PARENTS' CO-OPERATION 



NOTIFICATIONS OF PARENTS 



In the simplest systems of medical inspection, parents are 

 notified of defects discovered by means of a simple card advising 

 that the child be taken to a physician for treatment. A typical 

 example of such a card is the one furnished by the state board of 

 education of Massachusetts. 



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