MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS 



ents contained in the same volume, mentions this clause of the 

 law, though most of them contain statements regarding medical 

 inspection. One county superintendent writes: "The weakest 

 place in the system seems to be lack of efficient remedy when 

 defects are discovered of a nature not infectious or contagious/' 



In England many fines have been imposed (some under 

 attendance by-laws, others under a clause of the children's act) 

 upon parents who failed to cleanse or keep clean the bodies and 

 heads of their children. Parents who neglected and ill-treated 

 their children have also been imprisoned or fined, another clause 

 of the children's act being invoked in their cases. In this latter 

 group of cases are included those of children suffering from defec- 

 tive eyesight, enlarged tonsils and adenoids, decayed teeth, and 

 ulcerated mouths. Many such children were treated after the 

 cases had been brought into court, with the result that proceedings 

 against the parents were stopped. 



SCHOOL AND HOSPITAL CLINICS 



Wherever systems of medical inspection become highly 

 developed and the authorities attempt to make the work effective, 

 they are confronted with the problem of what to do to secure 

 adequate treatment for children whose parents either cannot pay 

 for it at all or can pay only a small fee. The services of the 

 school nurse are effective in securing action on the part of many 

 parents who would otherwise take no action whatever, but there 

 always remain a considerable number of parents who are willing 

 that their children should receive treatment but who are unable 

 to meet any large expense involved. 



Thus the school nurse alone cannot meet the situation and 

 some agency must be provided to cope with the problem. In 

 most cases this agency is a hospital, more rarely a clinic established 

 within the school itself. In either case it is generally true at the 

 present time in American cities that facilities are inadequate to 

 meet the need. 



In Great Britain the policy of the board of education since 

 the adoption of the medical inspection law in 1907 has been to 

 urge local school authorities to secure the utmost possible degree 



86 



