MAKING MEDICAL INSPECTION EFFECTIVE 



of co-operation from existing hospitals and clinics. Where such 

 institutions have been of high character, but limited in capacity 

 by their small endowments, special government subsidies have in 

 some instances been approved in order to permit the extension 

 of their work to care for cases referred from the public schools. 



Nevertheless, these measures have frequently been found 

 inadequate, and prior to 1911 school clinics for the treatment of 

 skin and scalp diseases and in some instances for the care of 

 defective teeth, eyes, ears, and throats, had been established in 

 30 cities. 



Almost the only writer on medical inspection in America 

 who has faced the problem of inadequate treatment squarely is 

 Dr. George J. Holmes, supervisor of medical inspection in Newark, 

 New Jersey, whose views are outlined in the following quotations 

 from his article published in the Journal of the Medical Society 

 of New Jersey, 191 1. 



" I have suggested that free public school clinics be established to 

 care for all diseases and defects common to school pupils. No pupil to 

 be admitted unless attending a public school, presenting a printed slip 

 showing that he or she has been referred for treatment by a medical in- 

 spector, and that his or her home has been visited by a school nurse, find- 

 ing such poverty that free treatment is necessary and right. 



"Were such a clinic established by the Board of Education and 

 conducted by the supervisor of medical inspection and his assistants, 

 both physicians and nurses, it would no longer be necessary for a pupil 

 to leave school during session for treatment or examination. Pauperism 

 would not be fostered. Such a clinic should be held from three to six 

 p. m. daily, except Sundays. 



"Other benefits resulting from school clinics would be the creating 

 of greater interest among the physicians and nurses of the department, 

 in their being able to follow the cases and see the results. Greater op- 

 portunity would be afforded both physicians and nurses to meet parents 

 of the children afflicted, and opportunity for preaching and impressing 

 the common facts relating to personal and home hygiene on the parents. 

 Greater results would be obtained and better opportunity would be given 

 the supervisor to observe the work of each member of the department. " 



It is probable that few of the educational authorities in 

 this country would be prepared to accept so radical a proposition 



