MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS 



of what is being done, or a close relationship between the work 

 of the school physicians and that of the educational authorities. 



A similar condition seems to be revealed in Springfield, 

 where the sole comment of the school board on the work of the 

 physicians appointed by the board of health is (page 17), "So far 

 as we can learn, the inspectors are fulfilling their requirements 

 and parents generally follow the advice given." 



In Massachusetts, medical inspectors are appointed in 

 some of the cities by the boards of health and in others by the 

 school committees. After watching the operation of the two 

 systems for more than a year under the state law, Secretary 

 George H. Martin of the state board of education writes:* 



"The movement now in progress, which has reached different 

 stages in different countries, seems to be shaping itself so as to include as 

 necessary features the following elements: 



"(i) Physicians. A sufficient number of trained physicians to 

 carry on the necessary examinations and exercise the needed oversight of 

 all the children in the public and private schools, these physicians to act 

 under the direction of the local educational authority, but in co-operation 

 with local health authorities. In the larger cities the physicians should 

 act under the immediate direction of a chief medical officer, who should 

 be a permanent member of the educational staff." 



SUMMARY. In summing up, then, we may conclude as a 

 result of the evidence presented: 



1. The detection of contagious diseases in the schools, 

 involving daily visits by physicians and the power of the law, is 

 in the nature of an extension of the powers heretofore exercised 

 by boards of health; and where medical inspection is to include 

 nothing more than this work, systems may well be administered 

 by boards of health, if care be taken to establish and maintain 

 sufficiently close and friendly relations with the school officials. 



2. Those activities which have to do with the child's phy- 

 sical condition and the hygiene of school work seating, exercise, 

 hours of home study that is to say, all functions of the medical 

 inspection of schools except those pertaining to contagious diseases, 



* Massachusetts State Board of Education, jist Annual Report, 1906-07, p. 123. 



150 



