SCHOOL HYGIENE 



441 



Mecical inspection of school children. The state re- 

 quires the child to attend school until a certain age is reached. 

 At school the child is exposed to some dangers that he would 

 not encounter at home. Since the law compels a child to 

 attend school, the law must protect his health while there. 

 Compulsory medical inspection of schools must naturally 

 follow compulsory attendance. In some states medical 

 inspection is compulsory, and eventually this will doubtless 

 be required in all states. 



Medical inspection has two large purposes : first, to detect 

 infectious diseases ; and second, to detect and remedy any 

 defects of eye, ear, etc., that interfere with the child's develop- 

 ment. The school is the best place to detect and control 

 infectious diseases, so that the other children and the entire 

 community may be protected. 



In the larger cities a corps of competent doctors and nurses 

 should be hired to carry on this work. The chief work of the 

 doctors is to discover the defects ; the nurse follows up the 

 cases and visits the home and tries to see that the parents give 

 the child the needed treatment. In some cities clinics are 

 being established where children are treated for their defects 

 if the parents are too poor or too careless to have it done. 

 It seems natural and logical not only to find out the defects, 

 but also to remedy them. 



In some smaller towns which cannot afford to hire both 

 a doctor and a nurse, it is found that a nurse alone can do 

 very effective work, and many of our towns and small cities 

 are employing a school nurse, who is the most important 

 single factor in the work of medical inspection because she 

 is constantly on duty and visits the homes. 



Advantages of medical inspection. Medical inspection is 

 found to have the following advantages : first, it is a means 

 of preventing the spread of infectious diseases; second, 

 school work proceeds more successfully because there is a 

 saving of time that might otherwise be lost on account of 



