Recieu! of Reviews, 1/10/00 



Leading Articles. 



381 



MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS. 



Miss Margaret McMillan writes a ver\- suggestive 

 paper in the Iinic/'eiidoit Review on " Citizens of 

 To-morrow. " 'i he most interesting: feature in her 

 article is the wav in which she shows that the ver)' 

 recently introduced medical inspection of schools 

 has not merely been of benefit to the children in- 

 spected, but has also greatly contributed in its in- 

 direct results to the general progress of health. 

 " The study of the unfortunate has been the means 

 of letting in a flood of light on the mental processes 

 of the more favoured children. The home doctor 

 only sees the child in bed, and diagnoses disease. 

 The school doctor sees him in class, and diagnoses 

 health as well. The first school doctor was ap- 

 pointed in Ixmdon in 1891. The second, Dr. Kerr, 

 now Medical Superintendent of the L.C.C., declares 

 that " the majoritv of injuries to health may be 

 traced originailv to a want of cleanliness." The 

 effort to promote cleanliness has shown that " the 

 instinct of the race is on the side of reform." In 

 one London school only twelve per cent, are de- 

 scribed as clean. By tracing defective or diseased 

 children to their homes, much light is thrown on 

 other problems. It is noteworthy that forty to fifty 

 per cent, of the blind become blind simply from ne- 

 glect of sanitarv measures in the first weeks of life. 



GERMAN HEALTH CENTRES. 

 Many who are injured, though not totally de- 

 prived, by earlv defect, might be restored by sun- 

 shine, pure air. frequent washing, and good feed- 

 ing. But these things are not yet forthcoming. The 

 Germans, as usual, manage better: — 



The School Authority of Mannheim has opened " Forder- 

 schiile" for such children. The ForderschJile are schools 

 which are prartically health centres. They are furnished 

 with cheap baths; provision is made for remedial drill, 

 good feeding, and free play in sunny rooms or out of 

 doors. The curriculum lays stress on eye-and-hand train- 

 ing, while the classes are smaller than are those of the 

 ordinary school. Xa might be expected, a great number 

 of children recover in the.se new surroundings, and. ceasing 

 to be 6ul>-nornial. go back to the ordinary school; where:ie 

 from the schools for the detective or feeble-minded, hardly 

 any children pass upward. 



AN OPEN-MOUTHED PROCESSION. 



In New York last year the number of inspectors 

 was increased so as to give one to ever)' 5000 chil- 

 dren ; — 



Every child is now inspected weekly. Of course inspection 

 does not mean examination; and the inspector does not 

 touch any child. He stands and lets the children tile p;i3l 

 him. while ihey themselves pull down their eyelids and 

 open their mouths for his inspection. .\s a result of this 

 meaaure, 25,260 cases of contagious eye-disease were excluded 

 in SIX months, many of them, of course, quite preventable— 

 the result, of negleit. In one day 1886 childien were sent 

 away for i)6diculosis; that is to say. for the horrible con- 

 dition of the hair, skin, and clothes. 



A NEW SPIRIT OP TOI,EEANCE. 

 The importance of the physical side of thou^^ht 

 has. the writer shows, come more clearly into evi- 

 dence r<-<-ently. "The afflicted and defective child 

 h.is d.in.- .Tn immense service to the race in making 



•clear the fact that there is an order, even of limb 

 movement, that leads towards right thinking. The 

 e.xplorers and discoverers of the geography of the 

 brain are, for the most part, school doctors: — 



Th© ordinary bad speller, or bad writer, is now known to 

 be a victim. He makes foolish mistakes in spelling, not 

 always from ylieer moral defect, but through physical de- 

 fect. It would lie as cruel to punish him for this as it 

 would be to cane a boy for not being able to lift a weight. 

 A new spirit of tolerance comes into the modern class- 

 room. It is born of sorrow and failure—of the snapping 

 of cords in the harp of life — of a breaking asunder that 

 lays bare the secrets of nervous mechanism. And it enters 

 noiselessly into even advanced class-room^, and throws its 

 light athwart the unexpected weaknesses of even the well- 

 endowed. 



NO ANTIPATHY TO WATER. 



The writer is convinced that the genius of per- 

 sonal hygiene is sleeping in the breasts of even the 

 great unwashed : — 



Wherever a school bath has been opened in England, the 

 children have taken to the water with an enthusiasm that 

 has amazed the beholder. Not only do they love water. 

 they love cleanliness. Why should we not then take the 

 hint thus offered, and make the bath-room a real class- 

 room? Here the care of the body might be taught in 

 detail. 



At first there should be no formal teaching, only a learn- 

 ing by doing; then, taking advautage of the natural im- 

 pulse of her pupils, the teacher might lead them on to 

 the conscious care of the skin, tlie liair, the nails, and 

 the teeth. 



The writer concludes by ijisisting on the necessity 

 of there being someone in the school who will carry 

 out the suggestions of the medical superintendent. 



WANTED-A STATE DEPARTMENT FOR 

 CHILDREN. 



With Benjamin Waugh as First Minister? 



The Quarterly Review contains a most instructive 

 survey of the increasing care of the State for child- 

 life. The writer narrates how the infamies of chim- 

 ne)- and factory and mine and juvenile imprisonment 

 have been abolished. He rightly gives prominence 

 to the work of the Society for the Prevention of 

 Cruelty to Children, and of Mr. Waughs apostolate. 

 He asks for further legislative supervision of babv- 

 farming, and presses for the abolition of infant-life- 

 assurance. He concludes with the followiiiL' 

 plea : — 



A state department for children, as we have already in- 

 dicated, which would keep in touch with and direct the 

 various organisations now at work on their behalf, is a 

 pressing necessity. The field covered by the National 

 Society alone is so vast tliat this voluntliry organisation 

 finds the burden of support more than it can bear. Philan- 

 thropic work is best done when done voluntarily; but in 

 enforcing the many Acts of Parliament dealing with chil- 

 dren, in the efforts to obtain the passing of new statute.- 

 and the :imendment of old. and in the many matters con- 

 cerning the control and disposal of children, the help of 

 the State, either through a special department or a branch 

 of the Home Office, is sorely needed. The Society is not 

 only doing the work of the State. Iiut it is taxed by the 

 State in doing it. Tiic responsibility which the- Society 

 takes upon itself in carryin;; out the law under Royal 

 Charter is immense: it should not he left to bear the whole 

 weight of that resiionsiliility. It is time that the nation 

 should follow the example of some of our Colonies and 

 some of the American States and institute a State departs 

 menl fr>r cliildi'en; it should extend the principle of deal- 

 ing with all matters touching their welfare through the 

 supervision and subvention of voluntary agencies, as it has 

 already done with industrial and reformatory schools 



