The need, objects, and method of the medical inspection of primary schools / by Ralph H. Crowley.

  • Crowley, Ralph Henry, 1869-
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The need, objects, and method of the medical inspection of primary schools / by Ralph H. Crowley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    21 unable to pay for medical advice and treatment. In many of the districts of London and of the large provincial cities this would mean a majority of the children attending elemen- tary schools, as the relief of defective conditions of eyesight, hearing, &c., often involved skilled treatment for long periods, and it was not fair that charitable institutions like hospitals should be burdened with these cases, the relief of which was the business of the State. The State, having once embarked on compulsory education, was bound to take the necessary steps to ensure that the children were tit to receive education, and that the educational facilities afforded were not being wasted by reason of the children being physically unfit to derive benefit from their schooling. The proposed reform of Poor Law’ administration would offer an opportunity for combining together in one depart- ment the three State medical services of Public Health, Educa- tional Supervision, and Medical Relief of the necessitous sick. The fundamental idea underlying each service should be “ prevention,” and not merely the relief of the individual. This was the basis of all Public Health work : but the same principle should underly the administration of the other State medical departments, namely, that the relief of individual suffering should lead to measures for the control and ameliora- tion of the conditions which originated the illness. If this principle were once accepted. State relief for all cases of sickness would soon justify the expenditure of State funds that it would involve, not only by a reduction in the cost of maintenance of the sick poor, and by the relief it would afford to the medical charities, but also by reason of the improved standard of health of the rising generation, this, in its turn, meaning an increased national efficiency and a larger output of capable workers. L'nutu Liulhert, Lid., (’tinier*, 1‘ilgritii btieci. Lot.dun. k L