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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    that such is the case. It is curious, though, how slow we, even medical men, have been to realise it. Evidence on the matter has, however, come as an avalanche during the past feu years, and anyone who is not already convinced from practical experience of the condition of our schools and of our children has a mass of facts now at hand from which there is no getting away. Whether the question be considered from the point of view of the school buildings, including the problems of ven- tilation, lighting, and all the other factors making up the child's environment during school hours, or from that of the child itself, its physical capability of profiting from the educa- tion it is forced to submit to. or from that of the dangers from infectious disease to which it is exposed, or from that of the school curriculum and the necessity of ensuring that a sense of proportion is kept and that education should proceed on sound physiological lines—from any and all of these points of view it must be granted that there is a need, and a great and pressing need, for medical inspection. But if this admits of no question, the same eannot be said of that of how to carry it into effect. Around this ques- tion, alike abroad as in Great Britain, has waged, and is w aging, a good deal of controversy. Much of this arises from the fact, common to so many other controversies, that we may all be presumably talking about the same thing—in this cas?, medical inspection—yet as a matter of fact what that implies varies very greatly in different people’s minds, and it would therefore seem very necessary to endeavour to come to some common agreement in considerable detail as to what are the objects to keep in view, for in no other way can we hope to arrive at the best methods to adopt for obtaining these objects. It is, for instance, obvious that if by medical inspection we mean, say, reports on the buildings, with, jjerhaps, an annual report on the eyesight throw n in, the method adopted will be a very different one from that necessary if we take it to include a daily visiting of the schools with the avowed object of preventing the spread of infectious disease. And, further, if we succeed in agreeing on what objects we think should be aimed at, it will be found that the method will necessarily vary according to whether we are dealing with a county area, a big city, or a smaller borough. What, then, are the duties which may be considered as advisable, ignoring for the time the question of expense, for the education medical officer to carrv out V Thev mav l>e