A statistical study of oral temperatures in school children with special reference to parental, environmental and class differences / by M.H. Williams and Karl Pearson.

  • Williams, Mary Hamilton.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A statistical study of oral temperatures in school children with special reference to parental, environmental and class differences / by M.H. Williams and Karl Pearson. 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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    special reference to Class and Environmental Differences. (1) Introduction. The data used in this paper were obtained from various sources. We classify them below : (^) Temperatures taken by Dr M. H. Williams in the course of her work as Medical Inspector of Schools under the Worcestershire County Council, in the western half of the county. These cover 2649 temperatures recorded for girls and 2005 for boys. The children were distributed into 124 schools classed as urban, semi-urban and rural. The age, weight and height (without boots) of the children are given, their place in family, the number of brothers and sisters, and to some extent the family history, i.e. whether father and mother had suffered from rheu- matism or rheumatic fever, and whether father and mother were “consumptive.” Further the children were clinically examined apart from thermometry and classed as Rheumatic, ? Rheumatic and not Rheumatic, and again as Phthisical, '^Phthisical and not Phthisical. The following were the characters on which the diagnosis was based : Pulmonary tuberculosis (Ph.), diagnosed on physical signs only, not symptoms. The common signs found are persistent localised basic dullness with rales. ? Pulmonary tuberculosis (? Ph.). This category includes {a) children with symptoms, but in whom there was failure to find signs, (6) cases believed to be those of arrested disease. Rheumatism (Rh.), diagnosed on {a) a clear history of “growing pains,” (6) mitral disease, (c) history of chorea. ? Rheumatism (?Rh.), was adopted to embrace those children in whom the evidence as to “growing pains” was contradictory, or in whom there were slight heart abnormalities suggestive of the conditions caused by the rheumatic toxin. The diagnosis was wholly independent of the temperatures, which were not before the medical inspector when the diagnosis was made, one object of the mquiry being to test how far temperature may be used as an indication that examination as to phthisical or rheumatic conditions is desirable. Further the temperatures were repeated on the same children at intervals varying from one month to twenty-three, the average interval being five months and one week. The class of child dealt with is composed of those who attend the primary elementary schools in a district of mixed urban and rural population like the western half of Worcestershire. The ages of the children ran from 4 to 14, the bulk, however, being “leavers” at twelve years. Within the district itself. Lye and Stourbridge are manufacturing; Malvern is a residential watering place ; Droitwich is of the same character with the addition 1—2
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