[Report 1904] / Medical Officer of Health, West Bromwich County Borough.

  • West Bromwich (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1904] / Medical Officer of Health, West Bromwich County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/40 (page 12)
    Mid wives’ Act Inspection of Children out haying passed through a proper education in mid¬ wifery. Childbed fever has never been prevalent in this district, and it is hoped that it will now be stamped out everywhere. The supervision of children attending elementary schools being now under a department of the Cor¬ poration, the work formerly done by the Medical Officer to the School Board is now transferred to the Medical Officer of Health, who happened on this occasion to be one and the same. In order to facilitate the inspection of children, your Medical Officer attends every Friday morning at the Educa¬ tion Office, there to meet the Attendance Officers, and if necessary to confer with the heads of the department. During the last three months of the year upwards of fifty children were examined at the Office, and their cases dealt with in a careful and judicial spirit. It is unfortunate that a large number of cases are every year excluded from school owing to want of cleanliness on the part of parents, especially as regards verminous heads. The presence of vermin soon produces sores, and the child is a danger to others and a misery to itself. I have also examined the defective and imbecile children reported to me, either at school or at their homes. In each instance it lias been necessary to deal with the par¬ ticular features of the case. Some children can derive con¬ siderable benefit from attending school,although of defective intellect, and I have much pleasure in testifying to the care and pains bestowed upon these little ones by the teachers. Some could attend school if proper chairs were provided, but cannot sit on forms, and some can learn lessons, but are physically unable to undergo drill. All these cases can be met without the necessity of making separate provision for a special school for defectives and imbeciles. In the cases which I have discovered of undoubted Tuberculosis of the Lungs, or Consumption, I have thought it best to permanently exclude the child from school, and thus prevent any possibility of direct infection. So far, the new arrangement of the work has proved very successful, and I have every hope that it will assist the